Day 3 on the Florida Keys Paddling Trail

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Day 3 on the Florida Keys Paddling Trail

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Last seen: 02/12/2008
Location: Florida
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Submitted by Burnhams on Mon, 2008-02-04 08:15. Touring/Sea Kayaking

Total: 10 miles. We hopscotched from oceanside to bayside (checked out the no motor zones around the Cotton Keys--awesome bird-watching!), stopped at Lorelei's for a break (met some super Canadians, Rob and Lori, who will paddle with us tomorrow), went back to the oceanside to say hi to Sparrow at Bud & Mary's, then back to the bayside to arrive at the famous Robbie's Marina.

This is just one of the things that makes paddling in the Keys so extraorindary: pretty much wherever the wind is blowing from, you can find a sheltered lee either bay or oceanside, slipping between the island and often times under remaining segments of Henry Flagler’s famous railroad.

As far as expeditioning goes, the Upper Keys can hardly be described as "remote." Unless we deliberately head for an off-shore island, Route 1 is always close at hand. We can pull our kayaks up to a restaurant for lunch. Friends feed us breakfast, help us launch, and meet us at day's end.

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. Who wants to bet I won't be listening to it on a radio sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the woods.

Good friends, old and new. Good times. Add to this the Keys’ inherent natural beauty, and you have the makings of a trip unlike any we've made before.

Take, for example, Coconut Cove Resort (www.coconutcove.net) on Windley Key. I would call it a classic "keysy" place: no paved driveways, small efficiency apartments, friendly staff, great water views, lots of palm trees. Just pulling in re-kindles a laid-back, island-time kind of vibe. Am I being overly idyllic? Perhaps. But it underscores how comfortable and welcome we felt when we arrived in dirty, smelly paddling clothes, unkempt hair, and camping gear piled high on a chambermaid's cart we wheeled from boat ramp to tent site.

Fast-forward five hours and 11 miles paddling from Windley Key down the bayside of Upper Matecumbe (Islamorada) to the Kayak Shack at Robbie's Marina. For those who don't know, Robbie's is best known as the place in Islamorada you can buy a bucket of fish and hand-feed huge(like more than 100 pound) tarpon.

John Simons and his right hand man Jay run kayak rentals and eco-tours from the Kayak Shack at Robbie's. It is a perfect launch spot for historic Indian Key (more on this tomorrow), Lignumvitae Key State Park, or mangroves tunnels behind Robbie's. We arrived at their doorstep in our kayaks about 2:30. Our paddling buddy was Christine Clarke, logging an impressive second consecutive day for a 21 mile total. (Cynthia couldn’t come -- she had to do some real work! Hhhrrrumph!)

Before you could say "Superman," Mary and I had ducked into a portable toilet, swapped wet shorts and shirts for our dry set, and spent the next two hours talking with Kayak Shack customers. John set our books up on a paddleboard supported by two lobster traps. Micah played a set of his acoustic “Islandgrass”. Sarah and Greg were there. Folks pulled up chairs, sipped a beer and relaxed in a warm afternoon sun. Girls in bikinis flitted by, throwing out a request for Buffet's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (Micah played it, grudgingly). Out on the dock, fishermen filleted the catch-of-the-day, their work station surrounded by an eager audience of pelicans and egrets hoping for some of the by-catch.

Earlier I'd mentioned friends both old and new. Rob and Lori are in the latter category. They sniffed us out on the beach at Lorelei's restaurant (no margeritas this day, just a bathroom pit stop). We invited them to meet us at the day's end at Robbie's. These two winter refugees from Toronto not only bought a book, but signed up for our author's paddle to Indian Key. We, in turn, invited them out to The Sea Shanty at Smuggler's Cove to see Micah and The Barstool Sailors (featuring Nick, and Greg, Micah's brother, on the djembe). And that, my friends, is how the night ended: doing a my best West Virginia two-step to "Tan Girl" with Mary, Sarah and Kelly.

People ask what the hardest part of the trip has been so far. I can honestly say, "Getting enough sleep." This is way too much fun!

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