I have wanted to camp on Rough Island for several years now. July 2010 I finally did it.

The historic Kissimmee River was known for its twisty-turny route to the Everglades. The Army Corps of Engineers "improved" the river in the 1960s by digging straight ditches and bypassing the original meandering channel. In many cases, the original channel was left intact, but the bulk of the water flowed through the ditch, leaving these 'oxbows' largely stagnant, or with greatly reduced flow.

The original channel on the western boundary of rough island is now called the Dead River. The current eastern boundary is the ditch, or main channel of Kissimmee River. The Dead River also forms the northern boundary of Rough Island, and Lake Hatchineha is the southern boundary.

Rough Island is currently owned by the South Florida Water Management District. Historically, at least as far back as the 1920s and probably earlier, it was a cattle ranching area. The Water Management District still leases grazing rights on the island.

The Dead River is shallow, mucky in places, and with enough submerged obstacles to make only two types of boats practical: canoe/kayaks, and airboats. As a group, airboaters tend to like their comforts, and therefore aren't likely to go primitive camping in the heat of Summer. Canoeists/kayakers tend to be a down-to-earth bunch who aren't likely to freak out at the sight of a naked person. So Rough Island only seemed natural (on July 18-21) for a clothing-free camping trip.

I expected Sunday July 18th to be a little crowded on the Kissimmee River near Camp Mack. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. Still, there was some traffic and I waited till I was 1/2 mile north of Camp Mack to change into my Native American-style breechcloth, and waited till the river widened into Lake Hatchineha before changing into my full birthday suit.

I kept well hydrated during the 2 1/2 hour no-shade paddle up the river, across the lake, and up the Dead River to the campsite, by frequently swigging water from the gallon jug I brought.

I had packed my gear in a backpack so I could easily hike it in from the landing at Rough Island (GPS coords 28 02.638 081 21.704). It's a 1/10 mile from the landing to the camping zone. I say zone, because besides the main campsite below, there are numerous others in the surrounding oak hammock.

While I didn't expect any airboaters to camp I knew full well from the 'fresh' beer cans on the ground, that they did picnic in the main campsite. Therefore, I chose a different spot where I could set up out of view of the main site.

The central feature of 'my' campsite was an ancient Live Oak tree, shown below

After setting up camp, I decided to make my first exploratory hike. I grabbed a water bottle and my camera and began hiking south from the campsite, following what appeared to be a jeep trail.

Spaced along the trail at intervals were a number of white posts. The posts near the main site had blank spaces where signs had clearly been removed. Eventually, I started seeing signs that were still intact. They read 'No airboats beyond this point'. This seemed odd till I noticed that the jeep trail was right on the edge of where marshy land transitioned to dry ground.

I had already seen on Google Earth that there was a jeep trail connecting the Oak hammock I was camped in to another hammock to the North, then continueing north to a ford across the Dead River. This is clearly how the ranchers work their cattle operation. I quickly found and followed this trail. I was struck by the number of nice campsites.

Emerging from the southern oak hammock, I was greeted with a view of a classic Florida prairie. Rough Island is mostly prairie with some marsh and highlands.

My GPS indicated it's just shy of one mile from my campsite to the cattle camp. Remember, this was late July in Florida, and I knew from Sunday's hike not to expect shade. I left camp by 8 AM so I could get there and back before the heat of the afternoon.

I don't know what I expected a working cattle camp to look like, but I didn't expect buildings. I guess I expected them to use tents? Corrals, I expected.

After walking around, I was mildly surprised to find this shower. Not surprised that that ranchers shower, but as you can see, there is no provision for any kind of shower curtain or screen. (The shower head aims out of the framework, so the shower is actually in the open space to the right of the tower. Note the soap dish on one of the tower legs.) It would seem that some casual nudity is accepted in this camp, contrary to today's prevailing nudophobic attitudes.

I hiked on to the northernmost point of the island where the jeep trail crossed the Dead River, then hiked back along another branch of this jeep trail to the levee along the main Kissimmee River channel. I followed this levee north to Cypress Lake, shown below.

The cattle camp is not the only part of the island with evidence of ranching operations. Besides the numerous cows themselves (which somehow I forgot to photograph), I found a number of cow feeders.

I settled back into my reading chair in camp for the heat of the day, till suppertime. I forgot to mention that I set up a solar shower near my campsite which I kept filled with river water each day, and allowed to soak up the day's rays. Each evening around 8 I then had a nice liesurely soap and hot water shower to remove the day's sunscreen and sweat.

With the island more or less explored, today's project was to explore the Dead River upstream, possibly finding and going up Reedy Creek. I got up at daybreak, figuring on starting the paddling by 8 AM to avoid the heat. (I knew from the Google Earth views that there wasn't any shade to speak of along the Dead River.)

I was actually at the canoe about 7:45 when I heard a helicopter. When I spotted it, I saw it seemed to be following the course of the Dead River from the south at maybe 100 feet up. I walked rapidly back toward camp, trying to reach the tree line before it arrived, but without running. (I didn't want whoever was in the helicopter thinking I was doing something wrong and running from them. Remember, I was naked the entire time on the island.) I only got about half way back to the trees near camp when the helicopter went by. I waved at them, but they didn't wave back.

As I reached the trees, I heard an airboat coming up the Dead River following the helicopter. Over the next several minutes, three more airboats went by. The helicopter and airboats continued upriver. I waited over half an hour, and was about to go on down to the canoe when I heard the helicopter coming back. I sat in my campsite and watched through the trees as the helicopter and 4 airboats returned back downriver. The continued on out of earshot.

I finally set out in the canoe about 45 minutes later than I had originally planned. I took along my breechcloth just in case I encountered any boats. I had a nice, uneventful paddle, soon arriving at the intersection of the Dead River and Reedy Creek. Reedy Creek was both cooler and clearer than the Dead River, and had quite a significant current. I couldn't get very far upstream in Reedy Creek before encountering a huge fallen tree across the creek. There was a worn path on the top of the treetrunk where a lot of wildlife crosses the creek. On the log 'bridge' was a pile of racoon droppings.

On the return trip to my campsite, sure enough, I heard an airboat approaching, so I pulled off to the side, draped the breechcloth over my lap, and waited in the canoe for the boat to pass. The occupants hardly gave me a glance. After they passed, I continued on with no more 'meetings'.

After lunch, I settled in for more reading in camp. Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I heard another helicopter. This one was smaller than the one earlier in the day, and it seemed to be alone (no airboat attendants). The helicopter seemed to hover over the center of the island for a while, then began flying a grid pattern just over the treetops. I know they had to see my canoe, but they seemed uninterested in it.

The breeze dropped off later in the afternoon, and I moved more out in the open to catch as much breeze as possible while still being in the shade. Shortly before suppertime, I heard a 'swishing' sound and looked to the left as a grey pickup truck drove into the campsite. This was unexpected. Whoever was inside had already seen me 'in all my glory', so there was no sense trying to hide or cover up.

As the occupants got out, I told them the last thing I had expected to see just then was a pickup truck. One of them added "Or deputies either." I nodded and said "yeah". They asked what I was doing, and I said "camping", while pointing over my shoulder at my tent. They asked how I got there, and I nodded toward the Dead River and said "my canoe". They asked how long I had been there, and I told them since Sunday. They were clearly surprised. They asked if anyone knew I was there, and I said my wife knew. I asked them if they knew what all the helicopter and airboat traffic had been about earlier. They didn't know. They then told me to have a good time, and got in their truck and drove off. Not a word was mentioned that I was naked.

I knew the ranchers had to bring vehicles out to the island to tend the cows, but I assumed they were high-ground-clearance 4 wheel drives. I hadn't pictured a regular pickup truck making the trip. Go figure.

Wednesday

This day was pretty much get up, have breakfast, pack up the backpack, hike to the canoe, and paddle out. There was only one boat on Lake Hatchineha when I emerged from the Dead River. I was actually able to stay naked till the last quarter mile from Camp Mack, though of course I had my breechcloth handy. Danged silly-visation!

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