Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Everglades Adventure-The Sequel
Ok so I haven’t been writing much of anything for some time...but I’m making up for it with this extremely long entry.
If you will recall, the last time I went out to the Everglades, to go biking in Shark River Slough, I had such a great time and got to see lots of alligators; so good a time, in fact, that when the idea of camping on a chickee hut was offered, I jumped at the chance.
First I need to explain what a chickee hut is. I will let Wikipedia describe it for me since this is one of those times that Wikipedia gets it right:
"A chickee is a type of home invented by the Northern Seminole tribe. Chickee is the Seminole word for “house”. The chickee style of architecture - palmetto thatch over a bald cypress log frame - was born during the early 1800s when Seminole Indians, pursued by U.S. troops, needed fast, disposable shelter while on the run. A raised wooden platform was also built into the sleeping and working chickee to provide cooling and protection from animals, insects, and flooding. Each chickee had its own purpose and together they were organized within a camp type community. Chickees were used for cooking, sleeping and eating....Chickees are also used in backcountry areas of Everglades National Park where mangroves or large bodies of water prevent camping on dry land. Made and maintained primarily for backcountry campers, these wooden structures stand several feet above the water and can usually accommodate 4-5 campers. These structures have portable restrooms. Some “double chickees” are linked together by a walkway and can accommodate 8-10 people."
Ok, now we all know what a chickee hut is. Let’s move on.
Getting to a chickee hut is not necessarily easy. It cannot be accessed by car, you have to boat, canoe or kayak out to one and they aren’t a quick trip.
So, the planning began. We, “Dirk”, (as he requested to be named), and I decided to take the Hell’s Bay Canoe trail to reach one of these chickee huts. Hells’ Bay is located in the southern portion of the Everglades and there is a reason it is called, “HELL’S Bay”. Old timers state that it’s “Hell to get in and hell to get out.” They are quite correct.
We got an early start on Saturday because each chickee location had only two huts and we didn’t want to go through all of this planning only to have them all reserved as these are first come, first served. We drove to Florida City first, (after a few pit stops for band-aids and coffee along the way), to rent the canoe that we would be using. We pulled up to the entrance of the Youth Hostel and got the paperwork filled out. It is required to show photo ID and provide an emergency contact not only to rent the canoe but also when getting the permit. This is the Everglades and anything can happen. It’s good to know there is a trail to follow should you not return at the expected time.
Anyway, we then pulled around the back of the Hostel and were taught how to load the canoe on to the top of the car by a very friendly employee. I like people like those at the Youth Hostel. They are incredibly laid back, don’t seem to have any stress at all, just kind of enjoy life and nature and are very personable. I often wish that people were nicer, more respectful, decent to each other and every time I encounter people like at the Youth Hostel, I think to myself, “This is what I’m talking about. If only the world had more people like this.” We were only at the Youth Hostel for about half an hour but already I was feeling relaxed and excited to get going on this adventure. The atmosphere at the Youth Hostel intensified both of those feelings. Maybe that sounds odd or silly but you can feel the energy in the air when you go places and this energy was very positive. Love it!
We got the canoe on top of the car and headed out to the Everglades National Park. We had to drive almost to the most western point to the Flamingo Visitor Center to get a permit and hopefully reserve a chickee hut. Now, along this trail there are three chickee hut locations. One is called Pearl Bay chickee, the closest one, about 3.5 miles from the beginning of the canoe trail. This is the one we had hoped to get but it was all booked. Both huts were taken. We had discussed our options along the drive to the visitor center and the next choice was to try for Hell’s Bay Chickee. At first the ranger stated that he thought those were both taken as well but he went over the paperwork and compared it to the reservation book and we discovered, much to our delight, that there was one hut left at that location. This one is 5.5 miles from the beginning of the canoe trail.
We signed paperwork, got our permit, (that we were supposed to have on hand in case a ranger came by to check on us; we had to produce it when requested), got back in the car and drove back towards the east to the beginning of the Hell’s Bay Canoe trail. The entrance to Hell’s Bay canoe trail is very....what’s the word....non descript, really. Basically, you drive along the road in the park and at various places there are...cut outs, really, that indicate the beginning of a trail or a campground. These are not large, open sites like I have grown up to know. You don’t drive in to a location and have a huge dock with ranger station, bathrooms, convenience store or whatever to accompany you. You have only a small cut out on the side of the road.
We parked our car along the side of the road and got out. We walked to the entrance of Hell’s Bay Canoe trail and were....well, a bit surprised, I think. At least I was. I was thinking it was going to be something like I said in the previous paragraph. It was nothing of the sort. In fact, if there was no sign and no other vehicles parked along the side of the road, you could easily miss the entrance to this trail.
We got the canoe off the car, dragged it over to the “dock”, loaded it up and prepared to set out. We did have a map of the trail but I promptly forgot that AND the permit in the car. Brilliance! No problem though because the trail is marked with markers to guide you along the way and we had looked at the map at the Youth Hostel and my memory is pretty damn good so I knew basically, what we had to do, how many markers we had to pass and how far we had to go.
Remember how I said that Hell’s Bay is said to be “hell to get in to and hell to get out of”? Might I also mention that things are said about the “red” water and what that water might possibly represent? Often times people exaggerate about color or level of difficulty. In this case, they were not exaggerating one iota.
Here is the entrance to Hell’s Bay canoe trail:
Yikes! If you will look closely, you can see how narrow the trail is because the mangroves have grown over. You will also see how red that water is, (in the photo it looks on the brown side but remember, sometimes colors don’t show up as well in photos...that water is a dark, brownish red) and you will also notice that the trail bends immediately.
We hopped in to the canoe and began our adventure.
The first thing we noticed was just how horrible it all smelled. It smelled like rotting eggs. It was powerful! The narrowness of the trail and the bending, twisting turns it took went on for approximately 50 of these markers along the way. I have not been in a canoe in forever. In fact, I think I have been in a canoe only once in my life and it was in Camp Fire girls and we were on a lake where one didn’t really even need to paddle at all. So I had just enough knowledge to know that paddle on the right would turn the canoe to the left and paddle on the left would turn it to the right. That’s all I knew. “Dirk” has more experience than I do but it was like 7 years for him. So, when we started out, we certainly were no experts. And I think you should probably know what you’re doing before trying this trail. We kept slamming into the mangroves or the banks on either side while we figured out how to steer the canoe. It was funny....until I realized that I kept getting spider webs all over my hands...and you all know..you KNOW how much I HATE spiders. You know the panic attacks I have, how ridiculous I can act, how crazy I get when I encounter spiders...that is, if you have been reading here for any length of time. I despise them! I loathe them! I detest them! And I don’t always act rational around them or their nasty spun homes. So I was getting just a little frustrated after awhile.
Eventually the trail started to widen. It was still a little narrow and still had twists and turns but it was starting to get easier:
Plus? The smell finally went away! Hurray!
We continued to paddle along, turning this way and that, (Thank GOD for the markers!):
And paddling and turning:
AND paddling and turning:
And more paddling and turning, the trail getting wider and wider as we went:
And then just a little wider:
These might all look relatively the same but I’m posting them to make a point. They are all different, they are all in areas markers and markers apart....and if it weren’t for those markers, this would have been absolute hell. See, in many of these places, we would come to an opening and be met with 3-4 different routes to take. If it weren’t for the markers, we would probably still be out there, paddling and turning...totally lost.
Eventually, however, the trail opened up on to a bay:
The wind was blowing so it was just a little tough but not that much. Especially after what we just went through. In fact, despite the wind, this felt like a breeze. HA! Get it? Oh nevermind.
One of our other back up plans if all the chickee huts were taken was to stay at a campground called “Lard Can”, (or as I affectionately called it, “Fat Ass") as it was along this trail. Lard Can was not easy to find and if it weren’t for some other canoers we came upon along the way, we may never have found it. (I will add here that one of the other canoers of a husband and wife team, did not fare so well at steering his canoe either. We met him as we came around a bend and he proceeded to crash right into a tangle of mangrove branches, his arms working furiously at the paddle to no avail until he stopped and resigned to his fate, stated simply, “I’ll just park here.” This, of course, set me off in to a fit of giggles later down the trail that I could not seem to stop. The image kept replaying over and over in my head and I could not stop for the longest time.) To find it, we had to paddle out in to that bay and take a right. We could barely see the marker way out there but because the canoers told us this was the way, we paddled in that direction. As we got closer we could see a small, brown sign indicating that this was Lard Can campground. We decided to take a stop there to get out, stretch and eat lunch.
We pulled up and got out:
There was no dock here, only mud. And more ugly spiders. One dropped from a web RIGHT above where we parked and started strolling around in the canoe where I had just been seated. Oh HELL no! DIE! I begged and pleaded with “Dirk” to dispose of it....kind of freaking out on him because, excuse me, it has 8 LEGS! I cannot be held responsible for my actions when I see things with 8 LEGS scuttling around where I had JUST been and would be returning.
Crisis taken care of, we grabbed the life vests to use as seat cushions on the ground and broke open lunch. And took a good look at the campground we had thought we might stay in if the huts were taken. And I’m so glad we got the last hut because, um....this campground? Yah, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t stay in that unless someone offered to pay me insanely large amounts of money....we’re talking millions to billions of dollars. The “camp site” is mere steps from the water....as in, alligator homes....poisonous snake homes....spider homes!! Not bloody likely!
See what I mean?!?! I may be adventurous but I’m not crazy! That campground is for the totally gung ho, granola eating, nature embracing, tree hugging, back woods kinds. It is not for a city girl who thinks it’s cool to go out camping once in awhile to experience nature. That is just a little TOO close to nature for me.
We got done with lunch and set back out in the canoe. I can’t say that I was sad to put Lard Can behind us. We paddled along for a little ways and came upon the first set of chickee huts, Pearl Bay chickee. We could see people set up on them but before we could get close, we had to make a left turn towards our camp. We paddled for another 2 miles, went through another set of trails..not so narrow and not so windy but trails nonetheless before entering another bay. I could see three markers leading us across this bay to yet another set of trails. When we finally came out of that set and into the last bay, we could finally see our chickee hut:
Hurray! We were so tired and in a little bit of pain from the long trek that we were ecstatic to see it. We finally arrived and got the canoe parked. I climbed out first, on to the chickee while “Dirk” offloaded, handing the gear up to me. We got the tent all set up, air mattress blown up, (oh, yes, see, like I said, we are not THAT gung ho), and all the gear arranged. What didn’t go in the tent got tied down because the wind was blowing and the very last thing I needed was a pair of shoes flying off the chickee hut and in to the water. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Parking.
Our site.
The neighbors. (These two were a little more gung ho than us. They had head lanterns, canoe chairs and everything! Thankfully they were pretty quiet, respectful neighbors. When we first arrived I was hoping that they wouldn’t be loud, drunk and blaring music. They weren’t. They talked at normal levels and were friendly and nice. Thank GOD!)
After everything was set up, we waited for the sunset. It was pretty...of course, photos don’t always depict that without a colored lens but here are the views from our chickee hut during sunset and dusk:
Nice huh? It was beautiful. And quiet. Well, we had neigbhors and we talked too but there were no blaring horns, no thumping bass, no yelling, no screaming, no excessively loud talkers, no fricking annoying noises. Sigh. I loved it!
After sunset, as it grew dark, we sat on the hut next to our canoe parking and ate dinner. And were impressed and awed by how many stars we could see. Oh my GOD how many stars we could see. Carl Sagan wasn’t kidding! There really are “billions and billions of stars”! I wish so much that I could have my telescope out there but it would never have survived that trip. But it was enough just to sit and look at the sky and be mesmerized by the heavens.
After dinner we climbed in to the tent because it actually was a little cold. Ok, kids, this tent? Totally rules! “Dirk” got it at Target for like $30 and it is an awesome tent! It was so warm and cozy in there, it held up under the wind, it had pockets and gear nets and windows and rain covers....it fits two people and most of their gear....it was a good find. Anyway, we climbed in and played a Trivial Pursuit kind of game. We had only the cards because who cares about the board and pieces, just ask the questions. I got my ass kicked. I’m ashamed to admit that. But....I did. “Dirk” is pretty damn smart and basically annihalated me. BUT, I did get 12 correct answers, so there! And they were not all easy questions. So double there!
After that we went to sleep. We both slept intermittently but we both claim to have slept really well. I sure did. I mean, I did wake up to the sounds of something flopping around in the water...I was told it was just fish and I did wake up when the wind caused the canoe to squeak against the pilings, (’Dirk’ got up and fixed that problem), and I did wake up a couple of other times throughout the night but when I slept, I slept well! We both woke up feeling rather refreshed I think.
We got up early and got started on our way back. The first part was easier because it was the bays and the wider trails and we were having a really good time. We were up early enough that we could take it a little slower than the day before and we talked about all kinds of things and it was really enjoyable.
Eventually we reached markers 50 and below, (Hell’s Bay chickee was at about marker 170..just for reference), and we were once again deep in to the red water, narrow, twisting, turning trails that stunk so horribly bad. When we finally reached the dock at the entrace, we were both greatly relieved.
We pulled the canoe out of the water, unloaded it, got everything stored and canoe on the top of the car and set out towards home. When we returned the canoe to the Youth Hostel we asked about this mexican restaurant across the street and were told that it would be the perfect place to eat after a trip like the one we had just taken.
I had made muffins and chicken wraps for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the first day and then we had pop tarts, beef jerky, FunYuns, granola bars and CocoPuff bars for food the next day. We had a lot of food. We also had a lot of water. We were only going to be gone for 24 hours but the way we packed the food and water you would think we were going to be gone for days and days. We totally made fun of ourselves for this but in reality, it’s not a bad idea to do that JUST in case. IF anything had happened, delaying our return, we would have been fine for probably a week after we were expected to return so I think we did the right thing. Even if it did seem silly.
Regardless of all the food we had to eat, it was not “real” food. Well, the chicken wraps were but everything else was just stuff to sustain a person. We sat down in that restaurant, ordered big plates of food and proceeded to inhale it. I even ate the rice! I’m not much of a rice eater but we were so fricken hungry...more than we realized, I think, that we gulped that food down and practically licked the plates clean. It was indeed the perfect meal after a trip like that.
After that we got back in to the car and headed home. I dropped “Dirk” off at his house, came home and took a nice, long, HOT shower and then went to sleep.
The trip was so much fun. It had its difficult moments, it was exhausting, it was a little scary, but it was fun. We had a great time. If you are even slightly the outdoors type..you should consider a trip such as this one. You will love it!
<--- Here Endeth The Lesson
