Paddling Bucket List

[yakmaster]

I've been whittling down my bucket list...as I add items to it as well. What's on your Bucket List?

Here's what's happened to mine this week:

 

The paddling  bucket list continues to shrink!

 

MANY years ago, Tino & I went to paddle the turner & it was to low too paddle. The folks @ the Ivey House suggested the creek “at the end of seagrape drive” (halfway creek) & for a longer trip someday, “you should try the East River”. We opted for halfway, but after paddling the canal stretch we decided to go off trail & bushwacked what became the 1^st stretch of the alternate loop and the route over to the Barron that is now (finally) on the official park maps & referred to as the Bushpaddler route, because that’s where we almost killed the Superintendent showing him it could be done (Pedro hasn’t gone out with us since…but it is on the maps).

 

But the rivers west of 29 remained a mystery. This weekend 8 paddlers took off on a loop to come down the Faka Union & return, up the east.  It is important to note that no one in our group had paddled the Faka Union or knew anyone who had in recent times & it isn't even on the Fakahatchee Strand trail maps. Sue Cocking from the Herald had done the east about 10 years ago & informed us at the launch “oh yeah, it’s kind of hard to follow & easy to get lost & it took about 10 hours to get to the bay”. Considering that I had to be home for dinner, this did not bode well. It was even more worrying when none of the trip organizers would take credit for the idea of doing this loop. Terry said it was Sue’s Idea, Sue said Terry came up with the crazy plan.

 

Failure is an orphan, but success has many fathers!

 

And about halfway through the 15 mile paddle, Sue said “well thinking about it, it must have been 10 hours round trip”; by the end of a GLORIOUS paddle, everyone said that THEY were the ones that said this was a good idea!

 

But that isn’t even the oldest or most grandiose bucket list item scheduled to fall this month…

 

Nearly 30 years ago a small band of law students from THE University of Florida were too broke to take the turnpike home. So taking US27 (which back then had 1 traffic light between Leesburg and Hialeah) they drove down through the middle of the state and as they passed the Lake, they saw the beginning of the Miami Canal. Being theoretical wilderness paddlers (theoretical because none of them had ever paddled more than 5 miles or slept unsupported in the wilderness) one of them said, next year we should put a canoe in here & paddle down to Hialeah…

 

On further discussion with people that had actually paddled more than 5 miles and had actually slept in the backcountry, they were told that this was an ugly trip (always in the canal) and besides, the South Florida Water Management thugs will catch you & drag your ass out. These “knowing paddlers” said “if you want a nice trip, try the wilderness waterway”! Two years later, the WW trip became a reality and, arguably, the Bushpaddlers were born.

At the end of that 1^st trip a ranger said, ”if you can do the waterway  in just over 5 days, you should try paddling across the bay to the keys and then you can try to paddle down the shark; a couple of rangers tried that last year, but they had to be flown out”…

 

Over the years I did the cross bay trip and researching the shark river led me to Tony Pernas & his various exploits and more than a few record setting trips…some of which I was along for the ride…or the drag & I’ve paddled & hiked more miles with Terry & Keith than some may feel is healthy…

 

But the original trip, down from the lake, that started it all, remained undone. It had been relegated to the deep dark bottom of a forgotten corner of the bucket list. And even though I’ve done several sick trips and have seen the passage from grass to creek on the shark…I haven't paddled the trip.

 

Fast forward to the present…

 

Next Wednesday I take off from just south of the lake…ok not on the Miami canal and we may not paddle the Miami Canal till day 4…but I will paddle it for a bit if only to get to the L-67 on my way down to 41 by the res instead of ending up in Hialeah…but the concept is the same and I don’t have to worry about the South Florida Water Management thugs…they’re coming along for the ride!

 

And if I behave, next year they’ll let me paddle the Shark with them all the way from 41 to Florida Bay!

 

The trip is organized by the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation the non-profit affiliate of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee NWR. They started a couple of years ago up in the Kissimmee. Year one, they paddled down the Kissimmee, year two across the lake…& here we are for the next leg!

 

If you want to see the adventurers off, we’ll be leaving from the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge on the 18^th @ 8AM. We’ll be sleeping along the levees. On the night of the 20^th we’ll be sleeping by Sawgrass  Recreation Park in Weston and on the 23^rd we’ll be by the Valujet Memorial on the L-67 off of US-41!

 

Festivities are planned on 41 on the morning of the  24^th where we will meet with Kaptain Tony’s daughter and her Miccosukee students and  Carlton Ward who is walking from Flamingo to Georgia…& you thought we were nuts… COME ON OUT!

 

Technology permitting, you’ll be able to follow the trip at: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0djHtvn...  .

We will also be transmitting daily webcasts to local schools.

 

If you want to get on the feed, the webcasts will be available to anyone with an internet connection.

http://breeze.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/riverofgrass2012/  login as a guest!

 

 

 

See you on the Water

Charlie

 

For more information regarding the Bush Paddlers and/or South Florida Paddling please remember to go to our website at:

http://www.bushpaddlers.org/

 

 

 

[Connie Mier]

Awesome photojournal, Flex. It was as close to being there as you could be without actually being there. Beautiful, just beautiful.

[vivian]

Wow! Great job Flex! I really enjoyed your pictures and story.

[yakmaster]

You are the unquestioned MASTER!

 

I was there & it looked better through your lens!

 

Easier to circulate your post than to try & tell the story!

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Thanks so much ya'll, glad you found it fun & informative .. it was really my pleasure to be able to tell the story! :)

P.S. Check back I'll be adding a coupla more of the group VR panoramas as time permits (also to the Taylor Slough run we did) and if you're interested check out some of the 20 some odd other stories on there too!