Everglades Trip Report 2/2016

[SDPaddler]

I spent five days paddling the Everglades earlier this year. We split our trip between canoes and kayaks -- all rented from the concessionaire at Flamingo. Some photos and a brief report are at the link below. All in all it was a lot of fun.

http://poipumakai.net/?portfolio=paddling-the-everglades

 

[yellowcanoe]

We were out of Flamingo but a totally different route last February.. Eight guys on a double chickee!! You must have danced carefully. Kudos for daring to go to Johnson Key!

 

[lowangle al]

That looked like a lot of fun.. I noticed you were in aluminum canoes, do they no longer have the XL Trippers at flamingo?

 

[SDPaddler]

No Title

They did have another canoe option at Flamingo but I am not sure exactly what it was. They are billed as "family" canoes so I assume they were larger. The boat choice -- kayaks vs canoes -- and also the transport was a big logistics challenge. We rented a big van and were able to remove the seats to transport boats to and from the heck's Bay and West Lake. It all worked out pretty well but we had a lot of conversation about this topic in advance! We usually spend a year planning so minor things like these keep us pretty entertained.

 

[SDPaddler]

Johnson Key was really nice. It jumped out at us on the map as a must-do and was worth the paddle. In fact the return paddle to Flamingo, starting pre-dawn and with flat, windless water, was one of the nicest paddling stretches of the trip. The chickee did have the famous bird problem, and we ended up having to toss (give away) several blue tarps that we had no real way to clean, but it was worth it. We didn't have the best luck fishing at Johnson though -- not even a single bite. I snorkeled around for a while too and really only saw 1-2 small fish.