DAY 6-SWEETWATER CHICKEE TO EVERGLADES CITY

The final day of the trip. I’m a day ahead of schedule but not really. I had planned a night at Rodger’s River Chickee but discovered during the week that the weather was going to be cruddy and this would be a trip into the wind and all of it’s nastiness.

We awoke to a spectacular sunrise right in front of the chickee. We both break out cameras and fire away. Pretty hard to take a bad picture out here this morning. I put my kayak into the water and take some shots of the chickee in the warm morning light.

I take a short trip upstream to locate the narrow creeks that feed this small bay. I find two tiny creeks that are inaccessible by boat.

Back at the chickee, we both eat a quick breakfast, dry out all of our items, break camp, and hit the water for the trip to Everglades City. David takes his motor boat ahead of me and I follow. I manage a steady 4 mph and I’m traveling light today since he is hauling the majority of my gear and trash.

There is an ethic in the wilderness called "Leave No Trace". Quite simply, you pack out everything that you take in. You leave no traces of yourself. This keeps the wilderness experience truly wild for the next person to enjoy. The only thing that you leave are footprints, and in my case paddle drips in the water. I wish this ethic could be followed in the urban world. I get irritated when I see people throw trash, particularly their cigarette butts out of their cars. LEAVE NO TRACE.

I follow the route set out by my GPS and shoot some video along the way. The wind isn’t particularly stiff “yet” so we make great time. We stop off at Lopez River campsite where two women are camped for the day. One of the women David and I had met at Carl Ross Key during winter 2004. She recognized us and we talked about different brands of kayaks and kayaking in the great outdoors. Her friend videotaped me at my request giving some more of my narrative of the trip. Soon after I was on the water.

David had left a few minutes ahead of me. I think he thought I was going to beat him back. Very stiff front winds greeted me on the wide section of Lopez River. I continued on making forward progress. I stopped off at the opening to Chokoloskee Bay to drink some water. The winds were going to be strong across the bay.

I paddled forth. David was anchored in the middle of the bay. He was having engine problems and the winds and waves were causing him grief. I managed to flag down a passing motor boat who kindly gave him a tow to the ramp which was only a mile away.

I met them both at the ramp. We loaded David’s boat on his trailer and I continued north to finish my journey. I decided that I was going to go “door to door”. Meaning that I was going to go from the door of the ranger station in Flamingo to the door of the ranger station in Everglades City.

I was feeling great and not experiencing any distress from the trip. I could have gone another week if I needed to. I crossed under the fixed bridge that leads you off of Chokoloskee Island and then I was back out into Chokoloskee Bay. A group of canoers who spent the night on the Gulf at Pavillion Key were making their way back to the ranger station as well.

With the ranger station in sight, I powered past the canoers and landed my boat right at the base of the Everglades City Ranger Station. 6 days on the water. The GPS read 99.7 miles!

As a side note, on a trip of this length I of course had a LOT of time on my hands. A LOT. I calculated the number of times a paddle dips into the water. I took that number and came up with an interesting figure. It took 108,900 paddle strokes to kayak 99 miles!

Another fantastic journey!

Meet me on the water..........Pat Welsh, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.