Through the Bays And Beyond! (ECT Day 12)

  • Paddled Today: 19 miles
  • Total Paddled: 85 miles
  • Total Hiked: 165.7 miles
Lostmans Five Ground Site to Crooked Creek Chickee (Everglades 99-mile Wilderness Waterway – Part 6)

We survived the ground site! There were no raccoon visits or alligator sneak-attacks or anything. We were all surprised, but very thankful about this.

After some pancakes inside our shield, we got going for our earliest start on the water yet, 8:00am. It was overcast this morning and without that sun, it stayed darker longer. And a bit cooler too. I took off with my rain coat as a wind block, beanie, and my more insulated gloves.

I’ve been seeing these all over, hanging on to trees. I love them. This one is one of the few with the red part.

At this point, you probably get the idea of what this whole thing is about. Lots of water, lots of mangroves, lots of interesting creatures… Everything has been the same, the vastness of it is tough to comprehend, and at the same time, it’s all different and every day brings about something new. It seemed like every day we’d add some new sighting or unique thing to our collective list of experiences.

Between the Bays 

The theme for the day was crossing numerous bays with a few neat narrow winding rivers in between… Lostmans Five Bay to Plate Creek Bay to Plate Creek to Dads Bay to Alligator Bay to Alligator Creek to Tarpon Bay to Chevelier Bay… And that was all before our lunch stop.

Some times I’d be up front, some times they would.

Fish on!

 

There was another ground site called Darwin’s Place that has a picnic table and a porta potty. The facilities were needed, so we made a lunch stop out of it. Some more tasty good stuff to keep us energized and continuing onward.

Lunch at Darwin’s Place

Free Solo’ing It

There had been a few boats zooming about today. As I was nearing the outlet of a narrow river between bays (which was a no wake zone), a fishing boat sped in top speed. There was a sharp bend, so me in the kayak was hidden from view. I could hear them coming, their motor ripping, but had no way to alert them of my presence. In the few seconds I had, I paddled a few strokes to the side. They came zooming up, spotted me, and somehow slowed before running me over! I was angry. And then they just wanted to talk and ask me questions like they hadn’t tried to kill me. A load of codswallop, that is, I say (although I was kind of passive about it and just gave short answers and then paddled off).

After lunch, I split from the boat team to take the paddlers route as opposed to the general waterway route. You can imagine, given the chance, I was somewhat keen to go where they couldn’t. Now, most of these boats are designed to go in super shallow water, but even so, part of the stretch I was choosing was designated as paddling only. So, off I went with the idea I’d reconnect with the team later on when I joined back to the main route.

My solo kayaking was nice. I caught my biggest snook yet, still pretty small but fun. And I saw some interesting things.

The standout sighting of the day was this serpent creature floating/swimming on the surface.

I’d never seen anything like that before. And it was also the biggest snake I’ve ever seen. I’d put it in the 5-7 feet long range and my guess is it was either a burmese python or a Florida rattlesnake. It seems both species are around, both do the whole floating on water thing, and both have a komd of diamond checkered pattern on their backs. I was happy to be in my kayak and at a good distance, but it was moving rather slow too.

Another ginormous gator made an appearance as well!

For our communications over the walkie talkies, usually I’d start by beeping with a “Karl to Sally… can you hear me Sally?” Or something similar. If you’re just jumping into this post without reading the others, I’m paddling in Karl the Kayak and the boat tesm is in Sally the Seas Nymph. When I attempted to contact the sea nymph this time, much to my dismay, I realized my batteries had died. They’d shown three full bars of power when I split, but I suppose that was a lie. Finding this out, I figured I better get boogying and try to meet up with the others so they don’t worry.

Connecting and Continuing to Crooked Creek 

I found them about 4:24 pm. They were floating through a deeper hole somewhat near out new chickee. Parallel to one another, close enough and slow enough to still chat, we started moving forward trolling lures behind us. There was some uncertainty as to the exact location of our chickee though, so after a bit, they motored up ahead to scout for it.

We got there a little after 5:00 pm and I was beat. Today surprised me being my most exhausting paddle yet. I could feel it.

We had a nice night eating another scrumptious dinner and telling stories. I’m sometimes amazed the details my father can remember from trips he took years and years ago.

The tiny little flames are Sterno cans. It was pretty bright for our our last night on the water with a near full moon!

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Comments 3

  • Jenny L : Jan 24th

    The pretty plant on the tree is an air plant also known as a bromeliad. I believe the one in your picture is Tillandsia fasciculata. The red part is a flower in it’s budding stage.
    They are Florida natives and are endangered. Spanish moss is another member of the tillandsia family. It’s not a moss at all. Thanks for the pretty picture that led me to learning more about them. Glad your trip is going so well.

    Reply
  • Checklist : Jan 24th

    We enjoy waking up and reading your update with morning coffee! Your writing style that’s clear and concise with a little Stevie humor is a great way to start the day. Your pictures help tell the story. Personality I would rather deal with bears than gators, guess it’s what I grew up with. COM tried convincing me to sleep on a chickee once, after seeing your adventure, I might try it! Go Team Stevie with Karl & Sally!!!

    Reply
  • Professor Jellybean : Jan 24th

    Even though you’ve talked about ALL the work your Dad and his friend do navigating, it still AMAZES me that you don’t get lost. Especially when you can’t ever get a bird’s-eye view, and even if you could, everything looks just about the same anyway. I love your sense of humor and use of the word “codswallop”! I’d have been mad, too. 🙂 Glad you didn’t get run over.

    Reply

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