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Everglades Kayak Trip 2025

Peddle, Paddle, Sail!

Just back from my 29th (!) wilderness trip in the Everglades! This year I went with my younger brother who is a veteran of a similar canoe trip in 2009. We made a tour of the four single chickees in the southern part of the park with an option to boomerang out to the Gulf of Mexico on the tides. The trip pretty much came off without a hitch. Only downside was the nightime temps were in the upper 60s with little or no wind… so we had bugs!

Day 1 (Flamingo & North River)

After spending the night in a motel in Homestead, we drove down to Flamingo to start the trip. We were met by an eleven foot long American Crocodile on the boat ramp. (Why is he grinning?) They are endangered and have a preserve on islands to the east. They must be recovering and spreading out—there are two big ones (11 and 15 feet long) now resident near the Ranger Station. Unlike alligators they prefer salt water.

We made good progress up Whitewater Bay and encountered a real headwind that was not in the forecast. We entered the southern channel of the North River about 5pm.

We had a pleasant time watching the sun set and the crescent moon with a bright planet (Venus?) next to it. We got to our chickee about 9pm.

There were mosquitos of course, but not terrible. It was very warm and humid so I slept in just a shirt and fleece pants. Camping in the hammocks we were nice and cool!

Day 2 (The Labyrinth & Shark River)

Fog in the morning, no surprise. We were not in a hurry so the sun was out by the time we left. This is my favorite place in the southern half of the park!

We proceeded down the north channel until we hit the bay. The wind was maybe 5-6 mph so we did a little sailing up to the Watson River Chickee—where we had lunch.

We were a bit surprised by the new structure made of high-strength aluminum with hard grid decking (some kind of cement-based material?). This was not great for bare feet, so I will be packing deck shoes on the next trip.

We proceeded north and entered The Labyrinth on our way to our next campsite on the Shark River. This was also a brand new structure.

As expected, there were bugs—including a few no-see-ums. This was actually better than I had feared based on my last trip to the area. We had the opportunity to try this heated bug-repelling gadget. It clearly works for mosquitos, but alas does nothing for the more fearsome no see ums.

All in all it was a reasonable evening and we slept well.

Day 3 (Gulf Boomerang & Watson River)

More fog and condensation in the morning. This was the first trip where I planned our itinerary based on the tides. Low tide out in the Gulf at the river entrance was 11:12 AM. It was at least an hour later up where we were.

We got off about 9:00 AM and floated down the river with the outgoing tide. We traveled in parallel with a small manatee for 20-30 minutes. We could see his wake and predict where he'd come up for air.

Shark River Outlet into the Gulf of Mexico

Once we were in the Gulf we had some time to sail in Ponce de Leon Bay.

Then we headed back up a southern channel of the Shark River with the incoming tide. There was a lot of water moving were the river met Whitewater Bay—one foot standing waves in some places. We then proceed across the top of the bay back to Watson River chickee where we'd had lunch the day before. Again we had a mildly buggy night.

Day 4 (Rogers River & Lane Bay)

This was our only real repeat, starting back up the North River. We stopped at the chickee and Bruce took a short swim.

We proceeded to The Cutoff into the Rogers River. Our comfort was aided by a friendly cloud that kept us out of the direct sun for most of the early afternoon. We passed the Rogers River chickee which was occupied by what we took to be fishermen (heavy camping gear, no people or boats present).

After that we saw another manatee in the Lane River. By this time the wind had risen a bit so when we reached Lane Bay the chickee was free of bugs! It was a wonderful last night.

Day 5 (Hells Bay & Return)

The next morning we were challenged by the complexities of navigating into and out of Hells Bay. The exit is quite cryptic and we made a few wrong turns. By the time we were back in the big bay the wind had risen and proved to be quite the headwind across Coot Bay (an experience I've had many times!). After that we ambled down the canal arriving at the take-out about 4pm.