Turner River Canoe Trail

[Jay]

Did the Turner River yesterday from 41 to Chokoloskee and return. Took the canoe.  I have not been down the Turner before so I don't have anything to measure clearness of the route...but it appeared that there was a significant amount of dead-fall and some live knock downs in the tunnels...to the point that it was almost impassible in sections.  This was just a week after Isaac...but maybe it is always like that. There were a few areas I had to pull over and 5 or 6 areas that I had to pull under while laying flat on the floor of my very low profile canoe.  I should have taken a picture of my canoe, in Chokoloskee the aft portion of my canoe was filled to the gunnels with sticks and leaves and the same when I got back to the ramp at 41.

With that said, it was a very nice paddle.  Bug level was near zero.  Several orchids in bloom (help in identification please.)  @ 8hrs RT - mis-calculated the tides - it was a bit of a slog for a couple of hours coming home.

[yakmaster]

Haven't run it this year. Isaac may have contributed to some problems, but this early in the year with the water levels high, you spend alot of time squeezing under the canopy.

 

Here's low water @ the bridge and I've seen it high enough that you can't get a conoe under it. So, imagine that sweep of water range under a fixed mangrove canopy.

 

Guess we should speak with the folks @ the parks to see if they want to organize a trail maintenance trip with some volunteers!

[Jay]

The water seemed sort of high.  I would say there might have been 20"-24" under the bridge.  When the water drops, some of the areas will have more clearance under the canopy...but other submerged snags will become more problematic.

I'm in for the maintenance trip.

[Gary M]

No... its not always like that, in fact I went down the Turner last winter, for the first time in many years, and even considering the high water you undoubtably encountered, I'd say from your description that Isaac had quite an impact.

Last winter I was amazed, actually saddened, by how open the route was. The number of paddlers that had gone down the river had scoured the mangrove tunnels like someone had bored them out with 8' diameter rasp. All the prop roots were bruised and reddened by the numerous collisions with crafts and paddles. There were no low branches. I attributed it to the double edged sword of popularity... it was being loved to death.

You can usually judge the height of the storm surge in the creeks by the level of flotsam entangled in the mangrove branches.

And you might not have miscalculated the tides - this time of year, especially with all the rain, you will only see the tidal influence at the bottom. It will likely pour out at the top for weeks.

By winter, the park employees and/or the private canoe guides and rentals will have cleaned the route out for the onslaught of inexperienced paddlers to come. The Turner is probably the most popular route over there... hence the nice parking area and ramp.

The East River will probably need maintenance. Last year it seemed the tours and guides only went down as far as the mitten shaped lake. It was quite unrefined below that so I think they did not recommend it to the masses. Isaac surely made it worse.

[Daniel Madrigal]

I did the east river to fakahatchee in March of this year and it was already a huge mess. So, I would imagine its horrible now.