Day 2 
Harney River to Broad River via the Nightmare (8.5 Miles)The morning was cold with mist billowing off the river. The entrance to Broad Creek and the Nightmare was directly opposite the chickee. After a breakfast of granola and Lapsang Souchong tea, we set off at approximately 9:00 a.m. After approximately 2 miles of easy paddling, we encountered the first truly difficult section on Broad Creek.
|
|
| For approximately one and one-half miles, the channel was extremely narrow and closely overgrown by mangrove, but if we had had a larger boat it would be another story. We ate a hasty lunch after finding the entrance to the actual Nightmare at Marker 21. Time was of the essence because the Nightmare can only be navigated during high tides. The Nightmare itself was an easy paddle. The channel was rarely less than 30 feet wide. Our only real difficulty was avoiding several false turns that were not on our map. |  |
|
By two o'clock in the afternoon, we could see that the channel was widening and we had passed into the Broad River drainage. The campsite was an easy half-mile paddle. This was a ground campsite with a nice dock and privy. The river was very active with wildlife. We saw several small dogfish sharks cruising past our campsite. We also heard a lot of "heavy breathing." At one point saw a small head pop up and what we took to be a scalloped tail. In retrospect, we believe this was a manatee with a damaged tail fluke. We went swimming and rested before dinner. This turned out to be a mistake, as the no-see-ums descended upon us as we sat down to a dinner of taboule, hummus, and flat bread. We quickly retreated to the tent after dinner. |
|
