The Waterway Journey
The 99 miles of paddling or cruising
between Everglades City and Flamingo provides one of the
nation's finest water journeys, and the best route for
exploration of the remote areas of the park. Canoeing parties should plan to spend up to
ten days (a minimum of seven) on the waterway, while
those with motorboats can do the trip in one long day or
two easy days, but this doesn't allow much time for
relaxed wildlife viewing. Obviously, with so much
territory to cover, planning is essential. Navigation
charts should be purchased in advance (a few days before
your trip, if possible) at one of the visitor centers (at
the eastern park entrance, Flamingo, or Everglades City).
Trip Planning
Then, there is food to think about, as well
as the right clothing to take along, and where to make
your overnight stays along the route. Campsites are
located on land, on old Indian mounds, along beaches, in
forested areas, and on single or double chickees built
over the water. Permits are required. They are free, and
available at the ranger stations in Everglades City and
Flamingo.
You may wish to explore the channels off
the main waterway route, and to stay at one of more than
a dozen remote campsites and chickees in the park
interior. During the heavily-traveled season (December
through March), canoeists may wish to escape the main
waterway to find the serene silence of the park at one of
these more remote locations. A useful guide to these
campsites and chickees is the colorful chart listing all
of the canoe routes and land trails in the southern part
of the park, including the areas around Whitewater Bay.
Park rangers and visitors who have traveled
the waterway suggest that the trip is most enjoyable if
canoes travel in pairs. This not only provides company
during the long paddle, but offers a measure of security
that is not available if you are one canoe, alone. An
option is to rent a motorized canoe, preferably an
18-footer with the square stern made to take an outboard
motor (preferably six-horsepower). This takes a lot of
the physical stress out of reaching the more remote
campsites and chickees. This method of travel also cuts
down the days necessary to navigate the entire route. The
park concessionaire at Everglades City has a canoe
shuttle service to return the canoe from the end of the
route at Flamingo.
Except in one or two hard-to-spot
locations, all entrances to channels are easy to spot,
thanks to a series of signs placed along the route, by
the park (along the northern part of the route), and by
the Coast Guard (from Oyster Bay to Flamingo). Consult
the ranger station before you leave from your starting
point on possible difficult channels. One location to ask
about is the so-called "Nightmare" section north of
Oyster Bay, where gauging the tide is important. Low
tides sometimes make this section impossible to navigate
and an alternate route may be advisable. Otherwise, the
trip should cause no such difficulties.
The route leads down rivers, across wide
bays, through narrow creeks and channels, and through
huge mangrove swamps. Along the way you'll have access to
beaches and hammocks. At about the halfway point, the
trail leads along the Gulf Coast. North of Flamingo, the
waterway leads down the middle of Whitewater Bay.
The preferred direction seems to be from
Everglades City to Flamingo. This means that you'll
encounter park waterway markers reading from No. 130 (at
Everglades City), to No. 1 (at Oyster Bay), and the Coast
Guard markers from No. 48 to No. 1. All the marker signs
are clearly shown on the navigation charts. I have been
told that those who hate to count backwards can take the
trip from Flamingo to avoid "Numerical Stress Syndrome."
Everglades City to Chatham River
The start of the trip is at the park ranger
station in Chokoloskee Bay. The waterway cuts around the
edge of Chokoloskee Island. At marker 1230, you have the
choice of two routes around the island. One takes the
western shore of the island, the other a more sheltered
route, passing under the island causeway. The mouth of
the Turner River is at marker 129. The route then passes
across open water, sheltered by the Ten Thousand Islands
to the west. In just under six miles, the trail reaches
the Lopez River. A campsite is located at the nine-mile
mark. Continuing up the river, lined with mangroves, the
route turns southwest and through a series of bays
(Sunday, Oyster, Huston, and Last Huston) before reaching
the Chatham River (marker 99), 18.5 miles from the start
of the trip. The Sunday Bay Chickee is located on the
east side of the bay. Watson Place campsite is located
1.5 miles down the Chatham River, off the main waterway
which continues southwest. The Sweetwater chickees are
located east of marker 97 (before reaching the Chatham
River), two miles off the route.
Chatham River to Rogers River Bay
The main route continues from marker 99,
leading through Chevalier Bay (keeping to the left
shore), arriving at Darwin's Place campsite. This was the
homestead of Arthur Leslie Darwin, a hermit who was said
to be a distant relation to the more famous Charles.
Darwin stayed here from the late 1930s until 1971. Past
the campsite, mangroves are seen in Cannon Bay, with
marker 81 at the entrance to Tarpon Bay. This small body
of water is joined to Alligator Bay by one of the
hard-to-find channels, Alligator Creek (markers No. 77 to
No. 75). This shallow, curving creek is flanked by
mangroves. The route runs across the eastern side of
Alligator Bay, crosses the smaller Dad's Bay, and then
runs along Plate Creek to Plate Creek Bay. The Plate
Creek Chickee is a particularly scenic place for an
overnight stay. One mile past marker No. 63 is the
Lostmans Five Bay campsite. The trail cuts through a
channel to Two Island Bay, passing Onion Kee at marker
No. 58. There was a community on the island, destroyed by
a 1926 hurricane. You travel on Lostmans River, reaching
Big Lostmans Bay at marker 42. Marker 38 provides an
opportunity to veer off the main route, into Lostmans
Creek and a two-mile side trip to Rock Creek Bay, where
you'll find the Willy Willy campsite. The Rogers River
Bay chickee is found by traveling one mile west from
marker 32.
Rogers River Bay to Harney River
From marker 32, the route leads three miles
to Broad River Bay (marker 26), with the possibility of
another meandering side-trip to Camp Lonesome, a campsite
on the Broad River (three miles). The main waterway route
continues to the Broad River route to the Gulf of Mexico
(turn west, into the river, at marker 26). The Broad
River campsite is 6.5 miles downriver, and the gulf is
another 8.5 miles. This is the trickiest part of the
whole canoe route, the narrow channel known as The
Nightmare. It is basically a path through a thick
mangrove swamp, impassable at low tide, and infested by
mosquitoes and other critters. To avoid this bug trap,
take the detour that leads south via the Broad River.
Then go south along the shore to Harney River (five
miles), and then take the Harney River for four miles to
marker 12 (Harney River chickee location). The marked
main route leads out of The Nightmare, along the coast,
and up Broad Creek to reach the Harney River at the
chickee.
Harney River Chickee to Oyster Bay
Paddle to marker 11 and then turn east
(right) and go via the Harney River to marker 9 (5.5
miles). The main route turns (right) onto the Shark
River, and the Shark River chickee (marker 6) is 4.5
miles from the turn. You could choose to take a sidetrip
across Tarpon Bay to the Canepatch campground, a distance
of four miles. This is an especially rewarding diversion
from the main route, paddling into fresh water areas with
quite different vegetation from the mangrove swamps.
You'll see many more mangroves along the
sides of the Shark River, as the main route continues
toward Oyster Bay. Passing the Shark River Chickee, the
route offers a real river trip, with numerous fish,
including tarpon, sea trout, snapper, and several species
of small sharks. The chickee is past marker 6, on the
Little Shark River. At marker 5, turn from the river into
Shark Cutoff, the channel that leads to Oyster Bay.
Marker 2 denotes the end of the park marker system.
You'll see the first of the Coast Guard markers (No. 48)
just ahead. One set of markers leads you directly to the
Gulf, a distance of about six miles. The main waterway
route follows the Coast Guard markers from No. 48 to No.
1, at Flamingo.
Oyster Bay to Flamingo
The final 25 miles to Flamingo and Florida
Bay is pretty well a straight route starting in Oyster
Bay, and then down the middle of Whitewater Bay, using
the gap (Midway Cut) between the two large islands in the
middle of the bay, on Tarpon Creek, then across Coot Bay,
and finally through the Buttonwood Canal to the bay, with
the Flamingo dock a few minutes to the west of the canal.
The Oyster Bay double chickee is a mile southwest of
marker 48. From marker 50, the route covers 18 miles to
its end.
Remote chickees are located on the east and
west sides of Whitewater Bay. Joe River chickee is on the
west side, 4 miles from the Oyster Bay chickee. Another
chickee (South Joe) is located at the southwest corner of
the bay, a distance of 6 miles from the Joe River
chickee. Taking this route enables canoeists to follow
the Joe River, on a secluded riparian path. To veer
eastward from the main route to explore the other side of
Whitewater Bay, there are two chickees in the
northeastern section of the bay (Watson River and North
River). More remote chickees are located off the eastern
shore of the bay, reached through mangrove channels.
These (from north to south) are Roberts River chickee,
Lane Bay chickee, and Hells Bay chickee. Pearl Bay
chickee and Lard Can chickee can be reached by meandering
routes from Whitewater Bay, but can also be reached (more
easily) by taking the Hells Bay Canoe Trail, with the
put-in point along the main park road.
This trip is a once-in-a-lifetime
experience, full of natural wonder, with abundant
wildlife to be seen. There are several superb (but easy)
river jaunts, time spent in thick mangrove swamps,
opportunities to stop to climb the mound of a hardwood
hammock. Deep water is rarely seen; the average depth of
the route is less than seven feet. This means that
amphibians and other water-loving animals are found all
along the waterway's path: turtles, alligators, lots of
snails, frogs, and the sometimes-seen mam
als, including raccoons and bottle-nosed
dolphins. The bird life of this region is spectacular.
Anhingas plunge into the water, pelicans, terns, and fish
crows are joined by the wading birds: egrets, herons,
ibis. Sandpipers are found along the shores, and ducks
among the mangroves. Because fresh water and salt water
mix throughout the journey, birds which frequent both
ecosystems converge in the western Everglades. Raptors
flying overhead include ospreys and red-shouldered hawks.
In addition to the fish already mentioned, anchovy are in
good supply, along with striped mullet, snook, and
killifish, plus the ten species of small sharks,
including hammerheads.
