Everglades Canoe Trip January 2004

Plate Creek to Sweetwater

We spent a restful night while the rain fell. The morning was grey, but the rain abated. The canoe was about 1/3 full of water and I went down off the chickee to flip it. We then brought it up on the platform to drain. We were on our way a bit later than usual, heading north through Alligator Bay and Alligator Creek.

We had decided to take a side trip to Gopher Key to scope out new territory and explore a possible new route to the gulf. As it happened we were there at low tide, but Gopher Creek and the first bay were still passable. The surrounding foliage had a strange quality. There were numerous dead trees everywhere, looking as if there had been a fire at one time. Our wanderlust was rewarded; there were more birds here than any other creek or bay we'd been on. I speculated that we might see a Roseate Spoonbill and ten minutes later we saw one. He flew up into the trees but stayed near the creek where we could see him for some time.

As we were having lunch creek-side, it started to rain. This turned into a steady drizzle that was with us for most of the afternoon. We had a pleasant, if somewhat damp paddle across the remaining bays on our way to the Sweetwater Chickee, where we spent a quite evening in the rain.