The One When Everything Went Right (ECT Day 10)

  • Paddled Today: 20 miles
  • Total Paddled: 56 miles
  • Total Hiked: 165.7 miles
Harney River Chickee to Rodger’s River Chickee (Everglades 99-mile Wilderness Waterway – Part 4)

The Harney River Chickee stands at the confluence of Broad Creek with the Harney River. The water level between the tide difference seemed the most noticeable here. At low tide there’s a good sized mud flat between it and the nearest mangroves Generally during our trip, the difference was about 2-3 feet change between high and low tides.

What it was about this spot that made it so popular, I’m not sure, but it was a happening place last night! Around 3:40 am is when I first woke and heard the dolphin and dad says he heard it at 6:00 am. It wasn’t always around, but came in passes, rabble-rousing all the bait fish up, creating waves, and blowing air out of it’s blowhole.

An alligator waded across the mud some time in the night too. It felt compelled to hang out directly underneath Don’s tent and then below my tent for a while, snapping at fish and such. Oh such pleasant sounds. The Barred Owls were out too hooting and hollering. We’ve had noises around us every night, but nothing like this. Wild.

Another beautiful sunrise on the water.

We’ve really gotten into a routine. Dad wakes up first and starts coffee. I’m awake when he does this, but kind of take my time getting going. Eventually, I clear up my space to allow more sitting and cooking room. Then it’s breaky time… pancakes this morning. Once packed up, we hit the water. We usually have multiple planning sessions in the evening and mornings too.

Dad’s setup, all cleaned up and nice looking.

To Nightmare or Not to Nightmare?

My big decision today was whether to take on “the nightmare” or not. This is about a 3-mile (I think) stretch of narrow creek that I’d do solo, the boat is too big. I wanted to go for it despite and maybe slightly because of its ominous name. I remember reading that you really want to hit it at high tide though. If you don’t, you risk trees limbs blocking the way and such. I estimated I’d get to the start only a few hours after low tide, so it was questionable.

Bad photo shot through the binoculars… I first thought they were owls, then hawks?

Ultimately, I went with an idea that navigator  Donald came up with… he had seen we could take the Harney River straight out to the Gulf of Mexico and then connect to Broad River. This route bypasses the nightmare, but doesn’t add much additional mileage. And, it would give us the chance to get out to the “ocean.” The only reason I hadn’t planned for us to got out to the Gulf was because I was unsure about waves and winds. Both, we guessed, would be in our favor today. So that’s what we set out to do.

Morning planning session.

 

Leaving the chickee we noticed some of the posts were rotting away!

The High Seas

Time went by quick getting out to the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few miles. The tide’s current was slightly against me, but the wind at my back was pushing me.

Things opening up as I reached the edge of the mangroves and the expansive waters of the Gulf.

Our prediction of it being calm seas seemed on point! And I was loving the change up and this section getting to cruise the “coast.” The boat had to go further out and slow because it was shallow, but I could maneuver right through it all.

I even saw a shark out there. It was at the surface with its dorsal and back fins breaking the surface and just slowly swam by me, as though we were just on opposite sides of the road passing by one another. I’d guess it was 5 feet in length, so not super big. 

Our big ocean crossing went smooth and after a few miles we were entering the mouth of the Broad River. I took a slightly different path than the boat and noticed a log crossing the river. Turns out, not a log, but an alligator or a crocodile, couldn’t tell which. I guess generally they say the crocs are closer to the saltwater, but there’s overlap between the two.

The Broad to Rodger’s River Bay

Going forward on Broad River, I was solo a lot. Dad and Don were getting into fish and I had to paddle hard. It was my biggest mileage day of the trip, so I was focused. The current was strongly going in my same direction, so I was in super kayak mode and made really good time!

High tide was around 1:00 pm and I wanted to take advantage of the current, so I just kept paddling. Eventually, we had a later lunch when the boat anchored and I tied up to them. So far, we’ve had some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, crackers and cheese, homemade venison sticks, and other snacks for lunches. I’ve been quite ravenous.

The second half of the day, the tide switched but somehow it worked in our favor. Once again, I had it pushing me along and made excellent time. In fact, I’d get to the chickee at 4:00 pm, my earliest arrival yet despite the most miles covered.

The wind was blasting our chickee when we got there.

The wind eventually died down nicely. Don had caught a beautiful and big trout, so we had fish again as well as some pasta. Eat pasta,, paddle fasta is what they always say.

We had to create a wind block or the stove flame would blow out.

It was a nice night hanging til the mosquitos came out. We’ve been pretty early into the tents and this time especially because of the bugs. They were buzzing quite noisily outside my tent when writing this post!

 

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Comments 4

  • Luke Medema : Jan 22nd

    Lovely scenery down there! Great move bringing a master chef and master navigator with you for this stretch. Thanks for taking the time to share this, I really enjoy keeping up with your adventure!

    Reply
    • Steve Hoekwater : Jan 23rd

      Luke! Yes, I surely brought some quality companions. I’ll be looking for some more say, around Tennessee!

      Reply
  • Jingle bells : Jan 23rd

    Thanks for sharing, here and elsewhere.
    Read up on your journeys on your website, awesome.
    I will be reading every step of your ECT adventure here.

    -fellow former middle aged Michigander, who could only aspire to your adventure level while slogging away at career+sidebiz

    Reply
    • Steve Hoekwater : Jan 23rd

      Hey Jingle Bells! Thanks for joining on the journey. It’s fun to have all these Michigan peeps along.

      Reply

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