Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail

Event Details

Time: November 26, 2011 all day
Location: Everglades National Park, Nine Mile Pond
Event Type: intermediate, paddle
Organized By: Terry
Latest Activity: Dec 22, 2011

Saturday 26 November, 06:30, at Nine Mile Pond parking lot.

Craigheads Pond is a large area of short sparse spike rush

grass at the southwestern end of Taylor Slough. We'll leave

the Nine Mile Pond loop and follow the airboat trail to the

southern most point of Craigheads Pond. It's 16 miles

round trip, good for any paddle craft, plan on all day. Come

out and enjoy another remote off-the-brochure paddle.

Comment by Amazon Bill on November 24, 2011 at 2:04pm: I will be paddling with my son. He's 15 and has good experience. Tarp...thanks for the tip. Expect to arrive Friday in the early afternoon and camp at Flamingo.

Comment by Ross Hancock on November 24, 2011 at 2:30pm: Terry, Brian is driving down with me. If you see a southbound red Mini with two solo sea kayaks on top, honk and wave. I'll just park under your truck.

Comment by Ross Hancock on November 27, 2011 at 6:47pm: Thanks Terry. Great trip. We stopped at Mahogany Hammock on the way back and looked at the put-in for the moat there. Hope to try that route to Roberts River next fall.

Comment by Amazon Bill on November 27, 2011 at 9:01pm: Great trip, good weather and high water. Terry, thanks for leading us to Craighead. Max was working that sail all the way back to keep from paddling. The longest paddle so far and he still enjoyed the trip. On the way back in 9 Mile Pond, he spotted a shortcut. "Let's take the shortcut", he says. So four shortcuts and three deadends later we head back to the trail. According to Max, when someone yells "Shortcut", just..."LOL"

My trip counter said 19.12 miles, average speed 2.7mph!! Top speeds were 3.2 to 3.6 mph on the way back going down wind.

Comment by Gary M on November 28, 2011 at 9:45am: Terry,

Yes, thanks for showing the way. Even though I didn't go the distance I enjoyed it a lot. Once the breeze started building I knew I would not be able to keep up, and I didn't want to be that guy that everyone had to wait for. My trip back, I wandered up toward the embankment and saw some cool stuff!

I too am very interested in heading out of Mahogany Hammock... and next time I'll bring a smaller canoe.

Thanks again.

Comment by Terry on November 28, 2011 at 11:02am: Another great trip.

I also stopped at Mahogany Hammock on the way out and it was looking

pretty low.   I use station 02290820 where I've observed +.5 is about what

you need to paddle/push away from Mahogany Hammock and the station's

last report was +.5 back on 21 November.   Mahogany Hammock looks like

it's done for the season.   Put it on the to-do list and we'll run

a couple of trips out of there first thing next season.

Comment by Ross Hancock on November 28, 2011 at 11:57am: Terry, regarding Robert's River via Mahogany -- I'm looking forward to it because I like the chickees in that area but I'm not a fan of the usual route since Hell's Bay has become so touristy.

Comment by Terry on November 28, 2011 at 2:14pm: That's exactly it.

Roberts River Chickee is beyond the everyday paddler's one day trip but you

can be there in 4ish hours from Mahogany Hammock, plus you're probably

not going to see another person for the whole trip. You can even paddle out

to the chickee for lunch and paddle back in the same day.

Hold the thought, next season it will be first on the list.

Comment by 2ofnfwdxvs4hy on November 29, 2011 at 7:42am: That was a great day trip and opportunity to see a whole different side of the Park that I and many have never seen before. Thank you Terry and Bill !

Comment by Ross Hancock on December 21, 2011 at 10:29pm: We're famous. I guess this will be in Thursday's Herald: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/21/2556862/seeking-the-everglade...

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