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Here's your perfect opportunity to try out the best north terminus of the Wilderness Waterway -
Collier Seminole State Park. If you get a late start you can stay at Grocer Point, only a couple hours
out of CSSP. Otherwise start at CSSP paddle out to Camp Lulu
and paddle a different route back the next day, depending on conditions.
Well when you do man-up to start at Collier Seminole State Park this is worth noting:
Tides for Pumpkin Bay are listed on the NOAA site and the tides at Pumpkin Bay are basically
the same as Buttonwood Bay. Buttonwood Bay is exposed mud at low tide, if you go through
Buttonwood Bay and Fishawk Creek you must do so at something other than low tide.
Also Blackwater River has got a good amount of tidal action, not like the main rivers,
Shark, Lostmans, Chatham, etc., but enough that you want to plan on paddling with it not
against it. You can use the Pumpkin Bay tide station to predict the river and all the
way up to the CSSP marina. After studying the tide times at both the CSSP marina and
Pumpkin Bay I was surprised to see an insignificant difference.
What is the deal with Camp LuLu? Being a non-FL reader, I'm not in the loop.
Camp Lulu Key sits just outside the northern Park boundary (the green line in the screenshot), about a mile from Tiger Key. Since it isn't in the Park, no camping permit is required. Every New Years Eve paddlers gather at Camp Lulu to party. This was my second New Years Eve at Camp Lulu, and I had a great time.
Camp Lulu is small and it fills up fast, that's why I wanted to take the shortest route. I put in at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center ramp at 4 AM and rode the outbound tide through Indian Key Pass, and watched the sun rise over Tiger Key. I made it to Lulu by 7:30 and got a good spot at the east end of the main beach.
I posted this last year. I don't plan on going out this year.
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