I’ve been procrastinating on writing a report of this trip. How do you summarize an experience like paddling the Big Bend Saltwater Trail? Nine days on the water on a self-contained kayak expedition. Camping in remote locations all but one night where no camping is available. Beautiful sunsets, a regular, almost monotonous coast line, yet wildly varied terrain and vegetation at our camping areas.
The Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail is in its second season. It is 105 miles long and was created for the use of experienced sea kayakers only. Unlike the Everglades National Park trail, it is not safe for canoes because of long passages on open water. Power craft are are not permitted to use the trail campsites. Permits for camping along the trail are required. Permits are issued from September to June.
The trail is remote and isolated. When you venture out onto the Gulf of Mexico, there are few places to run to if conditions get bad. And you must venture onto the Gulf everyday to make it to your next designated campsite. Ours was the thirteenth group to paddle the whole trail.
The trail must be paddled north to south. No permits are issued for south to north travel. The assumption seems to be that groups will paddle the trail in the winter months when the prevailing winds are from the north. However, it’s cold in northern Florida at this time. In practice, more paddlers use the trail in March and April when the prevailing winds have switched to the south. This was our experience. We had strong head winds from the south on seven out of our nine days on the water. These included one twelve mile day of rain driven by steady 25 mph headwinds, gusting to 40 mph, and another day of fog and wind!
The trail is well designed with excellent information on-line ( http://myfwc.com/recreation/big_bend/paddling_trail.asp ) and in the booklet, Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail, produced and sold by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. The Commission visits each campsite on a regular schedule to clean and maintain it. (I’ll tell you about two of these maintenance guys, Warren and Albert, later). For the most part, the campsites are well sited, comfortable and dry. There is an exception - Dallus Creek (more on this later also). The views from these sites are very different, as they are situated on off-shore islands, creeks set in different forest types, marshes, and shore side sites with wide open vistas. And the views are universally beautiful.
Sink Creek at Sunset
I’ll review the trip, the sites, the events of the day and make some observations along the way over the next few days. I will also post more links to information, photos and on the water video. Stay tuned!
