florida salt water trail

Wilderness Tripping
#1

planning on doing a section(s) of the forida salt water trail in january .i will have approximately 10 days …in a kayak …looking for wilderness - tent camping and good fishing … coming from toronto so looking for interesting ecosysytems…recommendations thanks stan

#2

trail
Hi–Saw a show on Everglades National Park and the paddle trail thru the park. Looked awesome with special platforms to camp out and some had small shelters too. sorry im not much help but the route and lack of paddlers and great camps looked really tempting…

have a good trip

#3

There are multiple Everglades routes
You might look at this



http://evergladesdiary.com/index.html



The Wilderness Waterway is mostly mangrove and the Gulf side entirely different.



The campsites are not solely chickees…there are ground and beach sites.



Chickees can be a problem to access from a kayak at low tide. You will have to stand in your cockpit. Its doable.



also visit the NPS site.http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm



January in South Florida can be cold. Leave your bathing suit at home. Most likely in the ten days you will have at least one night near freezing and at least one cold front from the north that whips up the wind. The seas and the wind are both formidable and its a good learning ground for discovering how to travel with the tides and read charts. For ten days I would plan two wind days. Just like Superior.

#4

Links for the Salt Water Trail
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/paddling/saltwater.htm



Have never been on any of the Saltwater Trails but have always wanted to do the Big Bend Trail.



http://myfwc.com/RECREATION/WMASites_BigBend_paddling_trail.htm



If you don’t want to drive all the way down to Florida you might want to look at the Okefenokee Swamp in Southern Georgia.



http://www.fws.gov/okefenokee/WildernessCanoeing.html

#5

Big Bend section.
I paddled from the Econfina River to the mouth of the Suwannee River. Great trip! I have all the locations for camping, lodging (if needed) fresh water and the like. The greatest distance on that portion is 14 miles. May even be able to help outfit your trip. Email me for more details if you like.

#6

wilderness
The only section that remotely qualifies as wilderness is the ENP. The big bend area has some nice sections with long stretches of salt marsh shorline and no structures on the shore, but you are always close to civliztion there. And the other sections all have a skyline of condos and houses. There are scattered areas of barrier island state parks, but they are a small oasis in the developed areas.

Certainly some good paddling in these areas, just not wilderness.