Finally planning a trip...

[clarenancy]

...even though I still don't have a pirogue. My kitchen is nearly done though. Cabinets in. Appliances in. Countertop...not in! :shock: The boy is back from Canada though, so I can enlist his help on boat building very soon.

But, a friend of mine is going to give me his aluminum canoe. I've used it before. It will do the job.

I've got a doctor buddy who used to paddle collegiately. She's quite the competitive little lady. She moved down here from Huntsville and she's dying to go paddling. She's going to borrow a PokeBoat from one of our co-workers.

SO...as soon as she's got a free weekend. Not the next one but the one after, I think, we'll take the Bartram Canoe Trail to Indian Mound Island. It's a day trip. There and back. Lunch at the mound.

http://www.outdooralabama.com/outdoor-a ... /index.htm

We'll be passing these floating camping platforms. Never camped on one before, and I wouldn't do it this time of year. But I'm curious if any of you guys have experienced this. Pros? Cons?

It will also be Miss Mollie Labrador Brown's maiden voyage.

I don't think any of you guys are in my neighborhood, but if you are, give me a heads up and you can join us. This trail puts in at Rice Landing in Stockton.

Clare

 

[bearridge]

Friend Clare,

I wonder if yer Bartram iz the same az the Carolina Bartram? If so, he sho covered a heap a ground back in the ole days. Huntsville haz a fine whitewater canoe club. Yer pal mite know some of 'em?

I am way north of Mobile, but give up on campin' til fall.....too danged hot....too danged many skeeters. The Thankful Days/Christmas/New Year/Jan/Feb/Mar iz good. April aint bad, but I like ta head fer the mountains in April 'n May.

Mebbe if a strong gulf wind blows the whole time?

regards
bearridge

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. Albert Einstein

 

[Kayak Jack]

Ya gotta wanna paddle awful bad to do it in an aluminum canoe and a Poke boat! I hope you have and enjoyable trip, and an uneventful return. I'm looking forward to a trip report.

 

[clarenancy]

It's a very short trip. Two to three hours up and the same back. Leisurely, I'd say.

Dr. Carol isn't sure about borrowing the poke boat. She has a canoe at her beach house but she has used the poke boat around Weeks Bay and she liked it very much. Her husband keeps promising to get them a fishing kayak but she wants to paddle and play naturalist. He wants to sit and fish.

I'm thinking of talking her into building herself a pirogue with me. She isn't much acquainted with power tools, but she's smart and able. I figure if she can create clothes for her children that don't fall off she can stitch wood together that won't spring a leak.

She's much keener on the poke boat than I am about the 'luminum canoe. We'll each do tandem. I'm going to sweet talk husband Walter and she's gonna harass one of our co-workers into jumping in the poke boat with her.

And yeah, John Batram and his son William traveled all over the Eastern states collecting flora data.

John Bartram

William Bartram

As to the heat. It doesn't bother me too bad. We get good breezes due to our proximity to the Gulf and there is lots of shade on this particular "trail".

I'll tell you 'bout the trip when we've done it.

Clare

 

[bearridge]

Friend Clare,

More'n more I answer questions nobody asked 'n dont answer the ones they did. :cry: Chuck 'n some of the others on here slept on "chickees" in some swamps down in the sunshine state. Bein' geezers they mite have missed yer question the first time round too. :wink:

regards
bearridge
paddlin' geezer canoe clud

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30. Unknown high school student

 

[oldsparkey]

They are a kissing cousin to the Chickees they have in the Everglades National park and the Okefenoke Swamp in Georgia. If you ever paddle either of those on overnights there is a good chance you would be spending the night on one of them. They are used where there isn't any dry ground and are quite comfortable.

A hammock can be hung between the uprights and tents on them have to be freestanding ones , no nails are allowed and forget about having a camp fire on one. :lol:

Several of them in the glades are doubles with a walkway connecting them and a chemical toilet at the middle of the walkway. They are a good way to great away from the bugs in the summer down there. Most of them are about 60 feet from the mangroves , except Plate Creek it backs right up to the mangroves , sketters and coons.

The Round Top Shelter (Chickee) in the Okefenokee is a great place for sunrise or sunset pictures over the swamp. It sits out in the middle of the prairie ( Chase Prairie) and has little protection from the woods so it is advisable to tie your tent down. On the plus side it does have a picnic table.

Yep... Have camped on them a lot of times.

Chuck.

 

[clarenancy]

Thanks for the info Chuck.

I can see where a hammock would be useful there.

Now see, THAT's a good use of tax dollars! Making a way for folks to camp on a swamp.

Why do they call them Chickees?

 

[dangermouse01]

Why do they call them Chickees?

A chickee is a type of home invented by the Northern Seminole tribe. Chickee is the Seminole word for "house". The chickee style of architecture - palmetto thatch over a bald cypress log frame - was born during the early 1800s when Seminole Indians, pursued by U.S. troops, needed fast, disposable shelter while on the run. A raised wooden platform was also built into the sleeping and working chickee to provide cooling and protection from animals, insects, and flooding. Each chickee had its own purpose and together they were organized within a camp type community. Chickees were used for cooking, sleeping and eating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickee

Now, the chickee dont actually float, they are built on pilings. So as the tide comes in or out, the distance from the water to the platform changes. When we camped in the glades last Feb, we got to the chickees near high tide, which meant you could lay on your stomach on the chickee and get stuff out of the hatches of you kayak. Loading up in the morning at low tide it was about a four-five foot difference (with the tides we had), little bit more challenging. But from a canoe it should be easier.

DM

 

[oldsparkey]

Loading a canoe at low tide can be a real trick to get done off a chickee at low tide. If there are two guys ,or more, it is not to bad , one in the canoe and the other handing the stuff down to him.

I can see where a kayak would be a nightmare to load at low tide. Especially the chickees in the glades. Most of the ones I have camped on had black tip sharks or an gator swimming around them. Not someplace where a body would want to go swimming. :lol:

Heck , the one at ( Little) Shark River ( Junction of the Labyinth Route) is over 5 feet from the water at low tide.

Chuck.

 

[clarenancy]

Thanks DM. That's good info.

I can't tell for sure by the pictures, but the ones on the Bartram Canoe trail are called "floating campsites", so I presume they really float on the water. I'll find out for sure when I go, of course.

Pictures as the link.

http://tinyurl.com/6gh2o3

Clicking into a few of the pictures, is does seem that the docks are afixed to the shore by two large pipes.

Clare