Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

[Terry]

Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

Before Hurricane Andrew the preferred paddle route between Flamingo and
Cape Sable was the Homestead Canal. Avoiding the open bay provided a
wind protected route and separated paddle craft from power boats. It also
guaranteed solitude and remoteness by staying in the back country wilderness.
The 1992 hurricane damaged Homestead Canal with downed trees making passage
very difficult. As it became less traveled, foliage growth accelerated and
the 2005 storms made the canal impassable. After Hurricane Wilma a plan was
created to reopen the canal and a volunteer group headed by Tom Rahill and
Jim Brack took on the project. They cleared the canal to Bear Lake and
reopened the Bear Lake Trail which loops through Mud Lake and comes back
down Buttonwood Canal to the Bear Lake parking lot. The section of
Homestead Canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake remained impassable,
cutting off the inland route to Cape Sable.

Sue Cocking, Bill Evans, Terry Helmers and Jay Thomas devised a plan to
survey the damage to the canal west of Bear Lake and search for an alternative
passage through a body of land between the waters of Bear Lake to the east
and open water to the west. Previous trips by Thomas had identified
the narrowest section of land between these two waters which was called 64M
but there was another slightly wider area of land that warranted
investigation. If a navigable route could be established through these two
bodies of water the entire stretch of Homestead Canal between West Lake and
Gator Lake could be abandoned. It would also establish a natural route from
Coot Bay Pond to Cape Sable - the ultimate trophy. The group also had heard
reports of a route that went into Bear Lake with a portage over the narrowest
piece of land between the canal and the lake.

On 18 January 2014 the four set out in 3 canoes from Bear Lake parking lot
and went directly to the narrow area between the lake and canal. The last
time Helmers had paddled the canal was 28 years ago when there was nothing
at this narrow spot. This time, the explorers found ruins of what appeared
to be a dock that could have been built to assist portaging. It's assumed
that shortly after Hurricane Andrew an attempt was made to keep the
Inland Route open by using as much of the lake as possible to shorten the
length traveled in the canal. Today there's a small break in the narrow spot,
making it easier to slide a canoe through this slot and back into the canal.
After doing this, the group continued west through near impassable
"jack straws" (a sawyer term for criss-cross piled trees) but after making
headway of only a couple hundred yards in an hour the effort was abandoned
and the canoe party returned to the lake to continue west in Bear Lake and
then across the lake to its' west. Since Thomas had already examined the
narrowest portion of land barrier between the east and west the decision was
made to continue directly to the other narrow spot just south of 64M. After
negotiating mud bars a small creek-like opening was spotted. Although there
was a 3 foot mat of pneumatophore roots to be portaged, the creek continued
west with a hard twist to the north then west again to the open water of the
"other side". After the search party spooked a spoonbill at the west mouth
of the creek it was quickly dubbed Spoonbill Pass. Knowing "this was it" all
agreed to ignore 64M and paddle the shallow but open water to Gator Lake.
How ironic that paddlers spent decades paddling back and forth in a straight
as an arrow canal, how ironic that a large dock was built to go over the
narrow spot between Bear Lake and the canal, how ironic spending the effort to
keep trying to push through the canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake when
there was a beautiful natural creek waiting for paddlers at Spoonbill Pass.

On 20 January 2014 Terry Helmers launched at Coot Bay Pond to
specifically survey and map the Spoonbill Pass area. Although launching at the
pond meant it took 2 and a half hours to get to the pass, it reduced the
paddle distance in the canal to just 200 yards between Bear Lake Trail and
Bear Lake. Two additional non-portage creeks were mapped with the optimal
route going from 09.858'N and 59.397'W to 09.857'N and 59.447'W. After two
rewarding explorations, a natural route from Coot Bay Pond to Lake Ingraham,
Cape Sable has been established.

To use the Inland Route, study and printout or download maps of the area.
Carry a spare GPS unit. There's a lot of shallow water throughout the trip
but it's all open paddling.

[Jay]

Here are the .gpx files of the trip from Coot Bay Pond to East Cape and return via the bay.  Vivian is working with her GPS visualizer to clean up the route.

Across the RP, any zigs and zags were for personal amusement and exploration.....just head west!

[vivian]

Jay, when are you going to post the video?

[Jay]

It is probably going to take a couple of days to edit it down.  I have started, but it takes time.

[Dallas]

Ah, that indeed explains my confusion. Thanks for clearing that up. 

Jay said:

I think we are generally speaking of Spoonbill Pass as an area to cross over to Raulerson's Prairie.  I believe that we have found 4 ways across.  Three by water, at least one by land (64M). One of the water routes requires a pullover.  Two do not.

We took the water route closest to 64M.

Last year when I started thinking about going through, why did I focus on 64M?  Because there was no obvious route through from looking at aerials.  Why not pick the narrowest spot?  A couple of probes later when I actually went to 64M, I paddled right past an opening that Terry later found to be a clear creek.  You can actually see me go right past it  - it's on the left on my Youtube video.  I remember looking right in there and it looked like a Barnacle encrusted Mangrove wall about 5-7meters after the opening. So I pushed into a weakness I saw straight ahead from that point and got to 64M. What I missed was a 90-110 degree right turn that I could not see - because I didn't probe inside the tunnel (lesson learned).  It was wide open after that point.

Anyway - we used that tunnel into the creek that crosses the Pass.  I was pretty surprised that the 21' tandems made it through - but they did!

So to answer your question, the clear creek was only 5 meters from 64M - that's why it looks like we took 64M

Dallas said:

Congratulations to all. Did you guys end up using Spoonbill Pass or 64M? On Charlie's SPOT it looks like he used 64M.

[Connie Mier]

Jay, excellent report and you did a fantastic job keeping us on track and working out all the details. Your data collection is flawless! And Vivian did a great job tweaking the preliminary data and providing us with impeccable tracks to follow.

With their work, as well as Terry's, we were all able to spend a beautiful evening on the cape, among new and old friends, all of whom are among the best glades paddlers I've seen.

[Amazon Bill]

Jay, your report is one to model others after.  Recording the enroute markers for water levels was genious. That 64m nickname had just enough mystery to keep us intrigued. I will think of this new route as Jay's Passage!

[Jay]

Thanks Bill.  The Inland Route to Cape Sable will suffice.  It was a complete team effort.  Thanks for your help and encouragement.

[Jay]

Too late for Sundance.....

Enjoy crew!

http://youtu.be/QTMFfsZpGtk - it's in HD if you click select HD on the lower right corner of the video.

[Roger Hammer]

That was simply outstanding!!

[toofaraway]

Nice work!  Looks like a great trip.  Now the next obvious question:  When are you guys going to continue past Gator Lake to  NW Cape?   RT via WWB? 

[Terry]

I have been up that creek in the NW corner of Lake Ingrahm, it goes to that opening just south

of Sable Creek.   Even took a small powerboat through it.   I have used the canal in the middle

of the lake but I have never used Raulersons Brothers Canal.   All of it looks plenty open.

 

[Roger Hammer]

In years past I took a Hewes Redfisher several times through Little Sable Creek all the way from the north end of Lake Ingraham to the Gulf. There are some open lakes back there that hold some big redfish and snook when water levels are up. The mouth of it had a big oyster bar built up in front of it along the Gulf following Hurricane Wilma but it may be eroded away by now. There's a large new oyster bar at the north mouth of the Harney River now, too, and another on the north side of Middle Cape Canal.