Bucket List 2013/14

[Amazon Bill]

Looks like another Fall and Winter season has come to an end.  

      What trips do you hope to do this coming season?

This was my 2nd season with EEN, added a couple of minor events to the bucket list went to Mud Lake and volunteered one day. Best trip was camping with my son and inviting old friends to Mud Lake and introducing them to the Backcountry. Biggest lesson learned, double check the meet up site before the last day!

• Goals this year
• Get down Taylor Slough
• Help find a Mahagony to Shark short cut to set up future one day Shark Slough runs
• Family holiday trip
• Find back route to East Cape via Bear Lake Canoe Trail
• Volunteer again

 

[toofaraway]

Wow.  Great trip and video.  Reminds me of paddling the Bear Lake trail with rangers on a "Canoe a cade" back in the 70's.  We saw mother croc and babies.  Then the ranger got us all out of the boats on the N side and spread us out in 100 foot intervals for 10 minutes of complete quiet time.  I bailed after a few minutes and went to my mom when I looked down and found scorpions crawling all around my feet.  lol.

I think it's a shame that they stopped allowing small outboards on that route.  It used to be open all the way to West Cape and the traffic it got kept it that way, both in clearing the deadfall and keeping the canal deep enough.

Nice canoe, I hope you have a cheap one to drag through the scratchy stuff.

Re: Soupdoodle Prairie, it's hard to believe that that shallow bay was ever a prairie huh?  I'm not convinced but I do remember the old park maps showing a ground camp along the homestead canal by Raulerson's marsh.  I dug up a vey interesting old article about digging the homestead canal, written by one of the workers.  Here's the link and on page 18 of the pdf you'll see the section titled Soupdoodle Prairie.http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1959/59_1_04.pdf

Wish I could join you but for now I remain,

Too Far Away

[toofaraway]

I just had a trip report by phone from a friend that he made it through from Bear Lake to Gator Lake without portaging.  I believe he found a tunnel at the spot marked 64M.

[Terry]

Too late Yak you're in, blame it on Jay.  Jay can you get a Saturday?   I paddle every Saturday but I can

also go on a Wednesday or Thursday.   I'll leave it to you guys to pick a date.

The only think I ask for is pick a date that's cool weather so we don't have to have bugs.

Here's the plan:   We paddle to Bear Lake, there used to be a very thin spot between the canal and

lake, so thin that you could see the lake from the canoe as you paddled passed in the canal.  We'll

look at that thin spot, if we don't find anything quickly we'll move straight to 64M, portage through

and go straight to the bend in the canal at Gator Lake.   I think the best way to find anything, if anything

exists, is to work backwards from Gator Lake.   Ignore Gator Lake to East Cape we already know

that's do-able.

Best scenario:  Wide open paddling in the canal right back to Bear Lake.

Hopeful scenario:  We find the canal just barely passable with a tiny unsuspecting hole through into Bear Lake. 

The nothing scenario:  We find no traces that anything is passable and we return through 64M.

Worst case scenario:  It looks do-able going east in the canal from Gator Lakes

then gets tighter and tighter as we come back in the canal.  We'll past the fail-safe point to find ourselves

climbing through mangroves in a race against the setting sun.

Sounds like another typical canoe trip.

Saturdays are best for me and Dan is on duty to save the old jerks doing this.

It was 28 years ago that I was last in there, led a trip out of Flamingo up House Ditch, yes

House not East Cape Canal, went over to Slagle's housing development on that little island due north of

his ditch, then came back in Homestead Canal.   It went black dark, no moon, on us between Gator Lakes

and Bear Lake, with no lights we felt our way bouncing off the mangroves all the way back to

the parking lot.

[Jay]

I am in.  Possibly available on the 18th.  I am heading out in the AM to get soaked for a couple of days out of EC.  LOL.  Back on Friday PM.

[SteveS]

Wow. Awesome video and A+ on the "The Blue". Great song.

[Gary M]

I might be able to save y'all some time.  Be sure to poke into the mangroves at:

25°10'36.19"N   80°57'36.94"W

This is how the drag-over looked the last time I was there

Terry said:

Too late Yak you're in, blame it on Jay.  Jay can you get a Saturday?   I paddle every Saturday but I can

also go on a Wednesday or Thursday.   I'll leave it to you guys to pick a date.

The only think I ask for is pick a date that's cool weather so we don't have to have bugs.

Here's the plan:   We paddle to Bear Lake, there used to be a very thin spot between the canal and

lake, so thin that you could see the lake from the canoe as you paddled passed in the canal.  We'll

look at that thin spot, if we don't find anything quickly we'll move straight to 64M, portage through

and go straight to the bend in the canal at Gator Lake.   I think the best way to find anything, if anything

exists, is to work backwards from Gator Lake.   Ignore Gator Lake to East Cape we already know

that's do-able.

Best scenario:  Wide open paddling in the canal right back to Bear Lake.

Hopeful scenario:  We find the canal just barely passable with a tiny unsuspecting hole through into Bear Lake. 

The nothing scenario:  We find no traces that anything is passable and we return through 64M.

Worst case scenario:  It looks do-able going east in the canal from Gator Lakes

then gets tighter and tighter as we come back in the canal.  We'll past the fail-safe point to find ourselves

climbing through mangroves in a race against the setting sun.

Sounds like another typical canoe trip.

Saturdays are best for me and Dan is on duty to save the old jerks doing this.

It was 28 years ago that I was last in there, led a trip out of Flamingo up House Ditch, yes

House not East Cape Canal, went over to Slagle's housing development on that little island due north of

his ditch, then came back in Homestead Canal.   It went black dark, no moon, on us between Gator Lakes

and Bear Lake, with no lights we felt our way bouncing off the mangroves all the way back to

the parking lot.

[Swamp Witch]

Awesome video!  Thanks for sharing.  When I get missing the Everglades, I'll just watch your video.  I only have a few short ones taken with a point and shoot camera.

[Amazon Bill]

Nice work Jay. I've been locked up in Dilberts cubicle world all winter,but was just looking at that site on GE this weekend. How long does it take to get from the launch to Bear Exit? Did you launch and run down bear lake trail canal? 

[Amazon Bill]

I've been arm chair navigating again. This image below might yield a possible bailout point from Bear Lake Trail to the lake..It is about 500 feet long. The 18th looks good. Could possibly overnight it.  Farthest out NOAA graphical forecast is for next Thur 63-65, 16+ mph N-NE winds.

 

[Terry]

Bill - Read all the posts.

There's now a park promenade at the thin spot and people report paddling to

Gator Lakes, this is looking like a brochure trail.....wait-a-minute...it IS a brochure trail.

As Yak said I would say "...should be an easy scouting trip...".   Continuing with

"No, I've got it all figured out...", I'll even stick my neck out further:  Pack a picnic basket,

bring grandma and we'll all enjoy a GladesGoDeep back-slappin', telling-tales and

lies-about-the-one-that-got-away lunch at Gator Lakes.

[Amazon Bill]

Ya'lls posts really picks up my landlocked ego  having all you experts blogging on the Bucket List. Terry, As Yogi Bear says, "Aye Aye BooBoo nooooothing I like better than a PicNic basket."  Grandma prefers high speed powerboats, so she is out. Would a jump to Fox Lake be a side tour on the brochure? Is Sat 18th a go anyone? I can try my converted 14.7 Old Town tandem as solo unless someone has room or wants to jump in my canoe.  Water depth looks almost a foot higher than when Jay went on Jan 2. High tide water elevation will be +3.0 on the 18th.

on Jan 2 East Cape Low tide was at 8:40 AM at -1.3 ft.  Flamingo was Low at 11:29 AM -0.7

on Jan18 East Cape Low tide is at    9:24 AM at -0.3 ft.  Flamingo was Low at  12:19 PM -0.3

 

[Jay]

Thanks Bill.  Launched and went down the canal (1.5miles to entrance to Bear Lake) @40min.  2.8 miles to 64M - About an hour. Portage - @15 min.  Total about 2 hours.

Nice work Jay. I've been locked up in Dilberts cubicle world all winter,but was just looking at that site on GE this weekend. How long does it take to get from the launch to Bear Exit? Did you launch and run down bear lake trail canal?