Tuesday (Day4), SandyBottom bought her Wilderness Permit at the Everglades Park Headquarters at 8:00 am and then headed out with KiwiBird and KneadingWater to start enjoying her travel through the Wilderness Waterway (WW) to CP3.Yes, that's right: SandyBottom, KiwiBird and KneadingWater have formed an ad hoc team to travel the WW together! This made SandyBottom very happy. She loves traveling with friends during the Everglades Challenge.
Insert flashbacks here: Who can soon remember or long forget the EC'05 when SB, ArcticDoc, BilgePump and RescueRandy formed an ad hoc team and had great adventures. Or the EC'06 / UFC'06 with AlaskanSeaHorse and ThereAndBackAgain, and then with DoctorKayak and RiverJohn on the Saint Marys' River. This year will be the first time that SandyBottom will cross Florida Bay without AlaskanSeaHorse! ASH, where are you?
It's icing on the cake that KneadingWater and KiwiBird are wonderful kayaking company: fast-paddling KiwiBird will have fascinating yarns to tell, Cliff Bars galore and other odd Kiwi grog to share; KneadingWater is great company, has experienced 5 Everglades Challenges, and is probably packing whole cases of peanut M&Ms and ice-cold Coke!(Who is that beautiful kayaker in the background of KneadingWater's photo?)
The WW is much like an intracoastal waterway (it has channels and markers on posts) except that it meanders like crazy through the Park following connected rivers and creeks, and it has raised camping platforms called chickees. A $10 permit is required if one is to legally use any chickees. Going through the WW (instead of taking an outside route in the Gulf) adds an extra 30-40 miles to the EC'07. This is her first time traveling the WW.
SandyBottom was planning to leave CP2 at about 9am Tuesday and paddle ~25 miles of the WW to Plate Creek Chickee.
Then on Wednesday she would paddle ~30 miles to Harney River Chickee.
Then on Thursday she would paddle ~30 to CP3 at Flamingo.
This plan leaves Friday for the ~30 mile trip from CP3 to the Finish Line (crossing Florida Bay.)
SB, KW and KB may travel a bit faster than that. Alternative camping spots are Rogers River Chickee in the north and then Oyster Bay Chickee further south.
Cell phone coverage is all but non-existant in the Park; few if any reports from her are expected until she reaches CP3 at Flamingo, FL.
(Flys' note to have handy: the Everglades National Park Search & Rescue number is 305-242-7740.)
[DancesWithSandyBottom reporting]
1 comment:
SB, redeyepaddler here. i was hoping that you possibly blog / enter things such as: did you reef?did you sail in the wildernes waterway at all? what rudder did you use? did it work as you liked?what was the length between swells: 6-8 foot seas? did you need your gps? did it work for you this time? i hope to do EC '08, but only AFTER paddling the course. this years start=my worst fear, not sure i belong on the gulf. need to train there-tides, etc. i live near lake superior, where emersion is DOA. have truely enjoyed blog&WT thread contributions. very calming!
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