Unmarked trails and gates in ENP & Paurotis Pond

[Daniel Madrigal]

Does anyone have any old maps or know where all those blocked off gates in the park go? I know that cars aren't allowed but does anyone still hike them? And does anyone know if Paurotis is ever open? Every time I go it says closed for nesting, I think it would be great to kayak there and see all the birds. 

[Terry]

Walk or bike those trails. None of them were created for trails, they are all left over from something, like the
old Ingraham Highway or the trails at Snake Bight were roads to kill invasive plants back in the 1920's or fire
roads. Even the trail at Flamingo was an old road out to East Cape and Bear Lake Trail was a road made
from the spoil of the Homestead Canal.
The Paurotis Pond sign follows the nesting and is not posted on specific dates but the sign comes out usually
in late December, I don't know when they take it down. Unfortunately it's closed during the same peak times
humans like to visit the park.
Speaking of following trails and since this is a paddling website, follow the old airboat trails for real entertainment.
The airboat trails will take you to some of the best canoeing in the park. Read some of the early discussions
on this website about the Shark River Slough and Taylor Slough.

[toofaraway]

The following document from ENP tells you about closed areas etc. Interesting reading
http://gladesgodeep.ning.com/forum/topics/2009-everglades

[yakmaster]

Most of the trails are on the topos. Some are easier to see on the map than on the ground, but at least you know where they go. Some of the bigger maintained ones can be biked, others can only be hiked. Some are airboat trails for your paddlecraft and some were built for cars but have been removed and can only be paddled. The cool thing about alot of those trails is they were made & ridden by folks in model T's not humvees, swampbuggies, atv's or jeeps!

They built passenger cars (and passengers) tougher back in the day. Or maybe DEET makes us weak.