NEW YEAR’S EVE IN THE KEYS

Paddle/Camping Trip to Biscayne National Park, Florida

Dec. 27, 2009 - Jan.1, 2010

Biscayne National Park has been called the jewel of the National Park System. The park covers over 285 square miles of shallow sub-tropical water, reefs and islands (keys). Winter is the dry season and temps average 80 high and 60 low, but can vary considerably. Visit http://www.nps.gov/bisc/ for a more complete description.

Departure:

We’ll meet at Park Headquarters at Convoy Point on Biscayne Bay due east of Homestead, FL at 10:00am on Sunday Dec. 27 to organize for a noon departure. Parking is safe and free at the park.

Level of difficulty:

This is an advanced paddle trip since it is 7 miles across Biscayne Bay to Elliot Key. Winter weather, although mild, is unpredictable and could include wind and choppy water with 1-2 foot waves. If it is worse than that, we’ll wait for better conditions before embarking.

Facilities:  

We’ll stay in the developed campground with facilities on the bayside for our headquarters, but primitive camping is available a half mile distant on the Atlantic Ocean side if you prefer to camp more rustically. We’ll have some amenities not usually available for wilderness paddling trips.

· The campground has picnic tables and grilles.

· There is fresh drinking water and there are restrooms with cold-water showers.

· We’ll have a small escort boat (totally green, solar/electric, of course) to carry coolers and tents.

· There is cell-phone service on the island.

· There is a protected harbor with a water-level dock for kayak landing.

· There is a boat shuttle available for you or a non-paddling companion, and you can even have your boat hauled out with you (but it’s not cheap.)

Day Excursions:

• We’ll do a day trip up to Boca Chita Key and lighthouse 3-1/2 miles to the north (http://www.key-biscayne.com/kb/keys/bocachita/index.html) .
• We’ll do another day trip down to Adams Key ranger station 4 miles to the south (http://www.nps.gov/bisc/planyourvisit/adamskey.htm )
• We can trundle the boats across Elliot Key to the Atlantic side using wheeled carts, then paddle out 1-2 miles to the reefs for snorkeling. There is also surf fishing and snorkeling right out of the campground.

Return Trip:

We’ll plan to make the return crossing on Friday the First, but this could be changed to accommodate the group or could be split into two groups returning on different dates. Also, we’ll be subject to the whims of the weather, and the departure day could be moved up or postponed at the discretion of the trip leader.

Expenses:

We’ll split the expenses for the Biscayne portion of the trip equally. That will include:

• $20 per night for the escort boat with a campsite for 6 people and 2 tents
• $15 per night for each additional campsite for 6 people and 2 tents. (The rangers are pretty laid-back, so we can probably have extra solo tents.
• We’ll also split the cost for parking the tow vehicle with trailer at nearby Homestead Bayfront Park, which I believe is still $10 per night. I believe that parking for other vehicles at Park Headquarters is still free.
• For example, camping expenses for a group of 10 campers would be $225 for 5 nights; thus each camper’s share would come to $ 22.50.

Interested?

Interested paddlers should email Ted to set up an organizational meeting sometime this summer (we’ll need to take our boats out and practice anchoring and rafting-up for swimming and snorkeling.)

• Space will be limited to eight paddlers so that we can support everyone with only one escort boat. We could possibly take more campers if non-boaters join us and ride the shuttle boat out.
• Round-trip fare for the shuttle is $50 per person and boats cost another $50 each arranged in advance by appointment.
• You should be a member of Chota and sign a release in advance of this trip.

Ted Buel  (865) 584-8543   gtdesigns@juno.com