Everglades City to Watson Place - 36.4-Miles Kayaking Trip

Everglades City to Watson Place -

36.4-Miles Kayaking Trip

Hello there my fellow adventurers.

 I'm back with a new blog post for this month of March.

Just as I mentioned on my last blog you would hear from soon enough,

and this time I'm really excited to tell you everything about this kayaking trip.

 Let's me start by saying that we had planned this kayaking trip since our last time

the boys and I got together and discussed the possibility of making this kayaking trip.

At the time, it was all a possibility and we needed to explore our options and prepare for this.

How long it would take us? Which were the necessary items we needed to take?

Are we willing to make it this far? Were we mentally prepared for this kind of trip?

These were some of the questions and doubts that raised some concerns within ourselves

and honestly we had second doubts about even planning this kayaking trip.

 After some time we started researching again and made the final decision

to do on the first weekend of March from the 4th to the 6th of March.

 We prepared by doing a lot of exercise, lot of running and cardio weeks prior this trip,

which from what we had read is all we needed on the physical side of this.

Now, the big question was how you do prepare mentally for this?

The simple answer is you can't!

 It all happens in the moment and you find yourself you are about to

embark on one of the most crazy kayaking trips you have ever done.

This had troubled me for a few days prior the trip,
I have always been one of those individuals that thinks is better to be fully prepare

mentally for these kind of situations rather than focusing on the physical side.

We booked our Watson Place reservation for this specific dates

and we were set to depart on Friday the 4th of March.

 The plan was to launch between the hours 12AM - 2AM since

we had been monitoring the weather and tide level around this area.

Alexis and Hector had arrived earlier in the afternoon to pick up the booking passes

at Everglades City Visitor Center and then Miguel and I arrived later that night.

One thing led to another but we ended up spending 1-2 hours unloading and

packing everything into the kayaks just to be ready for the night.

The plan was to sleep off a few hours and rest because we knew we had a tough challenge ahead of us,

however, we were really excited for this trip and drank way too much coffee at this time,

so forget any sleep and rest it was time to launch right there and then!

 Right at the start we encountered our first issue of the night,

Alexis kayak pedals were completely torn apart and there was no time to fix them,

so he had to use his oars as a backup plan and off we were to Watson Place!

 The first couple of miles were really not that great,

it was pitch black and we couldn't see a damn thing.

The great thing about us is that we brought glowsticks, lights, and really good headlamps,

these were attached to our kayaks in order for us to see each other at night.

 One thing that really helped us was having a GPS,

this was the most important we had for ourselves,

through our research it was recommended for us to have one because you can

easily get yourself lost on one of these islands out here and that could

be really dangerous to wander without a GPS in possession.

Our first point of location was passing Lopez River which was about

4-5 miles from Chokoloskee marina from where we had launched.

 We spotted the Lopez River campsite and right there we knew we were on the right path,

that got us really excited and we started gaining some confidence on this trip.

 Next we started seeing these Florida Waterways mark/posts that are built with a sequence

of numbers and I'm guessing this is mainly for boats/kayaks to guide visitors on these rivers.

You can see above on one of the photos the main waterway mark I'm talking about,

funny enough we basically saw this one and a couple of more on the way

there because you couldn't spot a damn thing at night.

 Our next stop was the Crooked Creek Chickee.

We wanted to stop here to make sure we took a quick break

and drank more coffee and maybe a couple of snacks,

to our surprise, there were two individuals camping here at this Creek Chickee,

one of the guys woke up and embarrassing it felt like we were invading their privacy at 3AM.

Now, this was not intentional whatsoever but did felt like that.

 He was kind enough to chat with us and stayed awake until we left,

maybe he thought we were camping here for the night but there was no space left lol,

and also I've been told you need to book these Creek Chickees in advanced.

On our way to Watson Place we were and for the next couple of miles

we focused and rowed really really hard to make it there on time.

There were three main bays we needed to pass in order to reach Watson Place,

we had in front of us Sunday Bay, Oyster Bay, and Huston Bay.

The first two were really big and wide when it comes to the distance,

and the current can be pretty aggressive and difficult on these parts

but luckily for us we made it through with good conditions.

 Somewhere around Huston Bay we started noticing the sun was coming up,

and I have seen some pretty sunrises in my lifetime especially in previous Florida Trail trips,

but this one was one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen while kayaking.

Definitely another one for the collection!

 Once we passed half of Huston Bay we shifted to the right where there is a shortcut river way

just like Lopez River that would lead you straight to Watson Place.

 And to Watson Place we arrived! Boy how happy we were!

You could tell the expression of my face of seeing the campsite just right there.

We ended up arriving around 7:20AM so it took us a good 7-8 hours of rowing.

 As soon as we touched ground we started setting our tents and belongings,

then we had to take a nap of 2-3 hours because we had no sleep.

 The rest of the afternoon was exploring the campsite, eating lunch,

shooting our air gun with pellets, fishing and enjoying this beautiful day in the outdoors.

 Watson Place is very peaceful and very secluded which is one of the main things I loved.

 We barely saw any boats or visitors passing through these waters

just to imagine how hidden and lonely this place is located.

The rest of the afternoon we were cooking so we could eat as early as

possible in order to go sleep and get a good night rest.

 We watched the sunset by the pier and what a gorgeous sunset!

One of those sunsets that feel like a slow burn and

you are just grateful to be there to see it live.

 You can see one of the photos that I shot of this beautiful sunset.

 By 3AM we were up and ready to load everything back to the kayaks and head back to Chokoloskee.

 The way back was a lot easier that we thought.

The sun came out, weather was perfect, and the current really helped us a lot.

 There were times we were going really slow and the tide would carry us through,

 this helped us a lot and we were able to chill and slow our way back.

 We stopped a few location points such as the sandbar before Crooked Creek Chickee,

and the Lopez River campsite which we didn't visit the day before.

 The next 4-5 miles were so easy that we arrived at the marina at 2PM.

 We have done guys! We have finally completed this kayaking trip!

 Just wanted to remind everyone that even though we wanted to do this route,

we had not idea what would have been the outcome of this kayaking trip

but with great planning, effort and believe we were able to complete it.

On our arrival we spoke with a park ranger and started telling

us the story of how this route was an expert level for kayakers,

and that consisted of 18.2 miles each way so that makes it a 36.4 miles total roundtrip!

This is absolute insanity!

I still can't believe we have done the impossible but mostly I'm grateful

to have made it back and being alive which it is always important.

I'm excited to say this is by far one of the best kayaking trips I've done and

I'm pretty sure we will do more in the future but for now this is one of the books!

Not sure what the boys and I have plan next for our future trips but on a personal level I would

have to book something in the outdoors as soon I can because I can't wait to be out there.

Looking forward to what the next couple of weeks will look like,

honestly I have not idea and no plans ready but I'm thinking maybe we'll get back

to something very personal to us, something call the Florida Trail, stay tuned for that one!

As always I hope you guys enjoy all these photos and content as much as we enjoyed this trip.

Thank you for following along with all these crazy trips!

See you soon on the next blog post!

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