Everglades Part II

Not having enough of mangroves and alligators we headed back out for another six days of canoeing in the Everglades.  This time we left from the northern town of Everglades city and headed south along the coast and then back in along the wilderness waterway.  After postponing our trip a day because of the weather we launched with a stiff breeze to our backs and headed out to the gulf coast.  The northern section of the Everglades is remarkably different than the south, here there are tons of islands (thus the name of the area "Ten Thousand Islands" - not sure it seems more like just a thousand), sand beaches around most islands, and very shallow water.  We picked our way out to Rabbit Key for our first night and enjoyed walking around our little isle.  For the next two days we paddled south along the Gulf camping enjoying the weather as it warmed back up into the 80s.  On our last day on the Gulf I caught a bunch of fish and we had some really fresh seafood for dinner.  We then headed inland to the Plate Creek Chickee.  We managed to time the tides just right so the paddling was minimal (especially for me, as I fished while Alexis paddled).  I caught a ridiculous number and variety of fish including a monster that, of course, got away with my lure. 



The next day was by far our most exciting day, we had 16 miles to go so we got up early and headed out before 8.  We again lucked out with the tides and wind and were making really good time towards our next camp.  Then it really started to rain and blow, then as we exited a small creek we saw a big wave moving fast towards us, this big wave also had a large fin sticking out of the top.  Alexis thought for a split second that she was shark kibbles but at the last second the fin swerved and a dolphin - not a shark - went whizzing by us.  The dolphin was so close that, much like the gator on Turner River, she could have poked its nose.  We soon saw a couple of dolphins chasing fish in the bay and doing their best sea-world impression jumps out of the water.  We had so much rain that I had to keep bailing out the back of the canoe so that I wouldn't have my feet in ankle deep water.  We however were the lucky ones with the wind to our backs, we passed a canoe going the other way.  In the 15 minutes we saw them it didn't look like they moved a foot.  We managed to find our chickee for the night and get on some dry clothes.  It took quite a while longer for our feet and hands to dry.  I don't think I have every had hands that pruned in my life.  We woke up the following day to a beautiful sunrise that soon surrendered to a thick fog.  As we headed back to Everglades City to stumbled upon a group of boaters that had driven into the shallows and gotten stuck because of the fog.  They seemed to be in good spirits, perhaps because it seemed that they had already gotten into the beer cooler, and we could hear them through the fog for several minutes heckling each other and laughing about the lack of water under their boats.  I got to dust off my map and compass skills as we crossed the bay with no land in sight, only fog; a bit disconcerting but we found land again after half hour of paddling.  We decided that we absolutely had to camp again at the Skunk Ape facilities.  We are now headed up the western coast of Florida.  We have a week to get to Orlando for our trip to Costa Rica.  You know life is hard when you need a vacation from your vacation.