Re: [Paddlewise] Everglades in winter

Matt Hudson and I spent 12 days paddling our K-1's from Everglades City to 
Flamingo in February, 2002. Great trip. No mosquitos. Hardly any power boats. No 
bugs at all if you do it from chickee to chickee. But, of course, we had to 
try the beaches too, which were no-see-um hell. All you had to do is something 
stupid like wash the dishes and forget   to reapply the deet to guarantee 
yourself welts all over the backs of your hands.

Some considerations: The chickees are made for open boats. At most tide 
levels, there's no way you'll be able to load a kayak from the chickee. You have to 
climb into one kayak and then have the gear passed down to load into the 
other kayak. This is true of some of the piers at the land sites as well. Contrary 
to some advice, however, we found no need to pull our kayaks onto the 
chickees at night. We just moored them. Our favorite was Rodgers Bay chickee, which 
we had to ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Don't feed the gators! Some have 
become camp beggars and it's not safe.

Finally, if you start at one end and finish at the other, planning to hitch 
back to your car (there is no public transport), note that you cannot hitch out 
of Flamingo, since that's illegal in a National Park and the rangers will 
call you on it. You have to go to the store or the like and ask people for a ride 
before they get into their vehicles. I ended up making it back to the car in 
about 6 hours, thanks to park employees at the store and a kind local along 
the way. Both of these parties drove me miles and miles out of their way, to my 
undying gratitute, as a norther had just blown in, and it was damn cold.

Lots of folks do the north-south trip in 6 days, then resupply and go 
south-north, eliminating the need to beg for a ride. There is a great guide book by 
Johnny Malloy for paddling this route (which has endless variations).

Have fun! It's a real adventure. Some of the interior routes are almost 
completely overgrown!

douglas in sf
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