Fakahatchee River

[Terry]

Vivian asked on 26 January "...is the Fakahatchee River open?", I take that as an

invitation to the next probe.   Faka Union River and East River shown here as

white lines are open excellent canoe routes.  The Fakahatchee River, the blue line, has

the best landing and would make another great addition to a loop trip connecting with

either Faka Union or East River.  The only little reconnaissance I have heard so far is

it's closed up.   Does anybody know anything about the Fakahatchee River from

Tamiami Trail down to Fakahatchee Bay?

[vivian]

Ha! That's what I like about solo canoes, you can flip and paddle stern first backwards. I think Terry and the crew will get through from your report. Good work!

[Terry]

Jay, your reconnaissance is priceless.

I notice a hard turn to the east at the end of your route, could the river go to the east of my original

guess?   Usually the taller, bigger vegetation sticks to the deeper water so that is what I followed

in the original guess at the route.   I didn't even notice the open slots to the east right about

where you turned to the east.   Here's a new map, it appears from your reconnaissance that

the black line can be ignored, the orange line is what you did and the dark blue line is what needs

to be probed.   Could the route take the light blue line?   One way to determine this ahead of time

is does the route come into the branch in the river further toward the gulf?

[Jay]

Thanks Terry,

That turn to the east was indicated by my plan, but I missed the hard turn back south. I think I was starting to look at my watch as well as looking for a path of less resistance. Where I terminated and turned back was a pond with no water exit - plenty of reptile slides but but no exit.

Looking at what you plotted here, I like the look of the easterly blue line which you plot just south of the end of my probe.  The advantage I see it that there is a lot of open water and you should make very good time.....until that last 1/2 mile....which looks very challenging.  I see at one place on the way ( 25°55'9.49"N -  81°28'7.02"W) that you might need to portage (@25m) around - but I am sure you will find a way.

Regarding the black line.  It looks about as viable as any other.  The lower mile of that route looks to be a bear.

Based on the effort it took me to get to my turn around, I would look for the route that gets you to the lower triple black diamond section in the least amount of time - I like your east route.

I would be willing to do a probe from the south.  Go down the East River and head up any of those three prongs.  It would probably be @ 3 hours each way to the probe -  which would leave @ 3 hours to explore. I have some weekdays off in mid-Feb.  Looking at the tides -  2/12 might be a candidate.

[Terry]

Knowing the correct fork to take when coming in from the gulf would help a lot.

People have done this before and I'm sure there will be evidence.   Finding cut branches

and/or any tunneling would be a sure indicator of the correct route.

As I mentioned previously, the Fikiunee and Barron Creek only show as dark

vegetation on the aerials yet they are wide open cut tunnels.

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

+1 !

That's a tight fit, with all this fork talk I wonder if a Spork would be of any help?? ;)

[Jay]

So probe #2 on 2/12 will be my plan.  Proceed down the East River and up the mouth of the Fakahatchee River.

Low Tide at EC at 10:36am - High Tide at 3:49pm.

Sunrise 7:02am - Sunset 6:17pm

Launch down river by 7:00am.  Depart for return upriver NLT 2:00pm.  That should give @ 4 hours to snoop around and not get hammered by the tide.

Which fork(s) to probe - to be determined by the group (Terry) heading down on 2/23.

If anyone is interested, send me an email. [e-mail].  I've got no problem probing alone - but if a couple more come along, perhaps we can get look up more than one fork.

I'll probably fire up the SPOT - anyone that wants to follow along can do so from the comfort of home.....although coverage can get a little funky in the tunnels.

[Terry]

Wish I could but Tuesdays are my busiest days at work.

You've got 3 forks in the river coming up from the mouth and you'll have

to look at all 3 to determine the right one.   You're looking for the one

that has been traveled and I suspect it will be obvious.

This probe will be as successful as the first if you can just

establish the right fork, it will be even sweeter if you get to probe up

the right fork.   Good luck.

[Gary M]

I think you will find that the left fork (west) will show obvious use -  by more than just paddlers. It should be open all the way to the lake at 25°55'6.61"N, 81°29'11.26"W.

Getting from there up to 25°56'0.33"N, 81°28'24.21"W will be another story!

[Amazon Bill]

Feb 23, won't work out for me...my son is playing with the Dallas Brass Quintet at his school. i'll keep tracking this incase another probe gets planned. The 12th is out, but Feb 17/18th are open so far.

[Terry]

I know this is too early to start talking about this but after

Fakahatchee River is surveyed and documented from Weaver Station

out to the bay the purist's trip would be to start at the

Tamiami Trail bridge over the river and not in Weaver Canal.

[Jim Peele]

I'm new to the EEN and newish to participating on forums.  I found this one searching for info on  . . . paddling the Fakahatchee. 

I'd like to "descend" the Fakahatchee with y'all on the 23rd, if that would be OK.  It's the only paddle in Jeff Ripple's book that I haven't done.

I have over 750 miles paddling the 'glades; I've camped on over 30 of the backcountry sites.  There are still rivers beckoning though and the Fakahatchee has been on my list a long time.  

I was over there recently and asked a couple of NC Outward Bound folk I met if they had gone through recently and the answer I got was "not in a number of years."

[Keith W]

I was going to make my own inquiry at NCOB in EC about the Fakahatchee. I know one of the seasonal instructors and he has mentioned in the past that they used to take groups down the Fakahatchee which is a pretty good indicator of how difficult this route can be. NCOB looks for the 'worst of the worst' to stress and challenge their student groups, and this route was one of those.