Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

[Terry]

Inland Route - Flamingo / Cape Sable

Before Hurricane Andrew the preferred paddle route between Flamingo and
Cape Sable was the Homestead Canal. Avoiding the open bay provided a
wind protected route and separated paddle craft from power boats. It also
guaranteed solitude and remoteness by staying in the back country wilderness.
The 1992 hurricane damaged Homestead Canal with downed trees making passage
very difficult. As it became less traveled, foliage growth accelerated and
the 2005 storms made the canal impassable. After Hurricane Wilma a plan was
created to reopen the canal and a volunteer group headed by Tom Rahill and
Jim Brack took on the project. They cleared the canal to Bear Lake and
reopened the Bear Lake Trail which loops through Mud Lake and comes back
down Buttonwood Canal to the Bear Lake parking lot. The section of
Homestead Canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake remained impassable,
cutting off the inland route to Cape Sable.

Sue Cocking, Bill Evans, Terry Helmers and Jay Thomas devised a plan to
survey the damage to the canal west of Bear Lake and search for an alternative
passage through a body of land between the waters of Bear Lake to the east
and open water to the west. Previous trips by Thomas had identified
the narrowest section of land between these two waters which was called 64M
but there was another slightly wider area of land that warranted
investigation. If a navigable route could be established through these two
bodies of water the entire stretch of Homestead Canal between West Lake and
Gator Lake could be abandoned. It would also establish a natural route from
Coot Bay Pond to Cape Sable - the ultimate trophy. The group also had heard
reports of a route that went into Bear Lake with a portage over the narrowest
piece of land between the canal and the lake.

On 18 January 2014 the four set out in 3 canoes from Bear Lake parking lot
and went directly to the narrow area between the lake and canal. The last
time Helmers had paddled the canal was 28 years ago when there was nothing
at this narrow spot. This time, the explorers found ruins of what appeared
to be a dock that could have been built to assist portaging. It's assumed
that shortly after Hurricane Andrew an attempt was made to keep the
Inland Route open by using as much of the lake as possible to shorten the
length traveled in the canal. Today there's a small break in the narrow spot,
making it easier to slide a canoe through this slot and back into the canal.
After doing this, the group continued west through near impassable
"jack straws" (a sawyer term for criss-cross piled trees) but after making
headway of only a couple hundred yards in an hour the effort was abandoned
and the canoe party returned to the lake to continue west in Bear Lake and
then across the lake to its' west. Since Thomas had already examined the
narrowest portion of land barrier between the east and west the decision was
made to continue directly to the other narrow spot just south of 64M. After
negotiating mud bars a small creek-like opening was spotted. Although there
was a 3 foot mat of pneumatophore roots to be portaged, the creek continued
west with a hard twist to the north then west again to the open water of the
"other side". After the search party spooked a spoonbill at the west mouth
of the creek it was quickly dubbed Spoonbill Pass. Knowing "this was it" all
agreed to ignore 64M and paddle the shallow but open water to Gator Lake.
How ironic that paddlers spent decades paddling back and forth in a straight
as an arrow canal, how ironic that a large dock was built to go over the
narrow spot between Bear Lake and the canal, how ironic spending the effort to
keep trying to push through the canal between Bear Lake and Gator Lake when
there was a beautiful natural creek waiting for paddlers at Spoonbill Pass.

On 20 January 2014 Terry Helmers launched at Coot Bay Pond to
specifically survey and map the Spoonbill Pass area. Although launching at the
pond meant it took 2 and a half hours to get to the pass, it reduced the
paddle distance in the canal to just 200 yards between Bear Lake Trail and
Bear Lake. Two additional non-portage creeks were mapped with the optimal
route going from 09.858'N and 59.397'W to 09.857'N and 59.447'W. After two
rewarding explorations, a natural route from Coot Bay Pond to Lake Ingraham,
Cape Sable has been established.

To use the Inland Route, study and printout or download maps of the area.
Carry a spare GPS unit. There's a lot of shallow water throughout the trip
but it's all open paddling.

[Jay]

Mr Quirk? - or our Hydrologist!

[Esther Luft]

Roger - When did you last attempt HC to Cape Sable?  Month/year please. 

yakmaster said:

I remember coming into Flamingo after the 2005 season The bay marl covered everything up to the road at the bridge. the inside of the motel rooms was 4' deep.

 

I imagine the same thing happened on the prairie. Flowed over the ridge & just got dumped there...

 

Hopefully 9 years of tidal scouring has made some inroads into the muck & marl...

 

Be ready to sleep aboard boys & girls!

 

If it don't kill you it just makes for better drinking stories!

Roger Hammer said:

Esther, I got stuck in the canal not the mud flats. It was all silted in at the time. I'm not certain if Hurricane Wilma helped clear it or made it even worse but the second time I tried taking the route I attempted to cross the mud flats, which I dubbed the Cream Cheese Highway. I didn't make it very far and turned back. When was the last time someone made it all the way to the Cape using the HC?

[Roger Hammer]

The first time was in May 2006, just seven months after Hurricane Wilma. I was in an aluminum 17' Grumman canoe. The second time when I attempted the open area south of the canal I was in an Old Town canoe. I came to a skidding halt in gray muck and that trip must have been in May 2007 or 2008. I paddled out beyond Gator Lake on day trips in my Swift Shearwater solo canoe twice back in 2011 and the water was mighty skinny. I don't think I could have made it to the Cape had I tried. All those trips were in May. I like May because the tourists are gone, the bugs are tolerable, there's no worry about cold fronts and the weather is more predictable. May is at the end of the dry season so maybe that's been my problem.

[Rob Stevens]

Germans and Yankees? Germans and Yankees!!  Being a Yankee who has had Germans work for me and become good friends I think the phrase you are looking for is Germans OR Yankees. Like Mosquitos or No-See-Ums

Roger Hammer said:

This information will be good to pass on to the rangers at Flamingo so they can advise German and Yankee tourists

[Terry]

Roger!  May!  Oh my, throw that data out.

That's the dead lowest everywhere.   That's when you paddle across the

rock pit and hike Nine Mile Pond Trail!

You get a lot of credit for just making it to Gator Lake in May.

[Roger Hammer]

I like May because you'll never see any GERMANS AND/OR YANKEES out there that time of year!! Plus there's hardly any mosquitoes because they're too afraid to come out because of all the no-see-ums and deer flies. Summer sucks because of the sweltering heat, bugs, and lightning storms. And winter sucks because of the possibility of cold fronts (not to mention GERMANS AND/OR YANKEES!) and nothing sucks more than paddling in long pants and a burly jacket.

My favorite paddling pants are slip-on lightweight cotton pajama bottoms, but not the ones with little teddy bears on them. I also ward off the sun with my custom-made Bimini top on my Shearwater, as you can see in the attached photo at East Cape.

[Amazon Bill]

You all be sure to give out a loud "Call of the Wild" for me when you pass through Spoonbill Pass. It's killin' me that I will be locked up behind a computer all weekend.

Terry, are you still heading on the day trip, out and back to Fox Lake, on Saturday?

[Esther Luft]

Day Paddle to Fox Lakes, also one of Tom's babies.  Yeah, Terry, what are you doing?  The plan is to record route and conditions for future project work, if need be, and approved by ENP.  The Fox group will launch from Bear Lake 7am.  Return by a reasonable hour as some of us have evening commitments we must make.  You could always work on Sunday.

[Amazon Bill]

I am considering the day paddle. Are you leaving from Bear Lake or Coot Bay?

Tom is planning trips to keep the canal work moving forward in Feb/March.

[vivian]

In the book "A dredgemen of cape sable" they had to keep bringing water to the dredge while going through the prairie. They dug a canal to the fox lakes where the water was deeper. Is that canal still there?

[Roger Hammer]

A quick search on Google Earth doesn't show any evidence of a canal and it's difficult to tell if the creeks are even open because of the tree canopy.

[Terry]

Bear Lake hasn't seen action like this in a while:

The dedication is at Coot Bay Pond at 07:00, Esther you're starting your group at Bear Lake Parking Lot.

I would like to take the Saturday Coot Bay Pond group up to Fox Lakes all depends on time.

Vivian, Jay and Charlie's group will be splitting off at Gator Lake Camp to

map the &^&%^$ out of the prairie between

Gator Lake and Cape Sable spending the night at Cape Sable.

Esther we will be behind you but might catch up when you get slowed down mapping the best

slot into Fox Lakes.   This will be handy, if my group runs late we can follow Esther's group back

to the shorter Bear Lake Parking Lot and we'll have a ride to pick up cars from Coot Bay Pond,

although this shuttle might take more time than just paddling straight to Coot Bay Pond.

Whatever, we've got lots of options.  It looks like we only need daylight on the west side

of Spoonbill Pass, Spoonbill Pass back to either Bear Lake Parking Lot or Coot Bay Pond

can be done in the dark.    By the way, we have no moon light.

With 3 simultaneous survey teams on Raulerson's Prairie, GladesGoDeep will return with

more data than any other trip.