Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

[Terry]

Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

Before Hurricane Andrew the preferred paddle route between Flamingo and
Cape Sable was the Homestead Canal. Avoiding the open bay provided a
wind protected route and separated paddle craft from power boats. It also
guaranteed solitude and remoteness by staying in the back country wilderness.
The 1992 hurricane damaged Homestead Canal with downed trees making passage
very difficult. As it became less traveled, foliage growth accelerated and
the 2005 storms made the canal impassable. After Hurricane Wilma a plan was
created to reopen the canal and a volunteer group headed by Tom Rahill and
Jim Brack took on the project. They cleared the canal to Bear Lake and
reopened the Bear Lake Trail which loops through Mud Lake and comes back
down Buttonwood Canal to the Bear Lake parking lot. The section of
Homestead Canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake remained impassable,
cutting off the inland route to Cape Sable.

Sue Cocking, Bill Evans, Terry Helmers and Jay Thomas devised a plan to
survey the damage to the canal west of Bear Lake and search for an alternative
passage through a body of land between the waters of Bear Lake to the east
and open water to the west. Previous trips by Thomas had identified
the narrowest section of land between these two waters which was called 64M
but there was another slightly wider area of land that warranted
investigation. If a navigable route could be established through these two
bodies of water the entire stretch of Homestead Canal between West Lake and
Gator Lake could be abandoned. It would also establish a natural route from
Coot Bay Pond to Cape Sable - the ultimate trophy. The group also had heard
reports of a route that went into Bear Lake with a portage over the narrowest
piece of land between the canal and the lake.

On 18 January 2014 the four set out in 3 canoes from Bear Lake parking lot
and went directly to the narrow area between the lake and canal. The last
time Helmers had paddled the canal was 28 years ago when there was nothing
at this narrow spot. This time, the explorers found ruins of what appeared
to be a dock that could have been built to assist portaging. It's assumed
that shortly after Hurricane Andrew an attempt was made to keep the
Inland Route open by using as much of the lake as possible to shorten the
length traveled in the canal. Today there's a small break in the narrow spot,
making it easier to slide a canoe through this slot and back into the canal.
After doing this, the group continued west through near impassable
"jack straws" (a sawyer term for criss-cross piled trees) but after making
headway of only a couple hundred yards in an hour the effort was abandoned
and the canoe party returned to the lake to continue west in Bear Lake and
then across the lake to its' west. Since Thomas had already examined the
narrowest portion of land barrier between the east and west the decision was
made to continue directly to the other narrow spot just south of 64M. After
negotiating mud bars a small creek-like opening was spotted. Although there
was a 3 foot mat of pneumatophore roots to be portaged, the creek continued
west with a hard twist to the north then west again to the open water of the
"other side". After the search party spooked a spoonbill at the west mouth
of the creek it was quickly dubbed Spoonbill Pass. Knowing "this was it" all
agreed to ignore 64M and paddle the shallow but open water to Gator Lake.
How ironic that paddlers spent decades paddling back and forth in a straight
as an arrow canal, how ironic that a large dock was built to go over the
narrow spot between Bear Lake and the canal, how ironic spending the effort to
keep trying to push through the canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake when
there was a beautiful natural creek waiting for paddlers at Spoonbill Pass.

On 20 January 2014 Terry Helmers launched at Coot Bay Pond to
specifically survey and map the Spoonbill Pass area. Although launching at the
pond meant it took 2 and a half hours to get to the pass, it reduced the
paddle distance in the canal to just 200 yards between Bear Lake Trail and
Bear Lake. Two additional non-portage creeks were mapped with the optimal
route going from 09.858'N and 59.397'W to 09.857'N and 59.447'W. After two
rewarding explorations, a natural route from Coot Bay Pond to Lake Ingraham,
Cape Sable has been established.

To use the Inland Route, study and printout or download maps of the area.
Carry a spare GPS unit. There's a lot of shallow water throughout the trip
but it's all open paddling.

[Esther Luft]

Here are a few topos to play with.  The files are large, too large to upload here.  I added them to my website  http://www.thepaddlehouse.com/reference/maps-trail-guides

Play with the layers.  Look at the water flow over time, the woodland areas. 

Question though, isn't the goal to connect to East Cape.  Part of the HC is on natural creeks.  Best bet may  be through Gator Lake.  You can make it to the HC at the bend.  The bad part is where the canal was cut, near the plug.  There is a creek but I have not tried using it.  Has anyone?

[vivian]

That is reassuring....we shall see if you are right. I will bring heavy rope to help pull, bogged in the mud boats to safety, LOL!  I should also bring a winch.

I vote for being ON THE WATER at 7:30 am so if it takes you 2 hours to load your boat show up at 5:30am. We need to shuttle a couple of cars for the overnight group so factor this in your time scheduling.

Those that are going overnight will need to provide car info and tag info plus full name and type of boat you will be in. We will have someone pulling our permit Friday morning.

Overnight confirmed with vehicle info provided :

Toby

Vivian

Connie

Jay

Ann

[Terry]

 I've heard the new cut (between the dam and bay, the one you're planning to come out) is big enough for powerboats.

 It looks like the Mississippi on GE, has a darker color too, I'm betting the Costa Concordia can go up it.

 Jim is an overnighter too.

 Can't say it enough, no messing around in the morning, both Saturday paddlers and overnighters

 want all the daylight they can get.

[Esther Luft]

I think the confusion comes from avoiding the canal completely.  When we did this paddle, we used the HC south and southwest of the bend.  It is wide open all the way to the plug.  I would not worry about not making to East Cape.

If you plan on going through Raulerson, then you run into some mud flats.  That still is doable during the wet season.  Take a look at the PDFs and aerials.  The deeper water is clear. 

[Esther Luft]

Concordia!!  Geez, I thought we were trying to make it through, not block the path.  Imagine there should be some wicked current in that creek.

Terry said:

 I've heard the new cut (between the dam and bay, the one you're planning to come out) is big enough for powerboats.

 It looks like the Mississippi on GE, has a darker color too, I'm betting the Costa Concordia can go up it.

 Jim is an overnighter too.

 Can't say it enough, no messing around in the morning, both Saturday paddlers and overnighters

 want all the daylight they can get.

[yakmaster]

Kim

I'm an "open access for all" guy, and this site has done more to promote, expand and publicize the local off the brochure stuff better than any resource out there.

That said, you have to be careful with publicizing poorly defined "eyeball aerial trails" because if you know what you're doing and conditions are right, it's an excellent day on the water. A missed turn or wrong conditions and it's a disaster and an SAR bill. 

Case in point (and I know I'm going to take flak for this and don't intend it as as a slam on anybody), this year's lost portage adventures...

I swear I've done it in a few hours with about a 100 yard drag.  

It got put out there and some folks tried it and while everyone that experienced hell and a half had a very positive attitude regarding the "disaster" we "caused", it could have been real ugly. Then whose "fault" is it?  

BTW guys, Buckley says you were looking sweet when you came out...

I think it is a positive thing to share routes and tracks and ideas of "new" places and routes to go or explore. I think it's even better when we do these invitational type events to expose more folks to what's just off the map and show them the route, but we have to be careful with a too broad dissemination of options that are not ready for prime time.

And I don't think this is a south Florida issue. Anywhere you go, whatever you're doing, whether its paddling, fishing, rock climbing, hiking or mountain biking, there's the trails everyone knows about and there's the places only a few in the know get to. Maybe we have more of them because we have such a vast wilderness with so few "sanctioned" trails and so many other alternatives as to how to get from point A to point B.

That said, when you come down, block a few days in the weekend for us locals to show you around, it's even better if you come at the beginning of the season when the water is high (you can hike some of our high water trails this week!)

Kim Gass said:

I am wondering just when the ENP ceased to be for the people of America and only for those "in the know". I understand the phenomenom of ownership by proximity.. but for routes only to be for a select few is really  out of line given its a National Park.

An inside passage from Flamingo to East Cape is really a good idea safety wise. How would you feel if you found out in bad weather someone perished because the information was kept secret?  Sometimes its not about your special fishing spots so look at the bigger picture.

You want my money..but stay and paddle where its for the tourists.. Sheesh. Some of you must have Ozark relatives.. Seems they feel a National Scenic river is all for them too. There is a big brouhaha on the future management for the Ozark National Scenic River. The local hunting and horse and gigging crowd wants its way with the river and paddlers..stay out.

[Jim Peele]

Greetings intrepid explorers,

Yes, count me in as a Sable overnighter.  I'll send my info to you, Vivian, by the usual method.

Looking forward to the adventure!

Terry said:

 I've heard the new cut (between the dam and bay, the one you're planning to come out) is big enough for powerboats.

 It looks like the Mississippi on GE, has a darker color too, I'm betting the Costa Concordia can go up it.

 Jim is an overnighter too.

 Can't say it enough, no messing around in the morning, both Saturday paddlers and overnighters

 want all the daylight they can get.

[Roger Hammer]

If you folks want, you're welcome to use my Plan B, which I had to resort to the two most recent times when I tried accessing Cape Sable via the inside route.

Plan B: Run into gray gooey cream cheese and then turn around and paddle all the way back using curse words that would make a drunken sailor blush, arriving back after dark.

Back when the National Park Service was seeking public comment a year or two ago regarding their new management plan I emailed Dan Kimball, the superintendent of ENP, and said my top priority would be to dredge the Homestead Canal back to its historic depth. It is, after all, a historic canal. That would give paddlers a safer and less demanding way to reach Cape Sable.

Dan Kimball, by the way, retires at the end of March 2014 so we'll have to wait and see who takes the helm. Hopefully he/she will crank up the dredge. A good book to read is A Dredgeman of Cape Sable about those who dredged the original canal back in the day.

[yakmaster]

The dredgemen couldn't keep a good hole in the soup either.

That's why it's never been right. That ain't mud, it's slurry!

[Gary M]

yakmaster

You won't get any flak from me. You spoke my mind in a much more diplomatic way. I aborted my replies twice.

This could go in a very different direction than those who are questioning the Park's wisdom, and/or suggesting a conspiracy, expect or wish.

There are places I would like to paddle that are off limits for various reasons. 

[Terry]

So far what I've seen and what I've heard from all who have been using the Inland Route is the

only thing that needs to be done is move the existing old PVC markers ( yes, they're still out there)

over to the correct natural route.  The only reason we rated this brochure trail as intermediate

was because it wasn't marked.   Currently it takes no more skill than the Wilderness Waterway.

[Esther Luft]

Mark it!  Paddle it!  Do it! 

The east/west segment is closed, leave it alone.  The segment after the bend is wide open.  Interested to see how much water is out there.  Can you take a yardstick? Unofficial measurements are better than none.  : )