Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail

[Terry]

The rain has spiked water station 251432080444100 up from -0.35 to 0.00.

This makes Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail paddleable.   The water will run off the tip of Florida

quick but with beautiful weather expected, this weekend is a rare opportunity to enjoy this

excellent advanced trip once more.

 

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Thanks Terry! Always good to learn where these names come from.

[yakmaster]

Larry Perez wrote a book about place names in the parks. You can get it in the bookstores in the park.


But be warned that some of the names you've heard aren't in the book. They are in the mind of their creator. You find a place with no name (to you) you name it...& then the name gets handed down.

[Gary M]

"But be warned that some of the names you've heard aren't in the book. They are in the mind of their creator. You find a place with no name (to you) you name it...& then the name gets handed down."

Is there someone in particular you might be referring to?

I thought I somehow ended up in an alternate universe... spent a lot of time scratching my head and thumbing through books!

[Terry]

 

[Terry]

Here's a Goggle Earth kmz file of Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail.

[Dennis McDonald]

Me and my friend are thinking of trying to do the trip out to Craigshead in a couple of weeks. I looked at the EDEN site and saw it said +.50 for the water level is that correct? I am still trying to learn the reading of the gauges. Other than the bugs and the heat, do you think the trip is possible this time of year? We figure with no need for camping gear extra water won't be a problem. We went out of Mitchells Landing over New Years and had to drag the canoe most of the way to get to the camp site. We don't want a repeat of that. Thanks

[Terry]

Halfway Station (251432080444100) is up in the +0.45 to +0.50 range, that's a lot of water.

I doubt your paddle will even touch bottom through the stroke.

A few things to keep in mind:  I wouldn't call Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail a deep back country

trail, it's semi-marked, but it's also not a tourist trail.   The airboat markers are few and far between,

you either can't see or it's hard to see the next marker when you pass one.  Probably

the hardest part is immediately when you turn east off Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail marker 65A,

it's a considerable distance before you see the first Craigheads Pond Canoe Trail marker.

Also the stretch between marker 65A and Halfway Station is no longer used by airboats

making it hard to "read" the terrain.   This makes using the map and a GPS necessary.

Another thing making this an advanced trail is it's about 14-16 miles out to Craigheads Pond

and back, plan for an all day paddle.  But be prepared and you shouldn't have any problem.

I have taken groups of all skill range and everyone has enjoyed taking the Nine Mile Pond

Canoe Trail low numbers to 65A, out to Craigheads Pond, then taking the high numbers

back.  With vast openness it's a slough like trip without going down a slough, the

most requested trip by my friends.

[Dennis McDonald]

Thanks for the reply. We have been trying to get down to the glades in summer for a few years but work

always gets in the way. This will be our first trip in the heat. How are the bugs at Flamingo? We plan on

driving down Friday after work sleeping at Flamingo and paddle out and back stay at Flamingo then drive

home Sunday. This site had shown me so many more places to go and this seems like a good place to

start then move on too a little harder trip. I see it is between 14 and 16 miles is the difference whether

you back track on the 9 mile pond part or is it just the route you use going out and back that makes

the difference? Thanks again 2 weeks cant wait.

[Jay]

Hi Dennis,

I did the trip on Saturday - my first time (6/2).  We had great weather.  A little bit of a front came through which is very unusual this time of year. I would say the temperature was in the mid to upper 80's and might have gone to the low -90's for a while when the sun was out.  We had a West breeze which was nice.  The water was noticeably cooler than I thought it would be - and probably helped keep the temp down a bit. Those water temps will rise over time. Bugs were also not an issue at all once the boats were on the water.  There were a few pesky critters in the parking lot.

With that said, I think we had an exceptional day.  It could have been much warmer and the bugs could have been much worse.

We came back from 65A descending.  I think they laid the poles out to be viewable best when going counter clockwise - ascending. You can see how it would be tough to get marker placement so it would be perfect in both directions.  We had no trouble going out, but had a couple of times where we got twisted a bit coming back.  In fact in one place I ended up seeing the poles on the other side of the trail before I found the ones I was looking for on the South side - and just paddled over and took the high numbers back in.

The water is really up.  We rode by the Hells Bay put in...and the dock must be 8-10" under water.

I hope you have a great trip.

[yakmaster]

OK, now you got me thinking...so now you've done Craigaheads in the summer, any volunteers for Hells Bay? 

 

Before answering be sure to read the go hydrology post regarding Florida shade...

[Geoffrey H Kendrick]

No Thanks, but I do plan to test the OPEN waters east of the highway again tomorrow.

Geoff

[yakmaster]

awww c'mon I wanted a trip report!