Great Avocodo Creek

2/3/13

We spent the night on the hook in the upper end of Shark River, right before the big split. 25 23.201'N 081 00.923W

I awoke this morning to heavy dew, and hundreds of dead no-see-ums stuck to the wet surface of the boat. I washed their corpses off, worried about whether they'd stick once they dried!

We had agreed the night before that we wanted to explore Avacodo Creek with the 19' Whaler. What a great decision that was! In addition to a few alligators, which are always fun to see, we saw and amazing array of air plants and orchids, along with an assortment of large birds; herons, ibis, woodstorks, etc. See the Birds of the Everglades section.

We idled down Avocado Creek, stopping frequently to look at air plants and orchids. It was during one of those stops that we heard something crashing through the bushes. I don't know what the pursuer was, but a dark, almost black mammal was evidently running away from something, made it to the creek, saw us and plopped into the water about five feet from us. We weren't real sure what it was, Scott guessed a mink. It didn't dive into the water, but plopped. That may have been the result of the sudden realization we were there, but it sure looked odd.

We also went ashore at Canepatch campsight and walked around. There are a lot of banana trees there, as well as a lot of interesting plant life. Scott disappeared into the bushes and returned announcing he'd found a shell mound, but couldn't persuade Stratton or I to investigate into the buggy, poison ivy laden jungle. (Actually, we were each off exploring in different directions.)

I like to collect sea beans, and asked Scott if he could show me some trees they came from. He did. We found a couple of Nickerbean bushes, and although none had seed pods hanging from them, a dig in the underlying duff revealed a handful of gray sea pearls. These are the first I hadn't found on a beach somewhere! Allen, if you read this, and ask me, I'll send you a couple!

Scott and Stratton had a time that they had to be back home.... hmmm.... Superbowl? so we ran the Whaler back to Flamingo, via the wilderness waterway across Whitewater Bay, said our farewells until next time...

I returned to the boat via Joe's Creek, and up the River (I know, its the long way, but, I hadn't been that way in awhile) My Whaler's plotter looks like I've been trying to put tracks on every waterway, and I suppose I have.