Calusa Blueway Trip Report Part 1

First off, props to Bill and Mary Burnham. If you are looking for an all inclusive guided trip in the Florida Everglades or Keys and Barrier islands I can not more highly recommend the Burnhams. Their knowledge of the area, tides, lodging, and weather is solid. And they cook smashing food! They even managed to provide me, the gluten-adverse, and James (no raw tomatoes) with plenty of yummy food. http://www.burnhamguides.com/

Mary

Bill

Mary and Bill below (with Jaclin) while making us lunch. It seems like this is the day they made the best tuna salad I have ever eaten!

Now for the trip: We left icy nasty Northern Virginia at about 8 pm Wednesday 1/29/14. We drove until about midnight, stayed at a Days Inn (I think, I was pretty torched). We drove the rest of the trip starting at 07:00 the next morning after (free) breakfast at the hotel. That night we were booked at the Bokeelia cabins that were conveniently located at the launch site. http://tropicstaradventures.com/

We finished our 1100 miles journey at about 8 pm. Whew.

We were to meet our group and guides at 10 am on 1/31/14 at the launch. 

We started packing and discarding items from our kits at 6 am. Mary had sent us a list of suggested items and said to use a 20 liter dry bag for clothes and a 5 liter for cosmetics. They provide the bags but we had our own and didn't use any of theirs. We brought our own camping stuff, tent, sleeping pads, etc, as well. We also had one 5 liter dry bag of electronic stuff chargers, batteries, head lamps. And I had to carry a 5 liter bag of meds and personal stuff that is kind of unmentionable but goes along with my chronic health issues.

Jaclin launching, and others preparing to carry the fully loaded boats down. We used four or more people to carry each boat. The Burnhams have worked out a system to move the fully loaded boats without damaging them.

The Burnhams can provide boats but we brought our own. Myself I brought my Current Design Solstice GTS and James brought his Point 65N XO 16. We put our deck bags on and stuffed the heck out of our boats. We each received a full 10 liter water bag (dromedary) to carry for the group. As well, I received a package of frozen shrimp which I tossed up fore of my foot pegs and James stowed group cook ware. 

It was cool and rainy when we launched. We paddled out of Bokeelia and on to Cayo Costa Island (Cayo Costa State Park) where we had a two night stay booked in a pair of primitive cabins and two campsites. The water was a bit rough so I didn't take many photos of the start of our journey.

James

Myself right after launch

Right from the beginning my camera acted up. This Nikon Coolpix AW100 is toast. It was at one time water proof but the gasket around the battery/card slots now lets a slight amount of water in. I had planned ahead and brought 60 1 gram silica packs. I stowed the camera in a clear dry bag with 5 new packs each night. In the morning it would be dry but inevitably I would either drop the camera in the water or take a good splash up over the deck and poof, the camera would be fogged up inside again. From today on, I have no water proof camera. It either stays in a dry bag designed for cameras or I just don't carry one. Sadly, this must be. Eventually I will be able to replace it but I am fund-less until at least  April. I must pay to play and so sadly, must return to my desk at the cat hospital in order to buy new gadgets and just be on the water, in general.

But enough of that, the trip report awaits! Ah, birds...This is very front and center for me. I paint and use photos I have taken to assist me in recreating the beautiful bird life I have witnessed. Birds are dear to my heart.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron seen with in five minutes of the group launching

ubiquitous selfie...

 We stopped for a lunch break on a tiny mangrove island half-way to Cayo Costa.

Kind of rough landing amongst the mangroves. There is a technique to landing on barely existent beach among mangroves, which I had to learn, and would serve me well on the 6 day trip

As I said, the water was a bit rough and the camera, not so good

Approaching the beach where we would be camping

The water went from a dark gray blue in the Pine Island Sound to an amazing opaque turquoise-green as we passed on to the Gulf side of Cayo Costa Island. As the water was rough it was wasn't clear as it would be on following days. The beach was soft sand, a big difference from the Keys that I had paddled a mere three weeks ago. We set up our tent in the site next to the Burnhams, opting to sleep together rather in the gender assigned group cabins.

The next morning dawned cloudy but warmer and with quiet winds.

Nice collection of high end boats. Current Design was well represented with the largest number of boats under their brand.

I had an embarrassing episode the night before where in my 2 liter dry bag holding my actual meds, antihistamines, you name it, had gone missing. It had worked its way into the long nose of my "Dragon" boat and was not visible to myself, nor the three other people who looked. Dork. Bill saved "the day" when he reached his long long arm all the way into the boat and was just able to feel it and snake it out. So the next morning I put the one tiny dry bag in a larger clear 5 L dry bag which I would then carry with me for the duration of the trip. I put the long bright green Hawaii lanyard on it, both to make it easy to see and easy to carry on my shoulder, almost like a hand bag. If one really gets to know me, one of the first conclusions reached will be that I love bags, bags of all sorts. So it was comical to me to be forced to carry this dry bag as a purse. You can see the 5 L bag I mention on the deck of my boat above. Really embarrassed myself, but now it's just comical.

We were sight seers this day. We had a base camp and a group of us, minus Mary, paddled out in the after noon to explore Cayo Costa. It was an interesting trip. At one point we portaged over the island from the Gulf side to a static lagoon on the other side. From there we paddled out into the Pine Island Sound and back around to our campsite, about a 13 mile circuit. We had a nice dinner and fire with s'mores. We headed back to camp to police our stuff for the early morning take down and launch.

James