Escape from Babylon into the Ten Thousand Islands.

Goodbye Babylon, bye bye.

Hello Everglades tripping!

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Ten Thousand Islands coastal Everglades exploratory paddling route of approximately 84 miles.

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Birds-eye view of the kayak launch at Everglades City from another trip.
Heaven or Hell: Summer paddling and camping in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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The Ten Thousands Islands of southwest Florida have a rich human history that dates back thousands of years. The Calusa Native Americans prospered here, living off the bounty of the coastal marine zone. Rare in human history, they achieved an advanced level of civilization that was not based on agriculture! They left plenty of evidence of just how much (and how well) they ate in the form the “midden mounds”. These are basically garbage heaps, of mostly shells, some quite large! The remoteness and isolation of the 10K attracted white settlers in the last 150 years to eek out a living, often on top of the old Calusa shell mounds. Some of the so called settlers were actually seeking a place to escape to, perhaps permanently.

In the modern era, we can also strive to escape,

if only for a limited time!

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All set for a late PM launch from Everglades City.

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And so it begins again, another Everglades trip with my paddling partner Kayak Ted. We hatched yet another route plan to take us further south along the Ten Thousand Islands coastline and then visit a few interior campsites on the Wilderness Waterway. One of best things about tripping with Ted is that he’s down with (some of) my oddball suggestions, and sometimes he pulls out one of his own. Such as, let’s start our 3 night trip at 5pm, day of! This way we were able to concatenate day one into a quick 11 mile evening paddle out to camp at Pavilion Key for the first night.

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Flying with my stick into the sunset.

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Paddling in near total darkness in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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Evening arrival at Pavilion Key, but wait, is it snowing?

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It can get real dark in the 10K!
The Milky Way came out to play in on a previous trip.
Heaven or Hell: Summer paddling and camping in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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A distant campfire, about three miles north on Rabbit Key.

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Pavilion Key is a popular island campsite in the Ten Thousand Islands, inside Everglades National Park. While the beach camping is very nice, the island also hosts a surprisingly large mosquito population for an offshore island. At night in the darkness when the stars are out and the wind drops, it might not necessarily be a silent night! Protected inside the inner sanctum of a tent, listen to the roar of skeeters overhead – buzzing about for hours until a breeze sends them away!

The island’s name harks back two hundred years to a cruel twist of fate for a young blonde virgin who was imprisoned for a time inside a pavilion made of logs and palm fronds on the isle. She was the only “survivor” of a raid on a Dutch merchant vessel by the pirate captain Charles Gibbs. The rest of the ship’s occupants and crew were murdered out on the sea, while she was brought back to this island pirate camp presumably as a sex slave for the captain. Eventually the rest of the crew grew tired of the captain keeping a live witness to their crimes and forced their leader to surrender the girl’s fate. She was reportedly poisoned* in her meal and died an agonizing, slow death. Not long after, the US schooner Porpoise discovered the as yet uncharted island and found her recent grave and the pavilion structure.

Thus the name Pavilion Key!

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“Ten Thousand little messengers from Hell at Pavilion Key”.
The Milky Way, Polaris and Big Dipper in the no-so-silent darkness of Pavilion Key.

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Later on, under the moonlight at Pavilion Key.

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Come paddling faster (faster), Obey your master (master)
Your miles burn faster (faster), Obey your master, Master ..
Master, Master, (Master, master), Oh Capt. James T Sprayskirt!

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Aerial of tidal flats at Pavilion Key, ENP.

Aerial panorama, northern tip of Pavilion Key.

Pavilion Key has the fine sugar sand of the 10000 Islands.

Camp Kayakfari at Pavilion Key, ENP.

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Morning aerial view on a previous trip of Pavilion Key in Everglades National Park, Ten Thousand Islands.
Camping Hell in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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Loading up to depart Pavilion Key.

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Day two saw us work our way down along the coastline, visiting New Turkey Key for a pit stop. Further south we paddled past the mouth of the Lostmans River, where the Hamilton settler family lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There also used to be an Everglades National Park Ranger Station there too!

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Stop for a short break at New Turkey Key, ENP.

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The beach at New Turkey Key.

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An “Oyster Clam” in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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Next up was Highland Beach, which has about four miles of beach camping possibilities. However we found the nicest camping to be towards the south end of the beach after 20 miles of paddling for the day. This was great beach camping with lots of tall palm trees adding to the scenery.

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Not all campsites are equal. Highland Beach camp recon take #1 – shoreline was a bit steep!

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Much nicer beach camping a little bit further down along Highland Beach, ENP.

On Highland Beach, Everglades National Park.

Kayak Ted had the hunger pains.

The further south, the better at Highland Beach campsite take #2, telephoto view of neighbors.

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My simple and delicious dinner of smoked salmon, scallions, garlic and hot peppers. 🙂
Tasty & Quick Cooking for backcountry kayak campers!

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Tasty & Quick Cooking for backcountry kayak campers!

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Sweet aerial view of Highland Beach in the late afternoon sun.

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A Horseshoe Crab couple gettin’ it on at sunset!

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A glorious Gulf of Mexico sunset.

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In the darkness on Highland Beach.

Campfire glow at Highland Beach.

Camping at Highland Beach, ENP.

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Camping with the stars, before more clouds rolled in.
ART of Darkness – Camping with the Stars! Part II

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Due south along Highland Beach in the AM.

Shoreline clapotis, with a ‘c’!

Ready to paddle into the interior coastal Everglades.

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Day three we headed up the Rodgers River for a quick break on the rebuilt Rodgers River Chickee platform. Afterwards we were paddling across large bays and up mangrove creeks towards the start of a series of mangrove lined, but lake-like bays. Perhaps the first of which is Onion Bay, home to Onion Key. The key was once also a Calusa shell mound and came to prominence briefly as the sales office of The Tropical Development Company in the 1920s. This company reportedly sold upwards of ten thousand property lots before a hurricane in 1926 wiped out their swampland real estate scheme!

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Setting off from Highland Beach in the AM.

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This simple laminated Google Earth printout sufficed for maybe 90% of my navigational needs.
(For the remaining 10% I thanked Ted’s GPS unit.)
Learning to correlate maps with reading actual terrain and water is an acquired skill that takes time to master but can be immensely satisfying.

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Drive-by of Rodgers River Chickee in Rodger’s River Bay.

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“You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed.”

On Rodgers River Chickee.

It is sad that this is necessary.

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Cruising the Banana Boat on Big Lostmans Bay.

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After 25 miles of paddling on day three, we arrived at our destination at the Plate Creek Chickee. This is a small single platform, situated right next to a large clump of mangroves which became the source of the bugs for the night to come!

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Arrival at Plate Creek Chickee on Plate Creek Bay, ENP.

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Plate Creek Chickee is a single, which is perfect for two paddlers.

“Security cam” view camping on the Plate Creek Chickee.

Home sweet home on the Plate Creek Chickee.

Camp Kayakfari on the Plate Creek Chickee.

Camp Ted being inflated. 😮

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Much later on, the waning crescent moon peaked out through the clouds.

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On low tide, re-boarding was tricky because the feet don’t even reach the boat!

Packing up camp on the chickee at low tide. Ted was able to pull his boat up a higher tide previous afternoon.

Ted assisted me in reloading my gear into the hatches.

This clump of mangroves right behind the Plate Creek Chickee was the source of the bugs!

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The tide differential and the way the chickee is situated are significant because at low tide the platform is more than four feet above the water. This can make unloading difficult and re-loading gear into hatches almost impossible without some help. Luckily Ted was able to assist me and everything got loaded up as it should. He was able to avoid any issues by pre-loading his own kayak on deck.

We then set off on day four of our escape adventure!

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Low tide under the Plate Creek Chickee!

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Surprise boater encounter on a small creek approaching Tarpon Bay.

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Pit stop at Darwin’s Place on Opossum Key in Cannon Bay, ENP.

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Crazy from the bugs aerial view of Darwin’s Place from another trip.

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For our last stop on final day four, we did a quick drive-by of the old moonshine liquor still of Totch Brown fame. To help preserve the integrity of this site, I am purposely vague with our route and omitting any directions – sorry!

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Next stop at Liquor Still Bay, site of Totch Brown’s moonshine still.
Note the rotted wood plank just under the surface, indicating the location of the entrance.

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ART at Liquor Still Bay – hidden history in the Everglades.

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The path leading into the liquor still site.

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Cheers to all Gladesmen!

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Setting new fashion trends for paddlers!
ART at Liquor Still Bay – hidden history in the Everglades.

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Totch Brown’s Liquor Still deep in the Ten Thousand Islands of the Everglades.
Moonshine in the 10 000 Islands of the Everglades.

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Departure from the liquor still site, hidden deep in the mangroves.

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Kayak Ted checking that he has enough gas to return to Everglades City.

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After this it was routine paddling just as easy as 1 – 2 – 3 .. !

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In the end, our last day of paddling was the longest at 28 miles. We actually had a nice progression of 11, 20, 25 and 28 mile days. The conditions were mostly favorable, the bugs weren’t that bad on this adventure, and it was a great trip in the Ten Thousand Islands.

A fun escape from Babylon into the Everglades outback! 🙂

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Late afternoon arrival back at the Everglades City launch. 🙂

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Don’t forget to read Kayak Ted’s account of this trip!

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The End.

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You may also like these similar variations:

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Moonshine in the Ten Thousand Islands

Moonshine in the Ten Thousand Islands!

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Camping Hell in the Ten Thousand Islands

Camping Hell in the Ten Thousand Islands.

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Heaven or Hell: Summer paddling and camping in the Ten Thousand Islands

Heaven or Hell: Summer paddling and camping in the Ten Thousand Islands!

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ART at Liquor Still Bay – hidden history in the Everglades

ART at Liquor Still Bay – hidden history in the Everglades!

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! Bless UP

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© 2020 – 2022 Flex Maslan / kayakfari.com / awakenthegrass.com. All original photographs, artworks and music in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Flex Maslan, unless otherwise noted. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited.

All rights reserved!

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DISCLAIMER:

The maps and images on this site are not intended for navigation, I am not a guide; use any and all information at your own risk! Your mileage may vary .. so use good judgement before venturing out!

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I hereby disclaim any sponsorship, endorsement, nor association with any product or service described herein. The photographs, depictions, products, and ideas presented on this site are for informational purposes only. Your results may vary, and I do not imply nor guarantee the effectiveness, suitability, design or operation to adhere to any standard. I assume no legal responsibility for the implementation of anything herein presented! Use any and all information at your own risk! By using any and all information from this website, you accept the final liability for any use or possible associated misuse!

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With that said..
Blessings friends!

🙂