Where I've been and what I've learned along the way…
Over the past eight years I’ve walked along the Lakeshore Trail and admired the cliffs and Sea Caves from above. [2015 Gallery]
The caves are located on the western side of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore near Cornucopia, Wisconsin.
I started out near Meyers Beach, paddled about two miles of open water to the caves and then explored another two miles of shoreline. [Full Gallery]
The plan for this year was a clockwise tour around Whitewater Bay, with options to go out to the Gulf and explore the Watson River. My cousin David Rathe and nephew Theron Pray decided to join me. [Full Gallery]
I drove down to Florida City (Homestead) the day before the others arrived. The three Hobie Kayaks fit nicely in the bed of my F-150 with an extender.
I booked two nights at the same motel I’ve used several times in the past. The next day I picked up the boys at the Miami airport and we purchased food and other supplies for the trip.
We drove into the park, pulled the permit, and were on the water just after 10am. The Buttonwood Canal and Coot Bay were nominal. We saw a large American Crocodile sunning on the bank within a mile of the put-in.
Lower Whitewater Bay was windy at first, but the wind eased and we sailed for a few miles west to enter the Joe River.
We saw dolphins along the way and arrived at the Joe River Chickee just as the sun was setting.
Total time on the water ~8hrs. It was an exceptionally good evening for star gazing.
Fairly cold overnight, on the water by 9am. Very sunny with a southerly breeze. Tide was outgoing so we headed down the Little Shark River to the Gulf of Mexico.
With a light wind behind us we rafted together and put up one sail to eat lunch and cross Ponce de Leon Bay to the beaches on the north shore.
We explored the shore for 30min until it was obvious the tide was coming in and then headed inland on a northern channel of the Shark. We got to the Shark River Chickee about an hour before dark.
We had a less than optimal stay due to bugs since it was hot, muggy, and calm. We all had head nets and got through it reasonably well. It rained during the night, but straight down so there was no need to batten down.
Theron guided us through The Labyrinth with no problem and we arrived at the Watson River Chickee midday.
Theron and David had time for some recreational sailing and exploration around the bay.
The breeze kept most of the bugs away and we sat around chewing the fat until sun went down.
Our sleeping setup was a bit eclectic on the 10×12 foot chickee platforms. I brought two lightweight cots and a 2-person tent for the boys, and a hammock for myself. Theron decided to sleep with just a net bivy bag on one of the cots (with the option to hit the tent during rain). We were all mostly comfortable.
We headed up the Watson River to explore the next day. This was typical low mangrove and not as varied as the upper North River I explored on an earlier trip. Theron had a close encounter with a lone dolphin as we were heading back down river. We then took a back way over to the North River and sailed up to our Chickee.
We setup and immediately went for a swim. There was just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs off and just a bit colder, which was welcome. We had a great dinner and finished off the box of red wine we brought along. In the morning we saw rosette spoonbill fly close overhead.
We knew from the weather radio that the wind would rise all day out of the west. We started north to The Cutoff to Robert’s River and then south from there. Once we hit the first bay we put up the sails and headed for the entrance to Coot Bay. The wind and waves on Whitewater Bay were increasing the entire time so it got a little hairy. At some point a wave stripped my paddle right off and I didn’t even notice! We did some downwind tacking to avoid dangerous gibes and all made it safely to Tarpon Creek and on into Coot Bay. We were off the water by 3pm. There was a Gale Warning the next day!
I last traveled to the Okefenokee in 2004, and I had been hoping to return sooner. My return was delayed in part by a multi-year drought and Major Fires in 2011. This year the water was high thanks to record rainfall in the late summer.
We left our car at the Suwannee Canal entrance and took advantage of a convenient shuttle service to get our canoe and gear up to Kingfisher Landing (about 30 miles north). From there we made our way south via a combination of canals, streams, prairies, sills, and ponds. Click below for an annotated video of our trip…
We started by following the Green Trail along a winding series of small canals until we reached our first campsite on the Bluff Lake Chickee. We got there with plenty of time to fix an early dinner and relax.
There are several species of carnivorous plants in the swamp, including three pitcher plants. We saw many examples of two of these: the Parrot Pitcher Plant and the Hooded Pitcher Plant. There were many standing dead trees with charred trunks left over from fires a decade ago, but the loss was not total. There were many older living trees interspersed with the dead, and lots of young Bald Cypress trees coming up underneath.
Yellow and Purple Bladderworts were blooming in abundance, occasional white Fragrant Waterlilies, and we even saw one Hooded Pitcher Plant putting up a flower!
After a brief time on the connecting Blue Trail we picked up the Purple Trail that loops out into the Chase Prairie and our next chickee.
These prairies are a mix of open water, marsh, and small islands with trees. The Round Top Chickee boasts a 360º view of this robust ecology. We saw more birds here including Sandhill Cranes and Egrets. We heard Barred Owls calling all around us in the evening. We got a bit of rain during the night so the morning was grey and damp.
There was a small box for a trail journal on this chickee, but all we found were notes written on toilet paper rolls railing about “Nancy Pelosi”?!
Turns out they were referring to the resident six foot gator who hung about the chickee the entire time we were there. This is likely because earlier visitors had fed it (a very BAD idea!). Gators that remain too close to humans usually lose their lives! Sad.
After the overnight drizzle we packed up in the grey dawn and continued on the Purple Trail to the next big intersection. The sun came out as we turned east on the Orange Trail. This is a major canal flowing to the west that got larger and larger as we approached the visitor center. We had lunch on the Coffee Bay platform just before the rain started. About a mile from the take-out it started to pour. By the time we had the gear all packed the late afternoon sun broke through.
