Sweet Sunsets at the Edge of the Gulf
Having made the decision that if I'm going to be surrounded by water, I might as well try to spend my time out in it, I headed out with my friend Theresa to the 10,000 Islands area, just at the north end of Everglades National Park. Taking advantage of President's Day, we spent three days out paddling and camping around some of the keys in the area.
Navigating out to the keys was pretty easy - there were navigational markers the whole way. It was kind of nice to hit the gulf, though. There's nothing to reassure the navigator's mind like a huge body of water exactly where you'd like one to be.
This shark was probably about a foot and a half or so long...not sure what kind it was. In addition to this guy, we also spotted four dolphins, one of which breached only a few foot away from the canoe, and three sting rays, which were pretty cool to see.
We camped the first night at Camp Lulu Key, just outside the Everglades National Park boundaries. Being outside the park, there were no camper restrictions, so we made camp with several other people in the area. Behind our campsite on the key was a little cove, and at the end of the day a bunch of pelicans were all gathered fishing. This is one caught mid-dive. There were a pair that would dive in tandem, which was pretty cool, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of them.
I took this photo as sunset was approaching our first night and kind of played around with it in GIMP to give it a little bit of a funky look.
Our view of sunset the first night was going to be obstructed by mangroves, so we paddled out to watch it. Most of our camping neighbors were also watching. Sunsets seem to be one of the few naturally occurring events that can make just about everyone around stop whatever they're doing and watch.
Sunrise over Camp Lulu Key was probably the best that we saw. The low tide created these calm pools that made for a really sweet reflection.
Mangrove at Panther Key. We paddled over to this key the second morning. Most of the islands were made up of these trees with their cool root structure. I haven't yet paddled through a mangrove tunnel, but I'd like to at some point.
View down Picnic Key, where we spent our second night. You can kind of make out a fellow paddler at the edge of the trees. He and his partner went nuts, hacking at dead trees with a machete and building a huge fire that they enjoyed from the comfort of their dug-out-of-the-sand sofa.
The clouds at sunset on Picnic Key. We'd end up going 3 for 4 on spectacular sunsets/rises. The sunrise the morning of the last day was too cloudy to be amazing, so we just packed up and headed back to the canoe launch.
So this trip was a lot drier (notwithstanding the boat wake that swept over the canoe on the paddle in) and a lot warmer. I learned to bring plenty of water, and a bandana or something to wipe down your skin (after a few days, the salt on your skin gets to be less than awesome). We'll see how viable these trips remain as the temps warm - it was roasting as it was, in the middle of February. 25 miles of paddling came pretty easy, though (that's statute miles...do you record this sort of thing in nautical miles?), and my Chaco tan is coming back, and that's a good thing.
Navigating out to the keys was pretty easy - there were navigational markers the whole way. It was kind of nice to hit the gulf, though. There's nothing to reassure the navigator's mind like a huge body of water exactly where you'd like one to be.
This shark was probably about a foot and a half or so long...not sure what kind it was. In addition to this guy, we also spotted four dolphins, one of which breached only a few foot away from the canoe, and three sting rays, which were pretty cool to see.
We camped the first night at Camp Lulu Key, just outside the Everglades National Park boundaries. Being outside the park, there were no camper restrictions, so we made camp with several other people in the area. Behind our campsite on the key was a little cove, and at the end of the day a bunch of pelicans were all gathered fishing. This is one caught mid-dive. There were a pair that would dive in tandem, which was pretty cool, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of them.
I took this photo as sunset was approaching our first night and kind of played around with it in GIMP to give it a little bit of a funky look.
Our view of sunset the first night was going to be obstructed by mangroves, so we paddled out to watch it. Most of our camping neighbors were also watching. Sunsets seem to be one of the few naturally occurring events that can make just about everyone around stop whatever they're doing and watch.
Sunrise over Camp Lulu Key was probably the best that we saw. The low tide created these calm pools that made for a really sweet reflection.
Mangrove at Panther Key. We paddled over to this key the second morning. Most of the islands were made up of these trees with their cool root structure. I haven't yet paddled through a mangrove tunnel, but I'd like to at some point.
View down Picnic Key, where we spent our second night. You can kind of make out a fellow paddler at the edge of the trees. He and his partner went nuts, hacking at dead trees with a machete and building a huge fire that they enjoyed from the comfort of their dug-out-of-the-sand sofa.
The clouds at sunset on Picnic Key. We'd end up going 3 for 4 on spectacular sunsets/rises. The sunrise the morning of the last day was too cloudy to be amazing, so we just packed up and headed back to the canoe launch.
So this trip was a lot drier (notwithstanding the boat wake that swept over the canoe on the paddle in) and a lot warmer. I learned to bring plenty of water, and a bandana or something to wipe down your skin (after a few days, the salt on your skin gets to be less than awesome). We'll see how viable these trips remain as the temps warm - it was roasting as it was, in the middle of February. 25 miles of paddling came pretty easy, though (that's statute miles...do you record this sort of thing in nautical miles?), and my Chaco tan is coming back, and that's a good thing.
posted by Slim at
5:24 PM
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