“Sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide rolling away, sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time…” - Otis Redding
Sunday morning was a beautiful day; there was an intense fog all over the park and especially at the launch in Coot Bay Pond where we started our trip into the backcountry. The first little "bump" of the trip was at 8am sharp when I found out our first site, Oyster Bay Chickee, was already filled...we had to run the 20 miles up to Shark River Chickee in order to stay on schedule. No fishing for me today I thought as I wrote Shark River into the first slot on the permit, oh well, I have 8 more days to go after that to make up for it. I did make a few casts by the Midway Keys and caught a few snapper...that was all I would manage to catch for the next week...not complaining though as they were tasty additions to our larder.
Coot Bay Pond
Loaded for bear
Flex riding low
Coot Bay
First of many
We were joined on the first day by Ted, who would be overnighting with us, and Wayne who was turning around and heading back at some point in Whitewater Bay. Coot Bay and most of Whitewater Bay was complete glass, a mirror to the sky above, a really great first day despite the distance. Wayne turned around at about 3pm and we wondered if he would make it back before dark from the Northern end of Whitewater, hope he made it okay.
Leaving the Midway Keys
We landed at Shark River Chickee a little after 5pm, it was a bit crowded with three tents on that single chickee but we managed as the tide was high enough for us to unload our boats without much complication. The next morning there was more fog as Ted left us and we continued up into Ponce Bay, stopping at Graveyard Creek for lunch on our way up to Highland Beach.
Ted leaving in the fog down the Shark River
Ponce Bay
Terns in the Gulf
Just North of Graveyard Creek
Taking a break at Graveyard Creek
Highland Beach
Highland Beach is a beautiful site, extremely shallow so of course there wasn't much for fishing...lots of little sharks but I had opted to leave the shark rig at home for this particular trip. Thus far we hadn't experienced any bugs and that night was no different, very quiet and relaxed evening on the beach drinking rum and hot chocolate when it dropped down a few degrees.
Woke me up in the morning:
for Steve - Beach still-life
"milking myself" as I began to call it...too much sun.
Lots of Gators out on Broad Creek
The next morning we were supposed to go up into Lostmans River to Willy Willy but we did not get off the beach till noon so we decided to go straight to Camp Lonesome by way of the Broad Creek and “the cutoff”. Another day of paddling and no fishing, I was getting used to this concept by now so it didn't bother me so much, I was just happy to be getting into the backcountry. Camp Lonesome was by far my favorite campsite, very cozy feel to it and the trees were perfectly spaced apart for hammocks!
Camp Lonesome
Kayak-slips
I had been dying to bust that thing out
Lonesome in the morning
The night at Lonesome was serene, the morning was noisy with the sounds of birds everywhere, zipping around the tents like mini-helicopters, pretty cool. We left early this day as we were to take the infamous Wood River...wow, what an adventure.
Looked okay for the first mile
Spacious compared to what lay ahead
Flex being "born again"
super tight turns ain't so easy in a 19' boat
The Wood River is just barely passable by kayak, I'd imagine a canoe could pass it as well but it would have been hell as I was just barely squeezing under all manner of deadfalls and debris. I really must give thanks to the guys at - http://gladesgodeep.ning.com/ - the wealth of information there is really daunting but they were nice enough to answer all my questions and point me in the right direction. There were some spaces we pulled through that were just big enough to fit my 21'' wide kayak through, it was like being born again, over and over again for miles and miles. At some points we stopped seeing hack marks and started wondering if we would ever get through this madness...but we eventually did, coming out right at the Northern end of The Nightmare on the Broad River.
I spent the rest of my time at Broad in the tent...nuff said
We decided to stay at the Broad River site, got killed by no-seeums as is expected but what can you do? At least now we could run the Nightmare the next day at our leisure.
We hit the Nightmare a little before high-tide and compared to the Wood River the Nightmare was a pleasure-cruise, it was actually quite pleasant and a very relaxed day compared to that long "pull-through" on the Wood River. At marker 23 I saw a boil in the water so I pitched a 5'' DOA cal nearby and instantly got rocked. Line started singing from my little fin-nor and I knew right away this was something I couldn't handle but before I could finish the thought a massive Tarpon cleared the water and jumped up onto the bank! It thrashed around on the mangrove roots for a few seconds before falling back in the water right in front of my kayak...my adrenaline was up and my hands were shaking as I re-tied my leader and then slowly paddled further down the nightmare.
Das Nightmare
looked worse than it really was
just like a video game
Decaf colored water
We came out of the Nightmare by Harney River Chickee and made camp there as to be well set-up for the next days trek to Canepatch. I was noticing these long fish staging on the bank near the chickee but nothing I had interested them. I kept trying to land it right in front of them and maybe get a reaction strike when suddenly there was a quick movement, I felt a bump and I set the hook. I fought this thing for 15-20 minutes not knowing what the hell I had on my line...it was strong though. Finally I bring the thing next to the chickee and see it’s a small sawfish! And I snagged him by the fin just above the tail. I was going to pull him up to remove the hook when it just popped right out and he swam off no worse for the wear. There were about 5-6 sawfish around the chickee that night and yes, I have already called the hotline and reported the sightings.
coming up
popped right off after this shot
Harney by night
The next morning was another beautiful day, the temps would drop into the low 40's that night and the high was 70 that day with a fair amount of wind out of the SW...Good thing we were inside I thought. We paddled up the Harney all the way to Tarpon Bay and Avocado Creek lead us into Canepatch.
The path
the sign
the mayan cichlid
Couldn't get enough of this view
Canepatch is a really interesting place, there were cigarette butts and signs a couple of campfires but otherwise it was clean. The dock leading into the site is shrouded in plants and the water is purely fresh back there...I was catching little bluegills and Mayan cichlids from that dock a little later on in the day and watching huge schools of gar swimming around.
Plenty of agricultural remnants
Nice change from Mangroves
lets see where this trail goes
had to catch something to feel like a big man
like a rainforest back there
kayakers = well-equipped hobo's
It got bitterly cold that night and the next morning when we crawled out of our tents we looked like terribly dressed hobo-clowns more so than paddlers. We set out early as it was a Saturday and we had been hitting campsites that we hadn't reserved the whole week, not a problem during the week but on the weekends that could be a problem...our luck ran out this particular day.
Sailing down the Shark River against the tide...doesn't get sweeter than that
North River Sunset
So we paddled out of Tarpon Bay, down the Shark River, into the Labyrinth, and down to Watson’s River Chickee, about 15 miles, only to find it was taken...we booked it to The North River Chickee, another 4-5 miles to arrive there just before sunset...had that site been taken we would have had to book it to the Roberts River Chickee another 3 miles down the way.
North River
We left North River early the next day as it was a somewhat cramped affair on the single chickee, we paddled past Roberts River, took the Lane River to Lane Bay, I finally got to do some fishing today although I didn’t have much success. We made to Hell's Bay, our last stop, around 2pm and we were shortly joined by a lone kayaker coming from the canoe trail. He had a French accent and I assumed he was French-Canadian but lo and behold he was Swiss, and from my Hometown: Geneva! Pretty cool to meet a fellow countryman all the way out in the middle of nowhere, and like a true Swiss he had chocolate and bread which he shared with us...that chocolate was amazing after 8 days of rice, couscous, and ramen noodles. I told him I would find some snapper for us (as that is all I could seem to catch this whole trip) for dinner and I set out to poke around Hell's Bay.
The mouth of the Lane River
Lane Bay
Hell's Bay is Heaven
never been so happy to see a tiny snook before
average size
it was nearly pitch by this time, but they wouldn't stop biting
Snapper anyone?
Our friend Luca enjoying his first backcountry meal
I did find a brace of mangroves to bring back and also finally found the snook, and a ton of them. They were all little guys but I didn't care, I was just happy to have a little tug on the end of my line. They were all stacked up against the shoreline(s) protected from the wind, in an hour I must have caught over 20-30, re-tied my 20lb leader about 20 times too as they were shredding it to pieces along with my golden bream DOA cal paddle tails. I have never seen snook so aggressive! On one cast I hooked three different snook that all spit the hook on the jump and the lure would barely touch the water before another little snook grabbed it, awesome. I finally had to stop fishing because it was getting dark and I left my headlamp back on the chickee.
Hell's Bay sunrise
A few more parting shots
as soon as Flex got on the water and I gave him my camera they stopped biting, go figure.
We marinated the snappers in a solution of lime juice, onions, garlic, pepper, and a little spot of white rum...as our new friend Luca put it "the best meal had in the states...” We talked about home and everything else till we called it a night; I went to sleep early with the intention of getting more snooklets in the morning before we broke camp.
entrance to Coot Bay Pond
almost there
safe
When I woke up it was blowing 15-20 out of the North, no fishing for me. We bid farewell to our new friend and slowly broke down the camp for the last time. On the way out I did manage a dozen or so more snooklets before leaving Hell's Bay through Normans River. We paddled across Whitewater Bay and Tarpon Creek with the wind at our backs making it to the launch by 3pm. Me and Flex both gave each other that look before beginning to pack up…the “we made it” look, I was very glad to have Flex as a paddling partner on this trip, no one I know is as laid-back AND a competent backcountry companion as that crazy Czech. I was at home with my wife and wiener-dog by 6pm, made some gnocchi’s a pomodoro, had a tall glass of Duvel, and passed out thinking about the next trip...
Breakdown:
Day 1 – Coot Bay Pond to Shark River Chickee – 19 miles
Day 2 – Shark River to Highland Beach – 15 miles
Day 3 – Highland Beach to Camp Lonesome – 14 miles
Day 4 - Camp Lonesome to Broad River – 12 miles
Day 5 – Broad River to Harney River Chickee – 10 miles
Day 6 – Harney River to Canepatch – 10 miles
Day 7 – Canepatch to North River Chickee – 20 miles
Day 8 – North River to Hell’s Bay – 11 miles
Day 9 – Hell’s Bay to Coot Bay Pond – 9 miles
Total – 120 miles – not including additional mileage for fishing, exploring, back-tracking, etc, etc.
