May trip - Gator Hook to Roberts Lakes Strand

[Keith W]

I have a mind to try and reach Robert's Lakes Strand from the Gator Hook Trail on the Monroe Station leg of the Loop. I know the Fl. Scenic Trail runs through the Strand on the eastern end but I have yet to hear of anybody coming in from the west. The first couple of miles of the old Gator Hook logging tram that runs southeast off the Loop has been cleared, but it's all wild after that. The line of the tram is still evident after the cleared path runs out, and I was able to follow it for about another half-mile but it gets pretty boggy in places. Anybody else have any info on this route?

[Dennis McDonald]

Hey Dale How far in is this. We ended up hiking out on Sunday and we passed this. My friend saw a 4 foot cottonmouth about 25 yards off to the left of where you were standing when taking this picture.  It was a nice hike. We hiked for about an hour and a half each way.

Dale said:

I decided last minute to go out this past weekend and that is when I took the pictures.

 

Here is the logjam at the large washout. You can almost walk across the logs when the water is high.

 

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Nice! Just did a hike out to Roberts Lakes Strand nearby but we only saw a couple of real juniors (snakes).

That strand is fully awesome!

 

EMERALD HIKER’S EDEN AT ROBERTS LAKES STRAND IN BIG CYPRESS.

(click pic or link below)

 

 

 

http://awakenthegrass.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/among-the-big-cypres...

.

 

[Jay]

Outstanding Flex!

[vivian]

Great write up and pics, thanks for posting it.

[Connie Mier]

Flex, beautiful photos as always. My opinion of you has been raised considerably knowing that you are out there for the mud treatment on the feet. What next, pedicures using cypress tree bark? Lol

[Swamp Hunter]

Cool stuff Flex. I agree the water is clean! I have discovered the water up here in Bear Island is not clean. I guess its filtered by the time it reaches the Loop and yes I have drank this "inside the Loop" water unfiltered more than several times with no ill affects and I will drink it again if need be. 

[Swamp Hunter]

Yes Im still working at Bear Island. I have been living in the Big Cypress Preserve since Sept 2nd but the season will soon be over and it will be time to leave for the Summer. 

Im not sure of the places you mention but I could find out.. I used to run my full track north of the alley which was 2 lane in the 70s near the old Mud Canal or Miami Canal. The WD Ranch is a name I have heard. No more than 10 years ago, cracker cattle from the WD still roamed wild in the Turner River Unit. My friend counted a dozen head on a buggy trip from the Trail to the Alley before designated trails. I dont know if any of these cracker cattle survived the recent panther onslaught. Panthers will take calves in cattle country and so will coyotes. The larger animals used to circle the calves in a defensive position. They were completely wild but the meat was not very edible as a few hunters found out. But I think it was cool that this old tough breed of cattle survived so long in a tough environment.. They may have suffered the same fate as the pigs unfortunately.

Gene said:

 

Dale- Did you say earlier you are working out at Bear island? I would be interested to know if you have any knowledge of the old King's Korner fish camp that was out that way in the 70's or the WD ranch on the south side of the alley prior to Big cypress. There was also a trailer home with large confederate flags on the south side of the alley about where the current rest area at mile 63 is today. My father knew those folks and I visited in the late 70's as 

 a boy. I would love to hear the history behind these places.

[Swamp Hunter]

I think this is still on the long first leg going SE, before the NE bend, before the Gauntlet. This is the deepest washout but you may be able to walk on the logs. I did a "snake dance" at that area. (jumping away from one onto another) Thankfully the moccasins are slow and often miss.. At least this day they missed.

Dennis McDonald said:

Hey Dale How far in is this. We ended up hiking out on Sunday and we passed this. My friend saw a 4 foot cottonmouth about 25 yards off to the left of where you were standing when taking this picture.  It was a nice hike. We hiked for about an hour and a half each way.

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Thanks Dale, this is good to know!

Dale said:

Cool stuff Flex. I agree the water is clean! I have discovered the water up here in Bear Island is not clean. I guess its filtered by the time it reaches the Loop and yes I have drank this "inside the Loop" water unfiltered more than several times with no ill affects and I will drink it again if need be. 

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

I remember seeing a lot of cattle in Bear Is unit back when I used to mess around out there in trucks. I didn't realize there were wild herds, interesting.

Dale said:

Yes Im still working at Bear Island. I have been living in the Big Cypress Preserve since Sept 2nd but the season will soon be over and it will be time to leave for the Summer. 

Im not sure of the places you mention but I could find out.. I used to run my full track north of the alley which was 2 lane in the 70s near the old Mud Canal or Miami Canal. The WD Ranch is a name I have heard. No more than 10 years ago, cracker cattle from the WD still roamed wild in the Turner River Unit. My friend counted a dozen head on a buggy trip from the Trail to the Alley before designated trails. I dont know if any of these cracker cattle survived the recent panther onslaught. Panthers will take calves in cattle country and so will coyotes. The larger animals used to circle the calves in a defensive position. They were completely wild but the meat was not very edible as a few hunters found out. But I think it was cool that this old tough breed of cattle survived so long in a tough environment.. They may have suffered the same fate as the pigs unfortunately.

Gene said:

 

Dale- Did you say earlier you are working out at Bear island? I would be interested to know if you have any knowledge of the old King's Korner fish camp that was out that way in the 70's or the WD ranch on the south side of the alley prior to Big cypress. There was also a trailer home with large confederate flags on the south side of the alley about where the current rest area at mile 63 is today. My father knew those folks and I visited in the late 70's as 

 a boy. I would love to hear the history behind these places.

[shawn beightol]

Some info on WD Ranch from WD's obituary in the 1998 Sun Sentinel:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1998-05-07/news/9805060470_1_mr-da...

"Wayne Davidson, Longtime Everglades Protector

OBITUARIES
May 7, 1998|By STEVE WATERS Staff Writer
Wayne Davidson of Fort Lauderdale, who introduced thousands of people to the wonders of the Everglades, died on Tuesday from complications after heart surgery. Mr. Davidson, known as W.D., was 81.

Mr. Davidson moved to Fort Lauderdale from Michigan in 1947 and went into business designing yacht interiors at Bahia Mar Yachting Center. He also decorated a room at the White House, his daughter, Diane Buchanan, said. The White House was being refurbished at the time, and different designers were invited to decorate one room each.

To two generations of outdoors-lovers, Mr. Davidson was better known for his W.D. Ranch & Hunt Club and his tireless efforts on behalf of conservation and charitable organizations.

The W.D. Ranch was a 30,000-acre spread in Collier County, south of the freeway known as Alligator Alley, that Mr. Davidson leased for more than 30 years, until the Big Cypress Preserve took over the property a few years ago.

Although Mr. Davidson hunted and fished from Australia to Zimbabwe, he was most at home in the Everglades. An Ernest Hemingway-look-alike, Mr. Davidson always carried a memento of the 'Glades, be it an alligator-tooth necklace or a belt buckle carved from an antler.

When Mr. Davidson first leased the property, the Alley had not been built.

``W.D. had to take Highway 27 to Clewiston, go through the Seminole Indian Reservation, then get in a jeep and go 25 miles through the swamp to camp. You had to be a woodsman to get there,'' said Ron Bergeron Sr., a longtime friend.

``When Alligator Alley was built, then there was a different dimension, where W.D. could bring out everybody. Instead of there just being a few Florida Crackers out there, he opened his place up to every organization you could think of.''

More than 75 groups, from hunting and fishing clubs to religious and nonprofit organizations, enjoyed the property. The Civil Air Patrol conducted maneuvers. The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission held hunter safety courses. The Broward County Sheriff's Office used the rifle and pistol ranges.

Mr. Davidson was an active member of many of the organizations that frequented his ranch. He helped start the Fort Lauderdale Ducks Unlimited chapter. He was president of the Broward Center for the Blind.

He served as a delegate to the Everglades Coordinating Council for the Broward County Airboat, Halftrack and Conservation Club. He and other airboat club members built the first cabin at the Everglades Youth Camp at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area in Palm Beach County.

Mr. Davidson's friends will gather at the W.D. Ranch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Bergeron will cater a lunch at noon. At 1 p.m., a memorial service, featuring a Civil Air Patrol honor guard, will be held while a Civil Air Patrol plane flies over the ranch and scatters his ashes.

Mr. Davidson is survived by daughters Diane Buchanan of Fort Lauderdale and Bunny Terwee of Grand Rapids, Mich.; a son, Wayne Davidson of Fort Lauderdale; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that contributions be made to the Broward County Airboat, Halftrack and Conservation Club's Everglades Youth Camp program, att: Barbara Ouellette, 3421 SW 24th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312.

"

[Swamp Hunter]

Shark Valley water was at one time also safe to drink and maybe still is..  My gf and I went on the little Shark Valley tram in the late 70s maybe early 80s. The ranger requested everyone to disembark and to join her in tasting the water. She then proceeded to bend down, scoop her hands and drink straight from the marsh unfiltered. We did the same and so did many tourists. Thats when I first started drinking from the marsh at clean flowing grass filtered locations.

The water at the FMB artesian well is also very potable. I drank that water for months and the NPS tests it on a weekly basis when I work there.. Fill your jugs and refrigerate and the sulphur smell will be gone. I still have this water in my fridge.. I know a fisherman that swears his fish live twice as long in a bucket of this flowing well water. Now the water here at Bear Island is a different story. Its yellow, it stinks, and even my well has to be treated with a chlorinator. Maybe its all the pesticides from farming. I dunno but it stinks.

I believe a water faucet in front of the Carnestown gas station is also the remains of a flowing well. Look for a small faucet handle sticking out of the ground under the palm trees. I am told that another artesian well also exists off Turner River road near I-75 on the east side but I am unable to locate it. It may be capped off and buried.

Flex 029 Kayakfari said:

Thanks Dale, this is good to know!

Dale said:

Cool stuff Flex. I agree the water is clean! I have discovered the water up here in Bear Island is not clean. I guess its filtered by the time it reaches the Loop and yes I have drank this "inside the Loop" water unfiltered more than several times with no ill affects and I will drink it again if need be.