Ten-year anniversary camping trip - Part I: From IL to the campsite

Thirteen years ago, we had been dating for a few months and I took Laura on a camping trip to Rabbit Key on the Gulf Coast in Everglades National Park.  We camped on the beach and had the island to ourselves.


Just look at that picture!  So much puppy love!  
We wanted to recreate that experience, and were headed down to Florida to meet our friends, the MacDonalds at Disney.  So, started doing some research and discovered that the Big Bend Paddling Trail has campsites for kayakers who are transiting the long-distance passage.  Technically, the campsites are not available for canoeists or powerboaters, but when I looked at the booking site, it looked like they hadn't been booked for months.  We booked it, spent so many hours researching the camping, the navigation, and the fishing.  Quite a few folks on the Florida Sportsman were a big help.  Then we loaded the truck with the camping gear and whatever we'd need for Disney and headed down.  


After a stop to see the Hollands and meet the newest member of their family, Kara, in Bainbridge, we drove to Steinhatchee.


We had been warned not to leave anything in our truck while we were out camping, so we stopped at the River Haven Marina, where Sherry was kind enough to watch our luggage for a few days.  We also picked up some additional tackle because one can never have too many fishing lures!

Then we made the short drive to up the road to the turnoff for Dallus Creek.  It already felt wild as we drove through the pine scrub.

We had planned to get to the boat launch a bit before peak high tide so that we could ride the outgoing tide and avoid getting stuck on shoals.  We were a bit early, so enjoyed our lunch at the landing.  We also met an old-timer, John, in a Grumman canoe who drew us out a map of the river in the sand, preferring that medium to the paper or digital maps that I had on hand.


After (over)loading the canoe, we hit the water.  Peak tide was plenty high, enough so that we were able to cut through most of the oxbows using some airboat trails, cutting the distance considerably.  The paddle out took us maybe 40 minutes and was a breeze.  We hit the Gulf of Mexico, hung a right, and made our way to our private beach for the next few days.



The first things we noticed were that we had a nice stretch of beach amidst the expansive Spartina marsh and that we didn't have the beach to ourselves!





These little guys and gals (guys have one major and one minor claw) were everywhere.  Thousands!  And they moved just quickly enough to avoid being stepped on, returning to the sand each time we left the beach to haul gear up to the camp.  Prepare yourself if you follow this multi-part blog series, because there are going to be lots of pictures of fiddler crabs!

We unloaded all of the camping gear, but didn't set it up.  Why bother when the weather was so pleasant?  Laura did a little nerding out looking at sand, but then it was time to fish.  We were burning daylight!




But always remember before heading out on the water; safety first!


Part II here...

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