To celebrate our 20th adventure, the original plan was for a monster trip to the northernmost US National Park, The Gates of the Arctic. Sadly, those plans were scuttled due to the corona virus travel restrictions. In desperation to come up with a substitute trip that was COVID-proof, we cleverly decided to make it drive-able and headed south to the closest National Park to us, the Everglades. Although the “river of grass” is 4,000 miles closer to us than The Gates of the Arctic (and seems close on paper), it was still a 6-hour+ drive.
Although most of us grew up on the water (calm freshwater lakes mind you), owned our own kayaks/canoes and now had 15 years of backpacking under our belts, we were terrified at the prospect of putting those two things to together for a multi-day trip in an unknown & unforgiving environment. To give us the training and confidence we needed, we “bamboozled” a veteran paddling expert, Patrick Nichols, and his friend into joining us.
Because early December in the Everglades can still be very buggy, our expert friends suggested we stick to beach camping, where the breezes from the Gulf Mexico can help keep those pesky bloodsuckers at bay. Good move. One challenge about the place is that there are zero fresh water sources in the Everglades. We had to pack and carry about three gallons each (about 1 gallon per day). The good news is that we learned that unlike traditional backpacking, weight and bulk of gear/supplies is much less of an issue if packed correctly.
The video of the trip is below. As you watch, please take note of the soundtrack. The carefully-selected songs are all from native Floridians (except for the intro): The Mavericks, John Anderson, Tom Petty and Ray Charles.