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Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail
Segment 13
Rookery Bay/Ten Thousand Islands
Emergency contact information:
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911
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Collier County Sheriff’s Office:
239-774-4434
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Everglades National Park 24-hour
search and rescue: 305-247-7272
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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission 24-hour wildlife emergency/boating under the influence
hotline: 1-888-404-3922
Begin: Lovers Key/
Carl E. Johnson State Park
End: Everglades
City
Distance: 63.5
miles, although distances will vary depending on route taken
Special Considerations:
Paddlers have the option of taking the Gulf side of the many islands
in this area, making for easier navigation and shorter distances between
campsites. In windy or inclement weather, however, paddlers should
travel inside the islands through more sheltered bays and waterways.
Advanced
reservations are recommended for motels, and for campsites within
Everglades National Park. NOAA charts and/or a Top Spot map are highly
recommended in the Ten Island Islands as stories abound about lost
boaters.
Introduction
Rookery Bay
and Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands are steeped in history and mystery.
The area is a watery maze of mangrove keys where Calusa Indians once dug
canals and built land with their discarded shells. Seminole Indians and
outlaws sought refuge along the sometimes bewildering, twisting
waterways. Men once eked out a living by hunting alligators and
crocodiles, killing egrets for their plumes, and making moonshine.
Historic
landmarks still remain such as Chokoloskee’s Smallwood Store where the
proprietor once traded with dugout-paddling Seminole Indians. The
Indians swapped pelts and silver money for tools, guns and staples.
Today, kayakers can land at the cracker-style landmark and peruse the
museum and gift shop.
In 1896, Marco
Island, then called Key Marco, yielded some of the most astounding
Native American artifacts ever found in Florida. Digging in the island’s
mangrove muck, Frank Hamilton Cushing and his Smithsonian expedition
crew uncovered an incredible array of perishable objects—carved and
painted wood animal heads, masks, clubs, bowls and atlatls (spear
throwing devices). They also found nets, fishhooks, cord, ropes, floats
and shell jewelry. Cushing later wrote of these early people, “… their
art is not only an art of the sea, but is an art of shells and teeth, an
art for which the sea supplied nearly all the working parts of tools,
the land only some of the materials worked upon.”
Environmentally, more than 150 species of birds frequent these unique
southwest Florida habitats. Mangrove forests predominate the landscape,
the leaves of which fall and create a rich detritus that is the base of
the estuarine food web. Look for the nearly impenetrable walls of prop
roots created by red mangrove trees. Black and white mangroves are
generally farther inland on higher ground.
Numerous fish,
dolphins and manatees frequent the channels, bays and coves of the area.
Rich seagrass beds are nursery grounds for a variety of fish, shellfish
and crustaceans, and they also provide food for manatees and sea
turtles. The area’s sandy beaches, mostly along the mainland and barrier
islands, provide invaluable nest sites for endangered sea turtles.
Keywaydin Island (sometimes referred to as Key Island) provided the
largest number of sea turtle nests in 2005 at 88. Barefoot Beach came in
second with 53. These beaches are also famous for their shelling
opportunities.
To learn more
about the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, log onto
http://www.rookerybay.org/. For Everglades National Park
Information, log onto
http://www.nps.gov/ever/. This segment also covers several premier
Florida state parks: Lovers Key/Carl E. Johnson, Delnor-Wiggins Pass,
and Collier-Seminole, although Collier-Seminole is off the main route.
To learn more, log onto
www.FloridaStateParks.org.
For primitive
camping described in this guide, utilize Leave No Trace principles
http://www.lnt.org/main.html.
1. Lovers Key/ Carl E.
Johnson State Park to Lighthouse Inn, 10.5 miles.
This romantic
sounding state park is the ideal place to begin this segment. Once the
possible hideout of pirate Black Augustus, and later the site of
numerous fish camps, this cluster of four scenic barrier islands was
slated for development before the state of Florida and Lee County
stepped into the create the state park. You can hike or bike miles of
interior trails or launch your kayak at a landing along Estero Bay. If
on a long-distance paddle, you can land on either the bay side or Gulf
side for a picnic, obtain fresh water, and use the restrooms. There is a
small store and kayak rental near the boat launch. No camping is allowed
in the park.
From the state
park, you can paddle inside or outside the islands, depending on
weather. You can take this sheltered inside passage about nine miles to
Wiggins Pass, if you wish. On the Gulf side, it is about eight miles to
Wiggins Pass and you can take breaks at two lovely county parks—Barefoot
Beach and Bonita Beach (see map). Along the south shore of Wiggins Pass
you can enjoy Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, partly named after Joe
Wiggins, the area’s first homesteader who ran an apiary and trading
post. Here, you can take a break and enjoy a picnic, take a shower, or
grab a snack at a beachside concession.
If
you’re planning to stay at the Lighthouse Inn, you’ll need to keep on
the inside channel for about two miles to reach the motel. The motel
docks are high so a high tide would make it easier to disembark and pull
your boat onto the dock. Reservations are recommended, so call (239)
597-3345. The motel is adjacent to a restaurant and it is a short walk
to Vanderbilt Beach.
2. Lighthouse Inn to
Key Island, 19 miles
From the
Lighthouse Inn, you’ll need to backtrack to Wiggins Pass and then hug
the Gulf shoreline as you head south. This is a long stretch of
paddling, but you can break it up with stops at county parks and at the
Naples City Pier. At Gordon Pass, you can take the inside passage along
Key Island (also referred to as Keewaydin Island), but this will add
more than a mile to your day.
The reward for
all of your efforts is Key Island. Accessible only by boat, the Gulf
side of this barrier island has some of the best shelling opportunities
in Florida. Note that a 3.5-acre portion of the southern end of the
island may be closed from mid-April through mid-August for Least Tern
nesting. Look for signs.
3. Key Island to Cape
Romano, 12.5 miles
The mileage
listed is for the Gulf side. However, you may need to take the inside
channel in inclement weather, which will add about six miles. Just after
Key Island, you can take a break on undeveloped Sea Oat Island. If
paddling on inland waterways, Johnson Bay is recommended as motorboats
are required to travel at slow speeds. The area can be busy with boats
on weekends and holidays. If paddling through Johnson Bay, you may want
to land at one of the kayak friendly restaurants along the Isle of
Capri.
NOTE: if you are a long distance paddler set on continuing through
the Ten Thousand Islands and Florida Bay to the Keys, Marco Island
offers the last opportunity to stock up at a supermarket. For this
supply run, you’ll need to paddle about three miles on the inside of
Marco Island to the Highway 951 Bridge. You can land at a small beach
and hike about a half mile down Collier Boulevard to the town center,
where there is a large supermarket and other stores and restaurants.
There is no supermarket at the south end of Marco Island. Once the site
of major clam digging operations and a clam cannery in the first half of
the 1900s, Marco Island boomed in the 1960s with plush developments for
those attracted to island living.
If you take
the Gulf side to Cape Romano, you can take a break at Tiger Tail Beach,
which has restrooms, a kayak rental, and a restaurant. Along the bay
side, you can stop at a marina and restaurant along the Highway 92
Bridge, although Hurricane Wilma temporarily closed the restaurant. The
town of Goodland offers a small store and restaurants. This small
fishing village has struggled to keep its rural identity in the face of
a booming coastal real estate market.
Cape
Romano is an isolated point that is fully exposed to the elements, so
proceed with caution. You may see the ruins of an unusual dome-like
dwelling near your campsite. The elements are slowly claiming the
structure. If you take the inside passage and the weather is inclement,
you may want to proceed to Whitehorse Key.
4. Cape Romano to
Whitehorse Key, 7.5 miles
Here, you will
be entering the heart of the Ten Thousand Islands. If you hug the
outside of the islands, you’ll have no problem finding your way. You can
easily get lost if you travel through the inside passages. It is best to
follow marked channels.
Whitehorse Key
is situated between Gullivan Key and Hog Key and you can camp on these
two islands as well.
Just to the
east of your campsite is Panther Key. This was where one of the area’s
most colorful characters once lived—Old John Gomez. Born in the 1770s,
Gomez claimed to have met Napoleon, served with the pirate Jose Gaspar (Gasparilla),
fought in the Second Seminole War, and operated as a blockade-runner
during the Civil War. He named his home Panther Key because panthers
would swim to the island and eat his goats. Old John Gomez attracted
many visitors and writers to Panther Key until his death in 1900 at age
122.
While the Ten
Thousand Islands contained some harmless hermits, it also harbored
numerous fugitives, such as Ed Watson, who allegedly killed the outlaw
Belle Starr, among other people. An early account of seven unwritten
laws for the area reads like something out of the frontier West: suspect
every man; ask no questions; settle your own quarrels; never steal from
an Islander; stick by him, even if you do not know him; shoot quick,
when your secret is in danger; cover your kill.
About a
century later, it is unlikely you will need to follow this code when
paddling through the Ten Thousand Islands.
5. Whitehorse Key to
Everglades City, 14 miles
After
Whitehorse Key, you will soon enter Everglades National Park, a vast
watery wilderness of islands, sawgrass, mangroves and forests. Its
life-giving fresh water supply, unfortunately, is largely controlled by
pumps, floodgates and retention ponds outside the park, a man-made
system that has been detrimental to the Everglades’ natural ecological
balance. A multi-billion dollar restoration plan may fix some of the
problems.
Before you can
camp in the national park, you must obtain a permit at the visitor’s
center in Everglades City (see map). Indian Key Pass is the most direct
route to Everglades City. Follow the marked channel. An incoming tide
will be a big help.
Everglades National Park takes no advance reservations by phone; you
must arrive in person up to 24 hours in advance of your planned first
night’s campsite. Since it is 14 miles from Whitehorse Key to Everglades
City, it would be best to spend the night in Everglades City. There are
numerous motels and cabin rentals, some of which are accessible by
water. Advanced reservations are recommended. The Museum of the
Everglades in downtown Everglades City is worth a visit, open from 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
From
Everglades City, you’ll have your choice of taking the 99-mile
Wilderness Waterway to Flamingo, or the Gulf route. Weather may be a
deciding factor. Campsites range from chickees that have been built on
pilings in rivers and bays, ground sites that have been cleared within
the mangrove forests, and beach sites. Campfires are only allowed at the
beach sites (below high-tide line). The ground sites tend to have more
insects, but be prepared for insects anywhere in this region at any time
of year.
Hurricane
Wilma closed part of the park to camping, and future hurricanes may
affect campsite availability as well. Call ahead to learn about current
conditions. The Gulf Coast Visitor Center at Everglades City can be
reached by calling (239) 695-3311. You can reach the Flamingo Visitor
Center by calling (239) 695-2945.
NOTE:
The segment from Everglades City to Flamingo is the longest stretch
along the circumnavigation trail without a fresh water supply. At
Everglades City, you’ll need to obtain a gallon of water per day per
person for seven to eight days. That is a lot of weight and bulk. Some
groups contract with a boat guide in Everglades City or Flamingo to
resupply them with water en-route.
Raccoons are the biggest threat to your food and water. Raccoons have
been known to chew through thin plastic water jugs. When camping, secure
your food and water in your kayak compartments. Campers have
unintentionally contributed to larger raccoon numbers near campsites. In
turn, hungry raccoons destroy an estimated 90% of sea turtle nests in
the park.
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