By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
Florida paddling!
Our route
Last month, we headed down for some kayaking in Florida over the Christmas holidays. Nothing unusual about that—this time of year, plenty of people head south for the sunshine and warm water.
In our case, though, the goal was what the Scouts call a “shakedown expedition”: A trip you take before the expedition itself, to get a feel for the environment and its challenges, and decide which equipment is truly necessary. (The usual mistake is to pack too much, which is where the “shakedown” part comes in…)
As many readers know, we’re planning to compete in the WaterTribe Everglades Challenge in March. It’s a 300(ish) mile race for kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats from Tampa Bay to Key Largo. The details of the route are left up to the participants; the only route-related requirement is checking in at three specified checkpoints on the way. (Other requirements include carrying some mandatory gear, and managing your boat and gear without external assistance.) To complete the challenge, you have to finish in 8 days or less, though the awards ceremony is on the afternoon of the seventh day, and if you anticipate placing, you’ll want to finish much earlier!
We don’t take it lightly—a trip like this requires careful planning as well as physical endurance. We’re no strangers to long-distance paddling, but until last year we hadn’t spent much time in the Florida waterways. So we went on our first “shakedown” expedition in April…
…and in six days of paddling, made it just a third of the way, a bit past the first checkpoint. (We’re still writing up that trip, but we described the first three days of it here and here.)
Obviously, more practice was called for!
Now, there were mitigating circumstances—I was in an extra-slow boat (a 12’10” Feathercraft K-Light, my Baby Vulcan). Plus, early in the trip we decided to take it easy and just get a feel for the Florida land- and seascape. So we weren’t too upset by our slow going in the first shakedown expedition.
But one thing we noticed was that we spent an inordinate amount of time making and breaking camp—partly because we were still overpacking, but also because we weren’t as tightly organized as we needed to be.
Through tortuous creeks…
… and shallow waters
So the goal for this trip was twofold: Optimize our organizational skills, and gain a feel for the Everglades, which present what could be called unique navigational and environmental challenges. (That’s a rather bland way of putting things, as you’ll see…)
For this trip, I planned to rent a long, fast boat from the ever-fabulous Sweetwater Kayaks in St. Pete, which as far as I’m concerned is the premier watersports outfitter in all of Florida. (Thanks again to Russell and friends!) Vlad would take his trusty Red Herring. And we’d launch from Chokoloskee, the second checkpoint, and paddle to Key Largo. That would still make for a much slower pace than in the actual challenge, covering only about 40 percent of the distance over 6 days of paddling. But it would be enough, we hoped, to test-drive our newfound organizational skills and learn how to handle the Everglades.
The short version? It was—and then some! To make the story a bit more readable, we’ve broken it down into several sections. Click on the links below to read about what we learned, both overall and on each day of the trip:
Overall: Challenges and Lessons Learned
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Day 1: Headwinds and Night Navigation
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Day 2: Barking Vultures, Beaches, and Bugs
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Day 3: Wind, Waves, and Chickees
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Day 4: Portage, Paddling in the Pitch Dark, and Fending Off Furious Crows
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Day 5: Navigating the Shallows
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Day 6: Headwinds and Homelessness
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A few preliminary photos from the entire trip are here.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 