Everglades 2020

Everglades/Ten Thousand Islands

12/14 - 12/17/20 (3 nights)
2020 Bag nights: 31

Everglades City Boat Ramp

Weather looked good, ended up being warm during the day, I would have liked slightly cooler temps.

Roseate Spoonbill next to the boat ramp

Loaded up and ready to go

I ended up seeing dolphins everyday

I was going against the tide for a couple miles and it made for slow going. A couple times I pulled over to where I could hold on to a mangrove branch so I could rest. 

First night at Rabbit Key. At low tide, there is a large sandbar to walk on.

Horseshoe Crab

I think this is a Blue Heron

I got woken up in the middle of the night by noises from the waves. I was as high up as I could go, but my tent was almost in the water. Later, I looked at the tide chart more closely and that night was a higher than usual high tide. I did not get wet, but it made for an interesting night. 

Sunrise

Heading towards Pavilion Key

I had lunch at Pavilion Key and walked the beach

Then headed towards Mormon Key

More dolphins

I spent about 20 minutes watching them stir up the water, I assume they were feeding. 

Then on to Turkey Key for the night. I was on the east side of the island so no sunset and no breeze to keep the bugs down. I got swarmed bad enough that I ate dinner in my tent. My original plans were to head inland but the bugs changed my mind. Again, I got woken up by high tide coming in, this time I actually shifted my tent back into the grasses to avoid the water. 

Sunrise the next morning was nice.

After enjoying the sunrise, I had to pull the kayak through about a half mile of knee to thigh deep mud because the tide was way out and I did not feel like sitting around for another 5 hours. 

I decided to head back to Pavilion Key for the night and then back to the ramp. 

A couple crows kept me company while I read in the shade.

Mating season? 

Jupiter, Saturn and a couple day old moon

Sunrise

And back to the ramp, it ended up being a much easier paddle than the first day since the tide was coming in. 

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I ended up having extra days to fill since I wasn't in the Everglades. One day I drove over to Lovers Key State Park. It was not as nice as I remembered, but I guess that is what 30 year old memories do. 

Another day the whole family drove up to Ft Myers to check out the manatees at the power plant.