Getting Lost Charley Creek

[Rob Stevens]

   Allison and I left Sweetwater for Turkey Key via Gopher Key on April 9th with a quarter moon tide. That gave us a Barron River low tide of .8 at 12:54 PM and a 2.6 high at 5:46 PM. After exploring Gopher Key around noon we headed towards Charley Creek. Surprising me Allison takes the chart and guides us toward Charley Creek. I just paddle and read the compass. NW, SW, no wait N by SE. She keeps saying okay we should see two islands, then an osprey, then a fish jumping to the SE, then... I'm thinking what chart is she reading??? My memory is the chart is the scale you would get if you were observing the Everglades from the moon. Soon she says okay we are here Charley Creek. I'm thinking there is no way we got there this fast, we've been paddling through mud, we never checked off the first creek at Gopher Key, we are not at a creek but a bay. Looking at the chart Charley Creek is clearly located between two bays so I convince Al to head back to a known point, Gopher Key. Back we go. Then I look at the chart, one bay, one creek, two bays, a false bay and then clearly head south. So off we go counting bays and creeks. At the "right" bay we head south immediatley into the mud. We paddle through it for a while. I'm amazed we don't break a paddle. This is where it really becomes Al's fault. She is as cheerfull and as pleasant as can be. I'm ready to cry. If she would only get bitchy we could turn back. Now we get out of the canoe and keep pushing to the south. FOR TWO HOURS. IN THE MUD.She says "oh look the birds we saw earlier." I'm thinking are you insane? There's only one freaking flock of birds in the everglades! We think maybe, just maybe, we have found the creek, not Charley, just the creek we are looking for. But no water. I'm done for. It is 6 o'clock at night. She walks ahead and finds the creek we've aimed for just horseshoes back. I walk a little beyond where she looked, go through the mangroves and..... I'm looking at where I made her turn around hours ago and lots of mud before. Those WERE the same freaking flock of birds.

   But we are still not sure where we are, its late, and we have no strength left. (And no water, just mud.) We set up the tent, hope we don't sink into the mud, and go to sleep. In the morning we get up, have a slightly easier time slogging through the mud and head back up Gopher Key Creek because we are still not sure where we are. We don't think we've reached Pelican Bay and Charley Creek is, at least on the chart, clearly before it.

   When we get to civilization we look on Google Satellite and discover Al had gotten us right to the beginnning of Charley Creek. It runs down the northern side of Pelican Bay. (It is very clear in the satellite map.) We had camped in the mud a few hundred yards from Charley Creek. It WAS the most comfortable sleep of the trip. Oh well there is always next time.

  Is it hard to find Charley Creek from the ocean without a GPS?

   One navigational skill I learned from Al is there has to be at least a little water over there  if you see a fish jump. 

 

[Terry]

 

Sounds like this was a great trip:  If it's not an adventure it gets boring.

Now that you're back and you're on gladesgodeep, in "Trail Conditions"

you've probably read the discussion on Charley Creek.   There's a

sentence in there that reads "If you plan to use this route take some

aerial photos with you."  I have done it before GPS and aerial photos

but it took a whole lot of intuition and it was before permits so we

weren't on a schedule.

From the gulf side the entrance is obvious but you still have that

confusing part between Pelican Bay and Gopher Key.  Either direction

you take you'll always have some adventure.

 

[toofaraway]

 By now I figured everyone traveled with printed satellite/aerial photos in plastic sleeves. Sorry you got so turned around. 

TFA

[Ross Hancock]

I really enjoyed the way you told this story, Rob.

[Jay]

Every time I get lost, it seems to make recovering from being lost and finding your bearings easier the next time.

 

Jay

[Rob Stevens]

   I fear you all are missing the fun of the Everglades. Everyone else seems to go up Charley Creek, ho-hum, no big deal, lots of beautiful birds, and on your way. (Thanks for the beautiful slide show Connie). Go in April. Bake your Yankee brain in the sun, fear mud, fear mosquitos, fear low tide. Don't look at satellite photos. Don't bring a GPS. Put your compass on top of a pack with your knife in it. 

    Well we tried again and I found out Allison is fearless. For starters as we began on the Turner River Allison anounces "Alligator". I ask where? Fortunatlely I look down and see we are riding right over it. If I continued my stroke I would have hit it. I don't think its that big but all I saw was its belly, bigger around than a gallon jug, right under my paddle.

   Then a few days later after leaving Gopher Key we were paddling the same stretch where I got us lost last April. There's little water. We are headed into a 16' wide channel and a 8' long gator comes off the bank into the water about 100 feet in front of us. I'm thinking heading in there is not a good idea but I know from previous experience there is not much water elsewhere. Just then, Allison, paddling in the bow , looks down at the chart. I'm amazed.(Actually, dumbfounded) Here we are heading right at an alligator and she is completely unphased. As we pass through something  makes a big splash right by the stern of the canoe. I mean right by the stern. Allison asks " Was that the alligator?" I say, in a quavery voice, "I don't know". To which she responds "Oh you big baby!"

    Well I got back at her. A little bit ahead just before Charley Creek we run aground. She slips on her neoprene booties and gets out. I wisely have high tops and socks. By the time I lace them on she has pulled us free. Hey, you never know, might be alligators.

   We had the best time. Anyone have recommendations for other places to get lost. I'm curious about the bays south of Gopher Key. The same chart that caused me trouble shows a creek south of Rookery Bay that goes to the ocean west of Charley Creek. Anyone know who Charlie was? And since Molloy says you can't get from Sweetwater to Last Huston I take that as a challenge.

[Terry]

The Lost Portage comes to mind, that's all you get,

real gladesmen don't ask.

[Swamp Hunter]

Gator fatalities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks_in_the...

 

There are many survivors of gator attacks. Its really only the large ones that are a concern and its the one you dont see that will get you. It seems I recall an incident where a person was attacked while in the canoe but I cant find it online. A very large gator can tip a canoe or kayak. Hit em hard with your paddle if they get that close. You need to put the fear of humans into them. One sunk our airboat in a canal back in the early 80's but that was more our fault.. I have had several other close encounters but none resulted in injury. .

[Swamp Hunter]

I dont mean to take away from Robs interesting story but while we are on the subject of gators, I want to tell a story about a man I met in the BCNP about a month back. He showed me a postcard of himself where he actually made friends with a wild gator. He would paddle out in his canoe and the large gator would come up and actually put his head inside the canoe so he could scratch it. Some tourists were so impressed they made a postcard out of it and sent it back to him. Gators seem to have good memories but unfortunately I dont remember his name and cant find it on google.  All I remember is part of his tail was missing. Maybe some of you know the story.

 

And on a different story, there is always the amazing Kenny Cypress video for those that may not have seen it.  Kenny is a Miccosuki Indian.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lEmoxoI4Xk

[Rob Stevens]

My strategy of bringing Allison as gator bait may not work. Looking up the statistics of Florida attacks.being male and caucasian are the big factors and throw in golf and we are all set. Maybe I should have bought her golf clubs for christmas.

[Esther Luft]

I think I want to paddle to Allison!  Cool!!

[Rob Stevens]

   Allison IS fearless and I WAS right. Allison and I went down Gopher Key Creek again this year. There were a lot of alligators starting above Gopher Key. The tide was rising and below Gopher Key there was not a lot of water, This is an area we are intimately familiar with from past experiences. I thought I had come up with a new navigational term. "Not enough water to hide an alligator."  Up ahead I saw an alligator settle below the surface. Being rather dense, me not the alligator, not being a swimmer, again me not the alligator , and not comprehending the ability to just sink straight down, I kept a course right where I had seen the alligator sink. Well we are paddling along and all of a sudden Allison seems to be having a disagreement with who gets to keep her paddle. We had come right up on the alligator. Then it thrashes against the stern where I am. As I have said before Allison and alligators dumbfound me. What is Allison's reaction? She says "Sorry Mr Alligator." So we go a couple hundred feet more and we see a pink feather in the water. We back up and once again run over an alligator. What does she do? Again "Sorry Mr Alligator." Then speechless I watch her pick the feather out of the water, then SPEECHLESS I watch her dip it in the water an swish it around to clean it off. Later in the day she doesn't even remember the second time we tried to park on an alligator. As I wrote before Allison is fearless and I was right. We were exactly where I had been slow to put my shoes on because there might be alligators.
 
Rob Stevens said:

   I fear you all are missing the fun of the Everglades. Everyone else seems to go up Charley Creek, ho-hum, no big deal, lots of beautiful birds, and on your way. (Thanks for the beautiful slide show Connie). Go in April. Bake your Yankee brain in the sun, fear mud, fear mosquitos, fear low tide. Don't look at satellite photos. Don't bring a GPS. Put your compass on top of a pack with your knife in it. 

    Well we tried again and I found out Allison is fearless. For starters as we began on the Turner River Allison anounces "Alligator". I ask where? Fortunatlely I look down and see we are riding right over it. If I continued my stroke I would have hit it. I don't think its that big but all I saw was its belly, bigger around than a gallon jug, right under my paddle.

   Then a few days later after leaving Gopher Key we were paddling the same stretch where I got us lost last April. There's little water. We are headed into a 16' wide channel and a 8' long gator comes off the bank into the water about 100 feet in front of us. I'm thinking heading in there is not a good idea but I know from previous experience there is not much water elsewhere. Just then, Allison, paddling in the bow , looks down at the chart. I'm amazed.(Actually, dumbfounded) Here we are heading right at an alligator and she is completely unphased. As we pass through something  makes a big splash right by the stern of the canoe. I mean right by the stern. Allison asks " Was that the alligator?" I say, in a quavery voice, "I don't know". To which she responds "Oh you big baby!"

    Well I got back at her. A little bit ahead just before Charley Creek we run aground. She slips on her neoprene booties and gets out. I wisely have high tops and socks. By the time I lace them on she has pulled us free. Hey, you never know, might be alligators.

   We had the best time. Anyone have recommendations for other places to get lost. I'm curious about the bays south of Gopher Key. The same chart that caused me trouble shows a creek south of Rookery Bay that goes to the ocean west of Charley Creek. Anyone know who Charlie was? And since Molloy says you can't get from Sweetwater to Last Huston I take that as a challenge.