Everglades July '03

Over the years, I have boated past Mormon Key on the way to Turkey Key, New Turkey Key, and Highland Beach. While looking for a "new" place to camp in the Everglades National Park (ENP), it occurred to me that I had never actually camped at Mormon Key.

Also, while some of the campsites I have visited several times, I had only visited Sweetwater Bay once back in 1997. I decided to make these sites the goal of my week in the 'glades this year.

As the satellite photo of Mormon Key shows, there is a fair amount of beach and tidal flats at low tide. I decided to stay at Mormon Key for two nights, and a single night at Sweetwater Bay.

My itenerary was:

ON TO THE TRIP

Sunday

Things didn't get off to a good start. 30 minutes down the road, I passed a sign for a business called the "Kicker Shop" - an outboard motor shop. As I looked at the sign, it dawned on me I had not put my outboard motor in the truck! Can you say U-turn?

After getting back underway with the motor and gas tank, things went much better. The detour cost me an hour and some gas, but I was able to reach Everglades City by 11:30 AM. I got my permit, lunch, the boat loaded and underway by 1:00.

Tide was a little low in Chokoloskee Bay, but I only scraped bottom once. I reached Sunday Bay by 3:00. The low tide and weeds near the chickee made me paddle the last couple of hundred yards to the chickee.

The last time I stayed at Sunday Bay was in August of 1999. Things looked pretty much the same except that the port-o-john roof was slightly missing. That tends to make it somewhat less bugfree than it used to be. I suspected that this was a relatively new development and made a note-to-self to let the rangers know about it when I return.

Monday

I was able to get underway around 7:45. Tide was rising, and there was more water over the weeds, but I still had to paddle out a hundred yards or so before putting the motor down and getting it running

I expected the tide to peak and start back out before I reached the Chatham River. Somehow, I made much better time through Sunday Bay, Oyster Bay, Huston Bay, and Last Huston Bay than I expected. The tide was still coming in, so I had to fight the incoming current all along the Chatham. Even bucking the tide current, I got to Mormon Key in just under two hours total time afloat. (Well, didn't have to worry about afternoon thunderstorms this trip!)

I got camp set up right away, found the patch of shade, got out a book, and set in for some serious power lounging. Interspersing the reading with soaking in the cool Gulf of Mexico water and walking the beach passed the time pretty tolerably.

On past trips, when I have passed Mormon Key, I have considered it too much on the beaten path and probably too heavily used. It seemed that it would be like camping in a fish bowl. After actually being there, I found out that I had really gotten the wrong impression of the place. I probably wouldn't want to camp there in the Winter or early Spring, but it's a great summer naturist camping spot.

This afternoon, as the tide got fairly low, I started to walk down to the tide flats, but heard a boat approaching from around the west end of the island. I stepped behind one of the few clumps of vegetation to wait for the boat to pass. Instead of zooming on around the shallows and continuing toward the mainland as other boats had done, this boat turned in right at my campsite and slowly approached the shore as close as the tide would allow. The driver then shut off his motor and called out "is anyone here?"

This guy was specifically looking for the occupant of the campsite. I figured I'd see what he wanted, and there was no way to get clothes on first. He'd gone out of his way to visit someone camping in the back country in Summer. Chances were, he wouldn't be shocked if I was nude.

I stepped out from the bush and called out that I wasn't dressed. The boater answered that "that doesn't bother me". As I walked close enough to talk without raising our voices to be heard, he said "If I'm bothering you, I'll leave." Kind of an odd thing to pop in and say.

Turns out, Toby makes a point of visiting people camping in the area when he camps in the backcountry. He was camped on Pavillion Key, which was visible across the water from me (4 to 5 miles away). Like me, Toby visits the ENP in the Summertime, and has been doing so for over 10 years. (While I wouldn't go visit people's campsites, we did have an interesting conversation for well over an hour.)

Over the course of the day, a couple of thunderstorms passed Mormon Key to the West. At one point, Pavillion Key disappeared in the storm, but it did reappear afterward, so I guess that was OK.

Tuesday

Pretty much stayed in camp power lounging with my books, cooling off in the Gulf, and walking the tidal flats. And oh yeah, I ran a mile along the beach at low tide.

An hour or so after my run, it was deja vu all over again. I was walking the tide flats when I hear a boat approaching from around the island. I ducked behind the same bush as the day before and waited for the boat to move on. Like the day before, the boat turned in right at my campsite and stopped. This time there were 4 people on board. I could hear them talk, but they didn't call out like Toby had, so I just stayed put, watched and eavesdropped on them. They were saying things like "where would he be?", etc. One of them then said "he must not be a happy camper". This was funny since I had worn a shirt into the park office (when I got the backcountry permit) that had a happy face wearing a fishing cap that said "Happy Camper".

Anyway, after a few minutes of throwing out their net, they moved on. OK by me. The only other highlight after that was a mild rainshower (with impressive thunder in the distance).

Wednesday

Time to move on to Sweetwater Bay Chickee. The last time when I was there in 1997 I was exhausted after an all-day paddle (no motor), and there was a nuisance alligator at the chickee. (Apparently some idiots had been feeding the thing and it had absolutely no fear of humans. In fact, it followed my every movement on the chickee waiting for a handout. Even washing dishes was a pain, and just forget bathing completely!)

This time around, things were different. I was there by 9:00 AM. There was no gator around. I was not at all tired. I was able to wash my salt encrusted towels, air out my sleeping bag and sheet, and take the canoe out exploring.

There is a small creek to the East of the chickee. I paddled up this creek into a small "micro-bay". The water was clear and cool, and totally fresh - no trace of salt.

After I got to the farthest point on this creek and took a couple of pictures, I headed back toward the chickee. Just before coming in sight of the chickee, I found the perfect swimming hole. The bottom was firm sand instead of muck and varied from just over knee deep to well over my head. (Most of the chickees are located in areas with muck bottoms, and even the Sweetwater Bay chickee itself is located over muck, but this swimming hole is a nice change.)

At Mormon Key and Sweetwater Bay, I set up my VHF Marine radio (which includes weather channels) to listen for the tropical weather forecasts. I didn't want to get caught off-guard by a tropical storm or hurricane (last year was bad enough).

Since no one else was sharing the chickee, I set up my reading room/listening post on the other half of the chickee. My tent was on the West half, and the rr/lp on the East half. The VHF antenna is visible on the right picture.

Listening to the weather channel, I found that there was a tropical storm (Claudette) heading West. I ran a "worst case scenario" calculation based on the storm's position and realized it was possible that it could be in the area in 48 hours. I was still planning to be out there in 48 hours. I decided I would head back to Everglades City the next day rather than staying the last night at Sunday Bay as I had planned.

The trip back was uneventful at first. I squeezed off a picture of this cabin because I realized I had never gotten one of it before. It is the last private in-holding in the park.

It was still early enough in the day, with a high enough tide to take a little detour. The park map shows a "loop" between the Turner River, Halfway Creek, and Everglades City. I thought it might be a nice change of pace rather than just following the 3 mile "ditch" from Chokoloskee to Everglades City.

The basic park map totally misrepresents this loop! Once it was clear that the stream was not following the map, I ended up doubling back and taking the "ditch" anyway. I looked at a more detailed map at the Park office, and it turns out I would have been OK if I had kept going on, but enough people have gotten lost in the ENP that I didn't want to try it.

I reported the broken port-a-john to the park rangers, who had not heard about it yet.

Anyway, even with coming back a day early, I still had 5 good naked days in the backcountry. I only had one close encounter approaching another boat in tight quarters where I had to use my towel to preclude offending the occupants.