Everglades 2004 – The Complete Wilderness Waterway

This was the big one — the complete Wilderness Waterway from Flamingo to Everglades City. Of course we avoided the actual marked “trail” as much as possible. This was a real paddler’s trip. The trail is nominally 99 miles; I estimate we traveled more than 120 total. We went out to the Gulf twice and “boomeranged” back up the Harney and Broad Rivers with the tide. We also took a side trip down to Gopher Key and saw lots of birds there, including a Roseate Spoonbill. We saw dolphins fishing in the shallows. We also encountered manatees twice. The last night we returned to the Gulf and camped on Pavilion Key.