Holly Genzen - Paddling the Everglades Wilderness Waterway. Your All-in-One Guide to Floridas 99-Mile Treasure plus 17 Day and Overnight...

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Paddling the Everglades Wilderness Waterway: Your All-in-one Guide to Floridas 99-mile Treasure plus 17 Day & Overnight Trips

Copyright 2011 by Holly Genzen and Anne McCrary Sullivan

All rights reserved

Published by Menasha Ridge Press

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed by Publishers Group West

First edition, first printing

Cover design by Scott McGrew

Cartography by Scott McGrew and Holly Genzen

Text design by Annie Long

Cover photographs by Holly Genzen

Authors photographs by Andrea Hillebrand; photograph of Dolphin splash by Rick Jones

All other interior photographs by Holly Genzen and Anne McCrary Sullivan

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Genzen, Holly.

Paddling the Everglades wilderness waterway: your all-in-one guide for thru-paddling Floridas 99-mile treasure with additional day trips and overnight paddles/Holly Genzen, Anne McCrary Sullivan.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-89732-898-2

ISBN-10: 0-89732-898-1

1. Canoes and canoeingFloridaEverglades National ParkGuidebooks. 2. Everglades National Park (Fla.)Guidebooks. I. Sullivan, Anne McCrary. II. Title.

GV776.A3-Z.F62E934 2011

797.1220975939dc23

2011022231

Menasha Ridge Press

P.O. Box 43673

Birmingham, Alabama 35243

menasharidge.com

DISCLAIMER

Paddling the Everglades Wilderness Waterway is meant only as a guide to select paddles in the Everglades. This book does not guarantee paddler safety in any wayyou paddle at your own risk. Neither Menasha Ridge Press, Holly Genzen, nor Anne McCrary Sullivan are liable for property loss or damage, personal injury, or death that result in any way from accessing or paddling the waterways described in the following pages. Please read carefully the introduction to this book as well as further safety information from other sources. Familiarize yourself with current weather reports and maps of the area you plan to visit (in addition to the maps provided in this guidebook). Be cognizant of park regulations and always follow them. Do not take chances. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information throughout this book, and the contents of this publication are believed to be correct at the time of printing. Nevertheless, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions, for changes in details given in this guide, or for the consequences of relying on information provided by the same. Assessments of sites are based on the authors own experience; therefore, descriptions given in this guide necessarily contain an element of subjective opinion, which may not reflect the publishers opinion or dictate a readers own experience on another occasion.

Dedication

For Gary, David, & Jonathan, with love

For the familys next generation of paddlers: Miller, Bremen, Grace, & Anne

Acknowledgments

Many people have supported this book, and we are grateful to every one of them. Most notably, we want to thank the personnel of Everglades National Park: Alan Scott, Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services, whose door was always open to us; Susan Reece, Northwest District Naturalist, and Bob Showler, Flamingo District Interpreter, both of whom tirelessly and with good humor answered our many questions on repeated visits and through e-mails; Mike Jester, Chief of Maintenance; Bill Wagner, Maintenance Supervisor, Northwest District; Rob Neuman, Flamingo Maintenance Supervisor; and a multitude of rangers and volunteers who have provided useful information, especially Shauna Cotrell, and Hampton Hudson, Joe Sterchele, Rita Huston, Tim Taylor, Christi Carmichael, and Dan Blankenship. In the archives of Everglades National Park, Nancy Russell and Bonnie Ciolino helped us dig up whatever elusive details we were seeking.

We are grateful to William G. Truesdell, author of A Guide to the Wilderness Waterway of the Everglades National Park, the first guidebook to this maze of mangrove channels. He continues to share with us stories of his days as a naturalist in Everglades National Park and information about the origins of the Waterway.

We have appreciated the assistance of Jon Rizzo, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Key West, who helped us think through issues of safety related to lightning.

The people of Chokoloskee Island, Everglades City, Florida City, and Flamingo have been welcoming, and operators of marinas, lodges, restaurants, and outfitters have been generous in supplying information about their services and the history of the area. Kenny Brown was especially accommodating; we thank him for sharing his familys long history on Chokoloskee Island and for welcome cups of coffee. Chris Ammerman, postmaster of Chokoloskee, was our smiling informant whenever we had trouble finding people or places. In Everglades City, Bobby Miller provided information and guidance, and Carolyn Thompson at Win-Car Hardware was perennially friendly and helpful.

Weve met great people out there in the evenings on the Waterway when we have shared chickees or campsites, and weve heard some entertaining stories. Thanks to all those storytellers! Bill and Mike at Alligator Creek told tales from a long history of thru-paddling the Waterway. Dan and Casey at Johnson Key Chickee, intrepid paddlers out for the first time, without a tent and running out of food, were having the time of their lives and telling a very different story. Nick, who stopped briefly at Plate Creek Chickee, told of odysseys with WaterTribe, a kayaker/canoeist organization, before he headed out again, showing us that paddling in the dark can be a great adventure. A boy on a multiday fishing trip with his father, camping at Willy Willy, grinned and confessed that he was playing hooky, and on the same evening over dinner on the dock, a kayaker named John shared stories of great places to paddle. Rick, our companion at Harney River Chickee, told of reading many years earlier a newspaper article about thru-paddling the Waterway. He hung on to that clipping and resolved to do the Waterway someday, and finally, there he was with his boat, Weeble . And there was Patrick, traveling with his classic wooden craft, Old Blue Skies, who successfully dove under South Joe River Chickee to retrieve a treasured knife, asking us to watch for sharks.

We also want to thank Manuel, Sven, Anne, and Sandra who came from Germany to thru-paddle the Waterway and who afterward suggested that we tell our readers that one bottle of insect repellent is not enough for four people for 10 days. They made other suggestions that we have incorporated into this book. Deep appreciation goes to Karen and Gary, who gave Holly a ride when she was hitchhiking to Flamingo from the Coot Bay Pond put-in.