Lostmans River trip notes

Our traditional New Years celebration is kayaking the Everglades. This year, due to fewer holiday commitments, we managed to get a 6-day paddling trip in to bring in the new year. With renewed energy and a lower stress level, I’m going to try to convey by word and photo my experience in the everglades wilderness; home away from home. These pictures were taken by Connie I personally don’t bring a camera on my trips so can’t take any compliments for them. I hope you enjoy the story!

This is one of the busiest seasons in the park, so getting permits for camping is often difficult. Because the park only issues permits within 24 hours prior (and only in person), we made an additional trip to the park station in Everglades City on Dec 26 to get out permits for Dec 27 through January 31. We got lucky as there were at least 20 people standing in line at the station at 7:40 am (the doors open at 8 am). We got all the sites we wanted and happily drove back to Miami to prepare for the trip.

The itinerary was:
Dec 27th - Chokoloskee to Mormon Key (14 miles)
Dec 28th – Mormon Key to Hog Key (8.5 miles)
Dec 29th – Hog Key to Lostmans Five (12 miles)
Dec 30th – Lostmans Five to The Watson’s Place with a detour into Gopher Creek) (13.5 miles)
Dec 31st – The Watson’s Place to Lopez River with a detour into Liquor Still Bay (15 miles)
Jan 1st – Lopez River back to Chokoloskee (5 miles)

My posts will include a description of the trips and the campsites. I’ll include descriptions of wildlife and the landscape; but will also throw in some history. I’ll talk about fishing opportunities and some of the challenges that came with them. There will be tales of found hidden moonshine stills, the killing of Mr. Watson, raccoon management, the dark days of plume hunting, Outward Bound invasions, camping with powerboaters, just to name a few.

Originally, my friends Connie, Michaleen and Esther along with Les were to accompany us on the trip. Sadly, Michaleen was forced to cancel due to health problems. She had purchased a new boat, an Impex Force 3 and was anxious to try it out on this trip. We’ll just have to plan another one when she is strong enough to paddle. She will then try out her new kayak and leave us all in the dust as she usually does. Esther couldn’t get time off from work and Les got complicated during the holidays. So…Connie and I invited our friend Fred to join us, he is a very strong paddler and is comfortable and competent in the wilderness plus he’s a lot of fun to have around. Although Fred and Connie don’t fish they are involved in their own activities. Connie is into photography and usually is somewhere ahead or behind photographing something interesting. I fish, therefore I am and Fred loves figuring out his GPS and plotting courses so he is always entertained.