Day 8- Middle Cape
Today was such a perfect paddling day I think I may have paddled too far. I’ve been nervous about the windy forecasts for the next few days and I got to my intended camp for the night at Northwest Cape at 1 p.m. The water was still calm as could be so I decided to get back in the canoe and paddle even farther. If the next few days are forecast to be windy, My logic was I might as well paddle now in calm weather rather than in winds tomorrow. So today I paddled a total of 17 miles to Middle Cape.
But I actually regret doing that now. Middle Cape isn’t nearly as pretty as Northwest Cape was. Photographically speaking I made a mistake skipping Northwest Cape. Tonight I didn’t get any photos to speak of. I’m not sure if it is because I’m getting tired and lacking any creativity or there isn’t much to shoot here.
After eating dinner in the dark, like I do every night because I shoot till the sun has sets, I got up to wash the dishes. I thought to myself that I really need to replace the batteries in my headlamp, the light is getting pretty dim. Then I realized that it was dim because I still had my sunglasses on! I think exhaustion is starting to set in!
Day 9- East Cape Sable
Today this felt like a camping trip! Lounging around on the beach, cooked, walked, took a short swim/bath and napped in the hammock.
I paddled only a short distance this morning. 3 miles down near East Cape Sable. This is the last stop before the 10 mile paddle across Florida Bay back to Flamingo. I’m going to stay here two nights being I paddled ahead of schedule two days ago. I’m not due back till Saturday.
I’m glad today’s paddle was short because it was no fun. the winds are picking up as foretasted. I wasn’t too worried about the waves coming at me because I had a beach to my left the entire way if I did capsize. I’d look over at the beach and at times I was barely moving at all.
Tonight I’m the southernmost person in the mainland United States. I have East Cape Sable all to myself. Key West is the southernmost point in the U.S. but it is an island, Cape Sable is the southernmost point on the Florida Peninsula.
This Beach I’m on is the same place I shot my all time favorite photo. A photo of a crocodile’s imprint in the sand on the beach. A crocodile had spent the night just down the beach from my tent. I didn’t see it but I saw the impression the next morning about 100 feet from where I slept. That trip was in April 2001, this time being it’s colder in January I haven’t seen any signs of a crocodile at all. I guess they are just like people, they come to the beach in warmer weather.
A small crab clung to his home on this sponge, even as it washed on to shore.
Day 10- East Cape Sable
I think I’m going to throw my weather radio in the Gulf of Mexico. the 20 mph winds the automated computer voice has been warning me about for days is a breeze barely enough to keep me cool in the bright Florida sun beating down on the beach. The Gulf is as calm as can be. I certainly wouldn’t have needed to skip Northwest Cape Sable.
But it was nice not to move at all today, I used the extra time I had today to gather firewood for a fire, being it’s my last night out. Nazan thinks I’m crazy, but I never build a fire on these solo trips. I feel it’s just really more work than it’s worth. I canoe all day, set up camp shoot some photos, make dinner and by then it’s 7 or 8 p.m. and bed time is about an hour away. So I never see the need to build a fire.
Today boredom did set in, about all there was to do this afternoon was watch the brown pelicans dive bomb the waters for lunch. As I ate my lunch I sat there and wondered, how do they get the little M’s stamped on M&M’s. I actually had time to make coffee today, In fact I made three cups. Most mornings I’ve been in such a rush to get on the water before the wind I skipped coffee.
Tonight was especially damp, a thick fog rolled in at sundown, which made for another first for me. A beach fog photo. It also made it very hard to light the nice kindling I gathered this morning for the fire. But it was nothing that some T.P. couldn’t help out. Good thing I had extra left over!
With all my time today I added up the number of miles I’ve journeyed across the Everglades. With this trip it’s a total of 400 miles in 6 trips crossing the Everglades by kayak, canoe and by foot. This isn’t including the dozens of weekend trips I’ve taken when I worked at the Naples Daily News. Even now as I finish up the 10th day out here, I’m already thinking about and planning some future trips. I must like this.
Day 11- Flamingo!
Today was simply getting up stashing everything in the canoe and paddling the last 10 miles back to civilization! Into a headwind of course! But it was good to see the boat ramp in Flamingo where my pickup was waiting to wisk me away to an awaiting frozen pizza and ice cold Coronas.
On the way back I passed a dead crocodile floating in the waters as soon as I entered Florida Bay. It’s a shame to see an endangered species floating dead in the water. It could very well be another casualty from the cold weather.
As I neared Flamingo I paddled past Bradley Key. It looks like any other of the hundreds of mangrove islands you have passed by along the Wilderness Waterway. But Bradley Key is named after Guy Bradley and is the site where he was murdered in 1905 while carrying out his job as a game warden attempting to arrest bird poachers.
The showy feathers of Everglades birds had become very fashionable for women to wear in their hats. The feathers had at one time worth more than their weight in gold to feed the fashion industry. The national outrage over Bradley’s death in part helped the movement to enact laws protecting the birds and raise awareness of the effects of plume hunting.
If the trees could talk out here in the Everglades there would be a lot of interesting stories to be told. There is always more to a place like this than what meets the eye.
Bradley Key near Flamingo
Many years ago I gave a talk at an Environmental History conference about how the ecology of the Northern Gulf of Mexico changed since the 1700s. At that meeting, I realized how interesting the environmental history was. Everything made more sense and brought in curiosity. The fact that you are linking your observations today with the -ever so interesting- history of the Everglades, makes your trip many times more interesting. Our environment can be altered over night due to catastrophic events, but the usual, and often irreversible changes take their time. We don’t see them happening which is why most people are inclined to deny the fact that our environment is changing. Humans and nature are tightly linked and human’s denying these changes is like lying viciously. You know that those lies will be the end of something. I really appreciate your notes. They are informative and stimulate thought. Acompanied with great photography, I think you have documented a fragile environment that is in the crosshairs of human impact.