Sea Kayaking in the Everglades

Jud organized a Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club trip to the 10,000 island region of the Everglades, on the gulf coast of south Florida.

Six of the eight folks decided to save money by flying the Frontier redeye to Miami, getting on the plane before midnight, and arriving about five AM.   This did not work out as well as they had hoped, with several people swearing never to fly Frontier again.   They also had to wait hours for the rental car company to open.

Bernie and I were not enthused about the redeye, so we flew in the day before, and stayed in the very comfortable Cambria Suites hotel for about $100, my first use of Priceline.  Bernie flew on his United retiree benefits, and I flew on American miles.  Bernie picked up a rental car, and later picked me up at the airport.  We were happy with our decision.

Bernie and I had breakfast at a Latino restaurant on our way out of Miami, after a grocery store visit.   We stopped in the Big Cypress Preserve visitor center, where we learned a bit about alligators.

We drove through Everglades City, and met up with the group at our campground, Chokoloskee Island Park and Marina.  The campground was reasonable, although most folks were in RVs, not tents.  The boat ramp was a busy place, mostly fishermen.  We had dinner at the Camillia Street Grille.

We picked up our boats in Everglades City on the 24th, after stopping by the Everglades park visitor center to reserve our campsites.

Mangrove Tunnel

We had decided to paddle up Halfway Creek, through the mangrove tunnel, and then down the Turner River, which took us back to Chokoloskee.   The bugs were fierce; I was very happy to have and use my mosquito net headnet.   We met a guide taking some tourists up the tunnel; he said that obviously it was not our first rodeo, perhaps noting the mosquito  headnet.  I flipped my kayak trying to get under a low branch.  All in all, it was a pretty hard day.  We had a nice dinner at the Havana Cafe.

On the 25th, we paddled across Chokoloskee Bay to Indian Key pass, a busy channel.  We stopped at a small shell beach, and watched the dolphins fish.  If you see several fish jump through the air, look for the dolphin they are trying to escape.  We also saw a couple of manatees.   We had to fight a tidal current as we headed out to the Gulf, and later a headwind, to make our way to Picnic Key, our beach camp for three nights.   Yes, there were mosquitos.....

On the 26th, we decided to take it easy, and paddle to nearby Tiger Key, where we relaxed in the shade, with just enough breeze to keep the bugs away.   It was really quite pleasant.  We paddled over to Camp Lulu Key, just outside the park, and then returned to Picnic Key.   Clark saw a huge sea turtle on the way back.

On the 27th, we headed for Fakahachee Key, which at one point was a tomato farm.  We had an easy paddle, with the current.  We found several gravestones, as well as a cistern.

Cistern

Like many of the islands, it is largely made of shells, discarded by the Calusa Indians over thousands of years.  We decided to circumnavigate the island, but when we turned towards home, we ran into very strong currents.  It was all we could do, paddling as hard as we could, to make slow progress against the current.   The speed of the current was substantial in certain spots, less in others.   The wind turned against us later, so we were tired when we got home.

Note the shells and the mosquito headnet

On the 28th, we headed back to Everglades City.  We had to go around Stop Keys, due to low tide, but generally had an easy paddle, with the current, back to Chokoloskee Bay.   However, by the afternoon, the wind picked up, and we had a tough paddle across the bay, against the wind, to get back to the marina.  We turned in our boats, and started the two hour drive back to Miami.

In Miami, we checked into the Ramada Springs hotel near the airport, where we were happy to take a shower, and had dinner at the sports bar.

On the 29th, I had a later flight, so I decided to see Wynwood Walls, an area with many murals.  I said goodbye to our group after breakfast, and took a bus to Wynwood.  I took a walking tour of the murals, which was somewhat interesting.  Most of the murals were not to my taste, but many of them showed real skill, especially considering the size of the murals.

I went back to the hotel, picked up my luggage, and took a cab to the airport.  The flight left on time, but we learned midway that the Charlotte airport had been shut due to bad weather.  We landed in Charleston to refuel, and then had a very bumpy ride to Charlotte.  I made my connection, which was also late, and ended up in Denver at 1 AM.  Sandi was good enough to pick me up at the airport, as I had missed the last bus to Boulder.  She had opted to stay home and bond with the house and cats.  Sandi reported that the cats were strangely silent while I was gone.

All in all, a good trip.  I was the new guy in the group, and one of the younger members.   I hope to paddle with them again in the future.  We all learned that we need to plan around tidal currents.   We all got warm for a week or so, having missed some snow in Colorado.