Turner River

[Dave Briggs]

Hi,

My friends and I are planning to paddle from Turner River canoe launch down to Flamingo in the beginning of Dec. Can anyone give me any advice as to the condition of the river. I know there are some tunnels that are pretty tight, we will be in 2 Discovery 169's,loaded up for 10 days. Our planned first night will be Sunday Bay. I have checked out water level websites but unless you know how the figures relate to actual conditions its hard to judge. I am from Cape Cod MA and not easy for me to zip down and check it out !!!

Thanks   Dave

[Dave Briggs]

Stayed on the new Crooked creek chickee on Nov 30th and very nice it is too !!! There is a nice shelf for the "kitchen" on each platform, a great idea. Sunday Bay is now no more.

Dave

[Kim Gass]

Its 24 here which is no big deal. But 24 without snow is useless.  We have had 40 inches and its gone. If January is bare and cold I am southbound.

[Dave Briggs]

Rob, if you are paddling the Nightmare or the Wood River, bring a folding saw. We did but our "saw man" dropped it on the second cut !!!!! ( Note to self..... put a wrist lanyard on the next saw !!)  We made it but it was tricky in a few places. I think we may have been the first down the Wood River for a while, no evidence of recent clearing but the Nightmare was comparitively clear.We left Broad River 2 hrs before high tide.

Our trip was... Crooked Creek/Darwins Place/Willy Willy/ Lonesome/Wood River to Broad River/Nightmare to Harney River/North Harney River to Canepatch/Canepatch to North River via the labyrinth/HellsBay.

Just got back to MA last night so I am cleaning gear today and will try to update trail conditions in the next few days. Have fun

Dave

[Ross Hancock]

Glad you got to do that trip. Don't get caught cutting the mangroves.

[Keith W]

I would strongly recommend that you keep your saw stowed away and use it only for cutting firewood, unless you're working with an NPS-sanctioned trail clearing project. The NPS does not condone unauthorized trail clearing inside the ENP, nor do the site guidelines for this message board. There have been others on this forum who have had to learn that lesson the hard way.

[Dave Briggs]

Fair enough, I wasn't aware that you couldn't cut through if the trail was blocked. Obviously I wouldn't just go hacking my way through just for the hell of it. I had seen plenty of cut branches (old and recently cut) on the Nightmare route on a previous trip and assumed it was kayakers/canoeists clearing a path. So how do you get the trail cleared by NPS as it is pretty bad down the Wood River right now ??

Dave

[Keith W]

I've been down the Wood River a number of times and it was always tight. There are numerous spots where you have to push through and lift branches. That's the way it's always been and probably always will (and should) be. I wouldn't count on getting a trail clearing project going back in there. Personally, I like it the way it is.

After Wilma the Nightmare was pretty much closed due to blockage from blowdown. Most of the more recent cuts that you see are from the official trail clearing efforts. There are NPS volunteers who manage those trails and help to keep them clear.

[Dave Briggs]

OK, no worries, I'm eating humble pie !!!!

You are right, wood river is an adventure and all 4 of us loved it, we all agreed it was the best day of the 10 day trip.

I will be more aware on future trips

Dave

[Rob Stevens]

Dave, I'm glad you had a good trip. I understand the rules against cutting/clearing but we miss out on a long tradition of canoers maintaining trails. I take a lot of pleasure in using a portage trail that is 100s of years old. You know when you walk one you are putting your feet right where others have portaged for centuries.Here in Maine one and two mile portages can connect you with rivers that lead from the Penobscott in mid coast Maine to the St.John in New Brunswick for example. I'm relying on my memory here but I think that river names that end in keag, like the Passadumkeag, or ticook are passable for birchbark canoes. If the name ends in hunk its not passable. A few years back you could find shallow rocky brooks with a path through them because it was tradition to clear one rock when you passed. On Lake Superior there are short portages that will put you in the Mississippi River drainage. And out on the Washington coast I've seen spots where you can still make out paths that had been cleared for landing ocean going canoes. One of my favorite memories is sitting on a rock on the coast of Labrador watching a minke whale. I looked at my feet and there were 100's of Ramah chert flakes from people sitting there making stone tools enjoying the same view. In the everglades I wonder if I'm using a Calusa canal. So I do regret the need to not clear routes.

[Kim Gass]

"hunk" means brook.

"keag" might mean  a little bit better of a river  though this source seems to refer to gravel bars.However the Kenduskeag above Bangor would trash a birchbark after the spring runoff.

This is a hijack but you might like reading this

http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=6-0tAAAAYAAJ  The Woods and Lakes of Maine..available to read on line or your e reader.

I never thought that reading a thread about Everglades tripping would lead to such a neat discovery about lakes and waters in my backyard..Thanks!

[Rob Stevens]

Kim, My memory's not the best. I thought my information came from a book called "Above the Gravel Bar" by David S.Cook, which I read 20 years ago. I'll have to check it when I get back to Maine. Supposedly, the river named "Passadumkeag" means "above the gravel bar." We are on our way to the Everglades. Rob

[Kim Gass]

Have a good trip.. We may be right behind you. No snow makes me grumpy.