Take Out: Chokoloskee & The Turner River (ECT Day 13)

  • Paddled Today: 14.5 miles
  • Total Paddled: 99.5 miles
  • Total Hiked: 165.7 miles
Crooked Creek Chickee to Chokoloskee to Turner River Launch

It was our earliest departure from the chickee yet… pre-8:00am. A shorter trip today, our goal was reaching the boat launch in the small peninsula town of Chokoloskee. That would be the end of the waterway trail for our crew as a whole. Once there though, I intended to continue solo for another 8.5 miles up the Turner River to reach Highway 41. This would cut off significant road walk on my way to reconnect to the official ECT route! And the Turner River is a popular day paddle for folks, so I figured it’d be pretty neat.

Logistics: How Do We Unite Us, Boats, Truck, & Trailer?

Everything started out very smooth today. The water was calm and I just paddled slowly, soaking in my last day on the water. Dad and Don stopped fairly quickly to get a little more fishing in, but since I’m slower and we had an actual timeline today, I tried to just keep it moving. You see, we were shooting to get to the launch before 10:30 am.

Why then, you ask? Heres’s the scoop. When coming up with this scheme, one of the biggest problems to solve was once done how to reconnect us and the boats back with the truck and trailer. We’d just paddled and motored 100 miles. By land, it’s about 135 miles distance and an almost 3-hour drive.

Searching online and calling around, we found one outfitter that offered a shuttle service for a price. We also got referred to a local guy named Joel though. And when we connected with him, he said he was in for helping us. The plan was that he’d drive dad back to Flamingo, where we set out from. Then dad would drive right back in his truck towing the trailer and we’d be good to go.

I had satellite messaged Joel with my Garmin telling him we’d aim for 10:30 am at the launch. If no hiccups, we should make that time no problem based on our previous days’ waterway experience. Well… we had just one hiccup en route this morning, the boat got grounded!

Shallow Water

I was paddling pretty far ahead when it happened. A short time before I’d come around a bend and gotten my first glimpse of Chokoloskee.

I had just barely made it off a flat that was around 6″ deep. So when I looked back and saw the boat just drifting right into it, I started worrying. Maybe they knew of a route where a channel existed through? Turns out they’d been fishing and catching some and drifted out of a deep hole right onto the sand flat. We’d later find out this is a pretty common spot for it to happen to boats.

Still not knowing that things had gone awry, but suspecting, I started paddling back to them. At first, I couldn’t even head directly toward them, it kept getting too shallow. Winding my way far around to the other side, I still ended up having to get out of my kayak. I stepped into the shallow water for the first time on this trip. It was very shallow and surprisingly to me, sandy bottom.

As I approached, dad was out in the shallows too, towing the boat by hand with a rope. Thankfully, it didn’t get stuck in place. Soon, we were all out of our watercrafts. Over a little discussion gathering, I relayed that going forward would lead to a very wide area that’s probably even shallower. Instead, I kayaked around searching for a way ahead. We ended up going back the way they’d drifted in and then sideways. We found a slightly deeper route back to the main channel and they had to float for a bit first. Soon they could start their motor again and we were off.

It didn’t last long, but I was worried about having to wait hours for the tide to go up for a bit. Plus, as they were floating through Don started noticing string rays camouflaged and slightly buried in the sand. So that was great to know we were wading around those.

Safe Passage For Team Al-Li-Gator 

We made it! And without any major problems… nobody fell or capsized into the water, or got attacked by any animals (apart from some miles mosquitos), or had any injuries really. What a trip!

We were docked at 10:15 am and found our shuttle man Joel right away! After hurrying through the logistics plan, he and dad were on the road back to the truck. Don and I hung out for a bit, got on the phones having cell service for the first time in a while, but soon I started getting what I needed to continue kayaking.

The Tiny Turner

My add-on scheme up the Turner River was 8.5 river miles of paddling. Right at noon, I said goodbye to Don and started paddling. The river started wide and just continued to narrow.

More gators!

It got quite narrow! For most of it, I split my paddle in half and just used the one side, switching sides as if canoe paddling,. Several times I found myself checking my various phone and gps mapping tools to make sure I was on the right track. It just seemed so gnarly!

I was encouraged whenever I’d see branches sawed off. Essentially, once it narrows down, this trail is just a tunnel they cut through the mangroves.

There were fish scattering in front of me, birds calling, and tons of those air plants strewn about the canopy above. It was a really neat experience!

At one point, it opened up with one side being tall greens grasses… But then, right back into the tunnel!

Nearing the launch it did finally open up again. I spotted some big turtles sunning on logs. And this bird that I’m pretty sure was having an animated chat with his friend the alligator (left side of screen)…

I got to the launch around 3:30 pm. The end of my kayaking days… for now 🙂 Karl was an absolute champ and I have a feeling we’ll be getting into more of this kayak-camping thing together in the future.

Once out of the way (it was a busy launch), I checked in with Dave H. He was just a half hour away on his way with the truck and trailer! It worked out perfectly for him to swing by and get me. Originally I’d thought of stashing the kayak in the weeds and starting the road walk, but this felt like enough for today. Plus, we’d booked a hotel! The chance to get to the hotel decently early and celebrate our successful trip sounded like perfection to me.

Karl the Kayak rigged up solo on the boat trailer

All the logistics worked out! That was one of my biggest points of stress for this trip. We got Karl loaded, then went to rescue Don and the Sally the boat. We were checked into our hotel and getting cleaned up in no time. After all showered, we went to the Camellia Street Grill. In my opinion, it hit the spot in spectacular fashion. Shrimp tacos and a local beer from the Keys called the “Channel Marker IPA.” 

A solid 4.25 out of 5 on the Untappd rating scale

There’s something special about going out for a meal together after completing a trip like this. In the thru-hiking and backpacking world it’s the same… you get out and you crave something hot and delicious. All around good stuff. 

This was a long one today… 3 gold stars to you if you made it to the bottom!!! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

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Comments 7

  • Professor Jellybean : Jan 24th

    I get three gold stars!! What a fabulous trip! I’m almost sorry it’s over, but can’t wait to see what’s ahead for you on the ECT!

    Reply
  • Jingle bells : Jan 25th

    Redefining the green tunnel.
    I usually have no patience for videos (a me problem) but yours are perfect snippets. Makes me wonder why I haven’t seen anyone else do snippet videos on this site. If they exist, I haven’t seen them in 4 years. Anyways, the effort is appreciated and really brings the reader along.

    Reply
    • Steve Hoekwater : Jan 25th

      Thanks Professor! And thanks for the comment about the video clips. I didn’t know others don’t include video. I’d like them to be longer, but there’s a file size limit. You’re not the first to say they like the shortness, so I’ll keep throwing some of those in

      Reply
  • Luke Medema : Jan 25th

    I’d been wondering how you would reconnect with the truck/trailer. That’s some impressive logistical work there, glad it all worked out so smoothly.

    Reply
  • Lish : Jan 25th

    Congrats to you and Karl! Hope you get many more trail angels on your way to Canada! Great footage and content- thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  • Janet : Jan 26th

    Loved following asking in the Everglades. Also enjoyed the video snippets. Will continue to your ECT attempt.

    Reply
  • Kevin Kroondyk : Feb 7th

    I can’t decide if you are crazy or courageous. Probably both. No way you’d get me on kayak that close to gators and other monsters.
    Glad you all made it through safely! (It took me awhile to find your blog. Sorry I’m behind. I’ll catch up soon!)

    Reply

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