Tamiami Trail Canal to Miami River

[Daniel Madrigal]

Has anyone ever done this? I am thinking about giving it a shot on Friday. There is a boat ramp on Miller and 117th ave. It looks on Google like I can follow that canal to Tamiami Trail and then follow that all the way out until it turns into the Miami River and eventually into the bay. 

[yakmaster]

You'd be putting in on snapper creek. Follow that north along the turnpike, to the Tamiami, then turn East; when you get to the palmetto, two options:

 

Turn South, go along the palmetto, under the bridge by Palmetto & Coral Way, go SE behind the hospital , portage when you get to red road & then you're in the gables waterway. After paddling the Biltmore, take the left on the 1st canal after bird and follow it out to the bay. (Best way from Westchester to Key Biscayne.) If you don't make the left after bird, you dead end in the UM. Dead end in the UM...isn't that kind of redundant...

 

OR...Turn North, go through Robert King High Park, through blue lagoon & portage through mel reese golf course & into the river by Bertram. From there follow the river to the mouth in Downtown. (Best way from Westchester to Miami Beach.)

 

OR, when you launch, instead of going north to Tamiami, go south, shortly south of the launch, it veers SW over to dadeland, keep going SE till you go under red road, follow it south until you portage by the old parrot jungle, from there it's less than 1.5 miles to the bay! (Best way from Westchester to Elliott Key.)

 

So many options! You bringin' back memories baby!

 

BTW these are all long milage trips, you can launch by dadeland, or the palmetto to take some of the long straight run out of the play...but then the run is part of the fun!

[yakmaster]

Blue gets you to the river, Yellow to the Gables & Red to the south bay!

[Daniel Madrigal]

Great info thanks so much! Now I guess I will have to do all 3! 

[yakmaster]

One good thing about all these routes...Deep water year round!

There used to be a dam behind Robert King High, but I think it was gone the last time I ran it. Used to just drag over, but it got replaced with full flood gates @ the Rivergate.

The waterway route has a bridge that was replaced by a culvert @ 67th, you may have to portage, I don't know how big the pipe is. The floodgates @ Red Rd. were the last ones to come, you could drag over a flow dam until the late 70's, maybe even 80's.

Reality is, I haven't run any of this in over 30 years, but there's a ton of great stories from back in the day!

[Daniel Madrigal]

Where is the palmetto launch? 

[Connie Mier]

Daniel, there is another launch site, near 97th I believe.  Vivian and I paddled from there to south of US 1 and despite IThe urban area, it was a very pleasant, and surpringly peaceful paddle. Although on weekends, I see jet skis running high speed through the canal,.

[Terry]

Back in the 1970's, it's no different today, we launched in Miami Springs (at the ramp near the high school) on

the Miami Canal.   We paddled down the canal, portaged around the dam in back of the

Chesapeake Restaurant on NW 36th Street, then down the

Miami Canal to the old river east of 22nd Avenue.  We went west in the old river and could make to the

location of the old Miami Rapids at NW 27th Avenue but it's blocked just past the old rapids.   Amazingly,

there was still a cypress tree near NW 27th Avenue on the bank of the river.

We backtracked to the river/canal that goes west to Blue Lagoon (at about 30th Avenue).   We went west

portaging around the dam near Le Jeune Road then across Blue Lagoon and southwest down the canal to

Tamiami Canal.  We went under SW 8th Street and took Coral Gables Waterway south then southeast to

the circle with the big shoes.   To avoid the bay we took the first right off the waterway to cut though

Cocoplum.  There's only one portage in Cocoplum and I think it's at Casurina Concourse, I think Cocoplum Road

is a bridge.   This one was well known that the guard would yell at you so we had to portage quick.

We then paddled to our destination, Matheson Hammock.

It was a one day trip in the summer and we didn't carry enough water so we stopped twice along the way

to run into 7-11's to buy Icees.

But more important, we were doing this to experiment with repeating Colonel Harney's trip from the mouth

of the Miami River to the Gulf in retaliation against Chief Chekika's raid on Indian Key in the mid 1800's.

The Shark Slough segment is almost a 'brochure' trip, so the only remaining part would be to make it from

the mouth of the Miami River to Shark Slough.  Back then we even researched to find the real

hammock where Chief Chekika was shot and hung (don't be confused 'Chekika', Grossman Hammock,

in Everglades NP is not Chekika Hammock).  Today, the real Chekika Hammock is in the park,

we even have the Miami Circle has an official

launch point and going up the river and west in the Tamiami Canal is very do-able.   Obviously, it's not the

exact Colonel Harney route but it would be very close.  If there's enough water flow under the new Tamiami

bridge this would even make the route closer to his.

The canals are fast paddling so an expedition could easily make it to the Everglades for the first nights stop.

I never did do a Colonel Harney Canoe Expedition but maybe we ought to revisit this idea.

A ceremonial start could be made at the Miami Circle and we'll soon have the new Tamiami Bridge.

I can get Miami Herald coverage, maybe even take Miami Herald coverage with us, getting the

necessary special use permits in Everglades NP won't be hard.   We could get support from the South Florida Parks

Trust.   Yakmaster, what do you think?  Oh God here we go again, let's discuss.

[Daniel Madrigal]

Once the Tamiami bridge opens this would be a great idea! Count me in, I would love to give it a shot.

[yakmaster]

You can launch at the palmetto & the trail for the north fork, or behind AD Barrnes Park for the south fork.  

[yakmaster]

That would be the launch off 97th between sunset & Kendall. Come down 97th from sunset or 99 ct coming off kendall.

[Swamp Hunter]

My good friends hunting camp was on Chekika Island. We spent many happy nights there.  Its one of the biggest islands. He used to tell me stories about an Indian that was hung from a tree but I didnt realize at the time it was Chekika. The Park annexed the East Everglades and that was the end. The camp burnt down. I think our pump may still be there. I remember pushing dynamite down the pipe to open a crater in the rock to get a good flow of water to shower. The Airboat Club fought hard to save the area for traditional recreational use but lost. They just didnt have enough money.The East Everglades marl is something else if you ever been stuck in it. I hope they can restore the area some day. They really messed it up like man does with everything else. Some islands actually disappeared due to poor water management.

[Swamp Hunter]

 I didnt mean to hijack this very interesting thread about canoeing Miami River but Im going to call my friend to get the modern history of Chekika island if anyone is interested   Harney was the first documented white man to enter the area. But the island also has early 20th century history as well that should be recorded. Those old rednecks explored every inch of those swamps. And Im sure they did it on foot or by boat before airboats were invented. The first buggies were Model T's.  I drove my 1952 International all over those East Everglades and I may have some old pictures to share..  Mostly of getting stuck lol.

 

Interesting reenactment Terry.  I wonder how far Harney got in one day out of Fort Dallas?  I think it was October. I seem to remember artifacts found somewhere near an expressway junction. Harney's revenge is a very interesting story that I think would make a great movie some day.