Spring Break- Canoes, Gators, and the Everglades

OVERVIEW

Saturday: Leave Charlottesville, Saturday at 5 am—drive around 10 hrs to campsite, that I will be finding soon

Sunday: Depart at 7 AM for Flamingo Ranger station (closes at 4:30)- camp at Flamingo Ranger station for the evening and shower for the week!

Monday: Commence canoeing, Trip will depend on campsite availability and we have many options for choosing routes

Tuesday – Friday— still avoiding alligators with our canoes; Arrive back at Flamingo Ranger Friday night to camp there for the evening.

Saturday- leave Flamingo Ranger Station and drive to campsite after driving around 10 hours to a place that I will determine shortly

Sunday- Wake up early and finish the drive back to Charlottesville, hopefully getting in before dark.

We will canoe several miles each day through lagoons and around beaches in the Everglades National Park. We will be carrying everything that we will need, most likely depending on the route we choose, for 5 days, including food and 5 gallons of water per person per day. We may change this depending on access with vehicles to any areas we choose to explore from the Ranger station. Some routes may provide for access to replenish our supplies. Most of our campsites will be platforms that are above the water with no land/beach underneath them- just water. They are called chickees if you want to look them up- they are pretty sweet.

I will be sending people who sign up further information on supplies shortly when we get an idea of how many people are for sure up for going. Also, if you have any suggestions or if you can’t go because you need to leave/return a day later/earlier please let me know. It is gonna be a long week, and given interest we might chop off a day on one end of the trip to ease with rest and what not before or after the week.

The trip will be fairly inexpensive. Around 60-70 for gas probably per car/ split between the total number of people who come. All food and camping fees should be covered under the club. Then canoes will be several dollars a day/person most likely if we rent from Outdoor Rec. Center. I am working on finding several currently though to avoid this. So that leaves pretty much only food on the way down and back to Florida, and maybe a fishing license should you want one. I would be very surprised if the cost approaches any more than 100 bucks at the most for each person for the week.

This is gonna be an incredible time. As of now, you can look at where we will be exploring on this website-
http://www.nps.gov/ever/upload/WildernessTripPlanner.pdf

We will be putting in around Flamingo and exploring the Hell’s Bay and Roberts Bay area most likely, or we can stay on the other side of the inland waterway and explore the barrier islands that are on the coast.

Don’t miss out on this. I am keeping the number at 8 people/ 4 canoes at this time.