This morning, I logged onto my computer shortly after I awoke at 6:30. I knew that today is their trip through The Nightmare, a narrow strip of water only passable at rising and high tides. One map states it's 8.5 miles, but that must include Broad River, which isn't so broad and can also be a nightmare from what I learned on one YouTube video.
The crew left at 4:41 AM this morning, canoeing through the dark. They have left in the dark hours on two other mornings, perhaps so they could practice for what was ahead of them knowing that they would have to maneuver The Nightmare in the dark due to high tide hours.
Below is one YouTube video of part of The Nightmare which is what my son and crew maneuvered through in the dark this morning.
They made it through The Nightmare by 7:21 AM. Yay!! (Sunrise was around 7:16 AM.) They now canoe Broad Creek which includes another tangled narrow route. **I'm guessing they camp at Harney Creek Chickee tonight. They'll probably arrive by lunchtime, unless they are slowed by tangled mangroves. (**I guessed wrong! Update at the bottom of the blog post.)
A chickee is a not-very-large open wooden platform with a roof in the open waterways. Here's a link to a photo of where the crew camped Wednesday night: Rodgers River Chickee. Yesterday and last night they were able to stretch their legs on some land at the Broad River Campsite. Read about the interesting history of chickees her on Wikipedia: Chickee.
I love being able to track their route, but it can also be nerve wracking.
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My son, Josh, and five friends left Friday evening from Asheville, North Carolina, carrying three canoes on two different vehicles. I last heard from Josh via text on Saturday. I won't hear from him again until after they are finished with their trip; they have a solar charger but are keeping communications at a minimum in order to save power. They have a GPS satellite phone which they use, along with nautical charts, to help them navigate the waters.
They had planned to launch from Everglades City, Florida, early Sunday morning. But, according to the tracking link, it was more like 1:30 PM when they launched.
I track them via a web link that their satellite phone is linked to. It's the same phone Josh and his friend used when they backpacked Iceland for 52 days in the summer of 2015. I tracked them then too. That same friend is on this trip, along with four others for a total of three guys and three girls. A question I'll have to ask Josh when he returns is how they all went to the bathroom on those canoes?
Along with the satellite phone link, I keep open a few other links on my computer: two about the various campsites along the route, two regular maps of the Wilderness Waterway area (one more detailed than the other), and nautical charts which I find online as the crew canoes their route along the Waterway.
Each day I can figure out which campsite they'll probably stop at. So far I've gotten them correct (**until today). It's not that hard to figure out. But the last 17ish miles will be hard for me to guess, unless they paddle 17ish miles that day to the end of their trip at Flamingo, Florida.
Link to the National Park Service Wilderness Waterway Trip Planner
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I checked the tracker around 10:30 AM. They made it to the Harney River Chickee at 10:21:15 AM. Woohoo! GPS times are very specific.
**I checked the tracker later at 11:21 AM. I guessed wrong today about them staying at Harney River Chickee. They only took a pit-stop there (or piss-stop, lol). So. my guess now changes to Shark River Chickee. But whew, that's a lot of miles in one day -- 18.5, I think.
I checked the tracker again around 5:15. And my second guess was wrong too! :D The crew is camping on the ground tonight at Cane Patch, 4 miles east of the Wilderness Waterway, which still means they paddled around 18 miles today, I think. According to the tracker, they landed at Cane Patch around 4:00 PM. The site was once a small sugar cane plantation. Link, with a little history and cool camping story: Cane Patch.
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