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Two local ladies, M and V, invited me to go camping overnight with them. We would be paddling in upper Charlotte Harbor. If you look on a Florida map you will find CH south of Sarasota and north of Fort Myers on the Gulf coast; Sanibel and Captiva are two well known islands which lie in the southern part of CH. There are few if any designated camping areas so you are on your own to find a public beach open enough to camp on and which will remain out of the water at high tide. M & V go camping often and so have a few known sites to choose from.
We started out around 11:00 a.m. from Placida. Staying in the Mangrove trails for the first leg, then out into more open water among hundreds of identical looking Mangrove islands. V had a GPS to help us stay on course. In one quiet lagoon we found a large flock of Roseatte Spoonbills which resemble Flamingos in color but with white heads and necks and interesting spoon bills. On a sandy bar along one of the creeks we crossed were hundreds of beautiful white Pelicans which had recently migrated back here to their wintering grounds. All along the way, with every paddle stroke, fish would swirl or splash away, often jumping right out of the water and sometimes nearly landing in the kayaks. The water was alive with them everywhere. We paddled until about 4:00, stopping briefly for lunch along the way on an exposed muddy tide-flat beach among the mangroves. As we ate lunch a large fish swam by, slowly hunting in the shallow water. So shallow its back, back fin and top half of its tail were out of the water. V thought it was a small shark, M said it was a large Redfish. M, being an avid fisherwoman, was probably right.
Winds were NE at about 20 mph and we were more or less heading into the wind most of the way. Our intended campsite was a small beach facing NE on a large open bay; the last 300 yards of paddling were in 3-4 foot surf with a fun ride on the breakers into the beach. Then you have to hop out quick to avoid having following waves dump into the kayaks, and pull the kayaks up onto higher ground out of the surf.
At high tide the beach was barely 20 feet wide from the water to thick mangroves with understory of prickly cactus and vines, poison ivy and other leafy shrubs. The beach itself was a big drift of broken shells and some sand, heaped up by higher water and waves in the past. We lined our tents up along the beach, having some difficulty getting them pitched in the high wind. Finally they were up and tied down to the kayaks so they wouldn't be blown back into the woods. Later as the tide receeded we were able to walk in front of the tents on a bare sandy beach, without getting our feet wet.
In order to cook we put up a tarp under a couple big mangroves for a wind break and huddled our kitchen behind it. M and V, who do this nearly every week, skillfully produced a delicious grilled steak dinner. Later the dishes were washed in the sea. They brought some kindling and we found more dead wood under the Mangroves to have an evening fire and enjoyed the full moon rising. It remained breezy even at dark, an advantage because it kept the mosquitos and no-see-em's from being bothersome. And for me, kept it cool enough that I could stand it...90 degree days, falling to 72 at night.
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Charlotte Harbor (Read 4914 times)
