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Everglades National Park, Florida!
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January 14 - January 25, 2007 Holly and Kerry Nicholson and I drove down to Everglade City to meet up with Johnny Molloy, author of the Paddling Guide to the Everglades National Park. We were all excited for our 11-night adventure to Flamingo of which Johnny has done several times and was gracious to introduce us "green horns" to the beautiful Everglades. We pushed off in Everglade City and spent the following nights on different keys and beaches enjoying sunsets and fishing up a storm: 1st night - Tiger Key 2nd night - Rabbit Key 3rd night - Mormon Key 4th night - Turkey Key 5th night - Hog Key 6th & 7th night - Highland Beach 8th night - Graveyard Creek 9th night - Northwest on Cape Sable 10th night - Middle on Cape Sable 11th night - East Clubhouse Beach Take a look at my Pictures! The wildlife was unbelievable. One morning while we were packing up, a dolphin jumped out of the water four times. While paddling, we ominously watched an occasional shark swim by. I never seen a manaray jump out of the water before! My favorite was fishing though. It was exciting reeling big fish in and I never had caught and ate my own fish before. Johnny was good teaching me - he's a good lead to follow. The bugs, we were told, were 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst. We were very lucky. The worst bugs were on Hog Key and Graveyard Creek, the latter made us don our bug jackets on at dusk to cook and in the morning to pack. At Graveyard Creek, we ran into a nice fellow who had Johnny's book and he was tickled to meet up with the author. The food was planned pretty good for four people. I enjoyed partaking in that planning, of course. We ended with an extra couple gallons of water too. We took one gallon of liquids per person per day including flavored drinks. The weather was perfect and it rained the day we got off the water! Can you believe it? Each day was either 75 or 80 degrees and a few days it was windy adding excitement to our paddling. Next year when I go back, I will pack and plan better (and stick to the plan). I will also mix a few more simple meals in case bugs are chomping or we are tired. I will also bring a thicker shirt to shield from the bugs. There's always room for improvement! |