Adventure to the Everglades Cape Sable
The true small adventure including a Sheltie and sharks -- and a few mosquitoes We were camped at the very tip of We studied our maps and talked to some Parkofficials, and found that there was a way throughcountless small islands and mangroves, through the evergladesto a shore about 20 miles to the west of Flamingo, called CapeSable. Cape Sable was said to have a pink beach literally made from shells, andalso was habitat to the rare and elusive Cape Sable Sparrow, which weall wanted to see. We figured that we would likely see other wildlifeand interesting plantain this little-frequented wild area of the national park, so we loaded up the canoes and took off at dawnone day. The canoes had to carry everything from mosquito repellent tofood and water, to sleeping bags, plus five people each,sothey were loaded nearly to the gunwales. Our blue Sheltie, Duncan,resident genius andveteran of many expeditions, rode in the canoe that I was paddling.Our prow guy was Alan, and I paddled from thebuilt-in bench at the stern. Two more people sat in thecanoe's center, and 
The water was reddish with tannins from all the mangrove stems, and tiny islands went by on eitherside as we pulled away from Flamingo,hundreds of islands. Seen from theair, we knew that the area would appear as a watery labyrinth, flat as flat, with rather shallowbrackish water and a few islands with ground above water. This large expanse of island-dotted shallow water is open to the sea to the southand west, and is called Most of the "islands" were drowned by a few inchesof water and we recovered with mangroves, those low trees with largeleathery leave sand exposed prop roots. We paddled for hours, liberally coated with mosquito repellent, through clouds of the tiny hummers, encountering herons, egrets, spoonbills, alligators, and otherinteresting creatures. At midday, we drew our canoes together into afloating island of aluminum pods, and shared out sandwichesand drinks. Half an hour later, we paddled to find an islandwhere we could make a potty stop. Finally we found alarge island of solid ground under only six inches of water. It was thebest we could do, so we indicated girls' and boy's areas, tiedup the canoes to mangroves, and sloshed around to find hidden places. Duncan came with me, but when he realized that dryground was not to behead, gave me an extremely sour look andlifted his leg on a mangrove branch.Without waiting for me, hestalked back to the canoe, hopped in, and would not look at me for thenext hour, as he was sure it was all my fault that there wasno dry land. We paddled. We paddled and paddled and paddled,knowing that there was no choice: we absolutely HAD to reach As the sunshine began to fade into dusk, the whineof the mosquitoes seemed deafening. We paddledfaster. "I am not tired," I began to think to myself. "No, Iam absolutely not tired." As the red sun sank into the black arms of thepassing mangroves and the clouds turned toorangey-gold, fish began to break the surface of the water,risingthrough fiery reflections to the swarms of insects. Somesmallish jumped. Soon, larger fish joined in. Many of these weremullet, the pale,torpedo-shaped edible fellows of brackish bayand estuary. Most of the mullet were about as long as a forearm. Tarpon surfaced all around us, their mirror like scalesflashing orange in the low-angled light of the sunset. The tarponarrowed from the water to heights that seemedimpossible, then fell with a crash in fountains of spray.This wasexciting, and I found myself wishing I had brought fishinggear.However, the light was fading fast, and we paddled on. Withoutwarning,something heavy and wet hit me in the chest,instantly knocking me flat on my back. Luckily I was toostunned to drop my paddle. I sat myself up just intime to see a four-foot tarpon in the boat, its head between my knees. Its huge tail thrashed back andforth, smacking little Damply, we paddled toward the place where the sunhad gone down, tarpon smacking the water all around us. At last, justas true darkness closed upon us, the lead canoe's paddlers cried, "Landho!" We set to with renewed vigor, and in a few minutes came out upon apale, dry beach perhaps 30feet wide and a hundred yards long, backed bythe watery mangrove maze.Wehandmade Merrilywe laid out the camp, built a driftwood fire, and set about cooking theevening meal. The stars were out in force: Upat dawn, we found that The bottle of mosquito repellent for one of thecanoes had some how disappeared. We turned out our whole kit, but itwas gone. The rest of us adjust enough in our bottles to make it backto Flamingo. I remembered an expedition to One of us realized that if we abandoned themangrove trail and instead took to the ocean, the distance would beshorter by one-third, faster because there wcould be no winding about,and hopefully the breeze on the open sea would keep the tiny menaces atbay. We could still canoe all the way to Flamingo. We would take atangential path right across None of us had ever canoed in the sea before, butthere was nothing left to do but begin. Waves and swells were somethingnew in our experience.We shipped some water. I looked at Before long, we learned how to deal with theswells and small whitecaps.The day was bright and warm, the breeze justenough to blow the pesky mosquitoes back to shore. Far out to sea,great ships passed; closer in, and sailboats skimmed along. It was agreat day. In individual canoes, weave our lunches and continuedpaddling. We could tell that we were making good time. Click any of the Seven Stories below and Travel to Florida's Magnificent Everglades.Florida's Magnificent Everglades - A small group of visitors clusters at the edge of a pond behind the Shark Valley Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. Two minutes of visiting the Everglades and the first gator had already been spotted. Try spotting a bear that fast in Yellowstone."CRACKER" The term stems from the early days when Florida cowboy cow cavalrymen, in lieu of the rope used by Texas cowboys, welded a bullwhip, 10 - 12 feet long made of braided leather, and when snapped over a cow's head, made a sharp"crack". Romancing the Swamp Local eco-tour provider wades into the Florida wild. Scared of the swamp? Intrigued by the swamp? Then explore the swamp. It will forever change you. Everglades Stories - We’re trying to find ways to restore wetlands and to do it in a way that will really benefit the water quality when it finally does leave the land and also to store the water there and not sort of pipeline it straight into Lake Okeechobee and pipeline it into the everglades. Everglades Cape Sable Through the Everglades to a shore about 20 miles to the west of Flamingo, called Cape Sable.and was said to have a pink beach literally made from shells, and also was habitat to the rare and elusive Cape Sable Sparrow, which we all wanted to see. Little Everglades Ranch - The Little Everglades Ranch is a pioneer ranch establishing the First Santa Gertrudis herd of cattle in Florida. This breed was established to function in hot, humid and unfavorable environments. The Santa Gertrudis was developed by crossing Indian Brahman cattle with British Shorthorns and was first introduced to the Little Everglades Ranch from the King Ranch ~ Kingsville, Texas in the year 1941. We were moving steadily, halfa mile from the shore toward Flamingo, our own canoe bringing up therear. Everything was going well when I felt something bump theunderside of the canoe. "Hey!" Alan said after another bump."What'sgoing on? Hammerheadsharks were what was going on. We looked into the slightlyturbid water and saw hundreds of close-packed hammerheads on every sideof the canoe. These were little fellows, from two to five feet long,but they stil had jaws. Nonplused, we looked at one another in silencebefore beginning to paddle hard toward shore. They bumped us again andagain - ominous,because we were so loaded with gear that the gunwaleswere less than an inch above the surface of the sea. 
The hammerheads stayed with us. We couldn't seemto paddle fast enough to outdistance them. The other canoers respondedto our yells and waves by cheerfully waving at us and continuing onahead. Grimly, we paddled. We had already shipped several quarts ofwater. Suddenly there was splashing,andlarge fins cut the water, heading straight for us. Terrified, wethought only of larger sharks.
Theywere dolphins, a pod of perhaps six or eight of them.Withoutfurther ado, they began to ram the little hammerhead sharks, slammingtheir hard beaks into the soft sides of the sharks. The dolphins made short work of the hammerheads,routing thing minutes.The dolphins escorted our canoe for a few hundredyards more, then disappeared into the cloudy waters of the bay almostat the moment we spied the palm tree sand green lawns of FlamingoCampground. Wearily we beached our canoes and went to washaway the grime and salt spray. Happily, The End
If you go: Information about paddling the Everglades' Coast
Fort Myers Beach Hotels| Fort Myers Beach Condos| Fort Myers Beach Vacation Rentals | Things To Do|Home| Latest News| Area Info |Where To Stay | What To Do |Events| Marco Island| Quick Tour| Activities & Attractions| Arts & Entertainment| Shopping| Restaurant & Dining| Goodland Florida| Isle of Capri |Hotels & Resorts| Fishing| Boating| Transportation| Maps| Calendar of Events| Paradise Coast| Discover Naples| Where to Dine| Where to Stay| Where to Shop| |Naples Tours| Photo Gallery| Everglades| Fishing| Camping | Golf| Sharks| Beach Weddings| Favorite Beach| Home| |
breakfast,packed up, and loaded the canoes for the return trip."Piece of cake,"someone said. Then we made the discovery. 
|
