Picnic Key Camping

Tuesday morning, we woke up and had a great breakfast at Ivey House before checking out.  It was just a short drive to the Gulf Coast Visitor Center at Everglades National Park.  Here we met with Dave and the others in our camping group.  After getting our stuff safely in dry bags and packing the kayaks, we paddled out across Chokoloskee Bay.  Due to low tide, it was very mucky getting into the kayak.  Once across the bay, we started paddling out towards the Gulf of Mexico through Indian Key Pass.  This is also the route used by the tourist boats from Everglades City, so we had to stay to the side.  Dolphins like chasing the motor boats - kayaks are too slow for them - but we did see some chasing the boats.  Since the tide was coming in, paddling through Indian Key Pass was difficult.  We stopped for lunch on a shell mound and then made the last strenuous bit to get out to the Gulf of Mexico.  In the distance was One Tree Island.  Formerly connected to one of the Sand Key islands nearby, a hurricane had washed out the land between and now the island was so small, only a single tree grew here.  Getting out of the channel, it was a little easier and we paddled another mile or so to Picnic Key, our home for the next two nights.

Once on shore, we set up our tent on the beach a good ways back from the high tide line.  While we were swimming in the warm Gulf waters, Dave made a delicious dinner of stone crab, fried grouper, and salad.  I’m not a big fan of seafood, but it was very good.  Normally when camping, I eat Raman noodles or Beefaroni, so having real food was great.  After dinner, we relaxed on the beach and watched the sunset.

At about this time, the wind and waves calmed down and the bugs got pretty bad – lots of mosquitoes and no-see-ums.  Seeking shelter in our tent, we waited an hour or so and the bugs died down a bit and we went for a short walk.  It had been a long day and so we went to bed early.