Day 5 
Plate Creek to Mormon Key (14 Miles)Sunrise on Plate Creek Bay was beautiful. We knew that this would be our longest day so we set off early and had crossed several bays before our first break around 9:00 a.m. The wind and tidal flows were favorable so we reached the Upper Chatham River before noon.
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| On the way down the river, we stopped to explore "The Watson Place" and chatted briefly with the ranger regarding the ultimate demise of Mr. Watson. Apparently, he would periodically kill his hired hands when it became inconvenient to pay them. Eventually, the citizenry of Chokoloskee got wind of what was going on and decided to take matters into their own hands. Mr. Watson was ambushed when he came in for supplies and was summarily executed by the crowd. (Peter Matthiessen wrote a historical novel, Killing Mister Watson, based on these events - highly recommended.) The site now contains the remains of his sugar plantation including a large iron cauldron for boiling down the cane syrup. There were two large cisterns filled with stagnant water on the site, which probably accounted for the large number of mosquitoes present as soon as we were in the shade. |
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| From there we proceeded to the mouth of the river where we had a brief but intense encounter with the incoming tide. Once we were out in the gulf, it was an easy paddle to Mormon Key where we camped for the night. The beach was very hot but fortunately mangroves on both sides surrounded the best campsite. The beach was littered with hundreds of conch and other shells and we encountered dozens of mating horseshoe crabs. Dinner was Mexican beans and tortillas after which the mosquitoes became intense, so we retired to the tent. The first hour was the only time we were truely uncomfortable on the entire trip. Without a breeze the tent was hot. We had sand in everything! |
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