APPENDIX 2: LAUNCH SITES
EVERGLADES CITY & CHOKOLOSKEE AREA
All of the paddles out of Everglades City described in this book launch from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center of Everglades National Park. There is no launch fee. However, if launching at low tide, if you have time limitations, or for other considerations, you may wish to choose an alternative site. Each of the launch possibilities listed below also offers additional services, which are described briefly. Check websites and call sites directly for additional details, including pricing.
CHOKOLOSKEE ISLAND PARK & MARINA
1150 Hamilton Ln.
Chokoloskee, FL 34138
(239) 695-2414
► Managers Wayne Schefer and Lynda Schoonover offer services not only for paddlers who launch from their floating dock but also for paddlers just passing by. For a small fee, you can paddle up and take a shower at the end of a long journey or even do your laundry. If you launch here, parking is free for day trips. Also, if you do plan to launch and land here or nearby, you can pitch a tent or rent an efficiency unit for a night.
The shop at the office is small, but you’ll find ice, soft drinks, shirts, and—for those who are fishing as well as paddling—light tackle and bait. If you’re in the mood for a little local reading, you can purchase a book by an author who resides in Everglades National Park, and there’s a possibility you’ll find a special event in progress next door at the waterside chickee. Chokoloskee Island Park & Marina is located on the southwest side of the island.
If this is your first time out and you’d like a guide, Wayne and Lynda can help you set that up with Everglades Area Tours or a private fishing guide. The website above offers photos and information, including rate schedules for tent camping, lodging, and launching.
CHOKOLOSKEE ISLAND RESORT & MARINA
FL 29 South (Smallwood Drive; look left immediately upon entering Chokoloskee)
Chokoloskee Island, FL 34138
(239) 695-3788
► Looking at the website, you might not be able to tell that there is a canoe and kayak launch here. You also might not realize that Kenny Brown, who started working in the family business after school when he was 6 or 7, is available to pore over the charts with you, get you oriented, and tell you some good stories about the area.
The business has changed names several times, but it’s been in the same place since the 1950s. Brown’s ancestors, arriving in Miami in 1859, were among the first to settle in Chokoloskee after the Civil War. He is kin to “just about everybody here,” he says, and he has the genealogical charts to prove it. (Memoirist Totch Brown, mentioned throughout this guide, is one of Kenny Brown’s more famous cousins.)
The company’s paddle-craft launch, a discreet beach opening in the mangroves, offers an easy slide into the water. Short- or long-term parking is available near the launch. The parking fee includes trash disposal and use of the boat-rinsing station and restrooms. Fees are reduced for groups. The small bait-and-tackle shop near the road sells ice, Styrofoam coolers, bottled water, snacks, sunscreen, insect repellent, zip-top plastic bags, and hot coffee. Waterproof Charts are available, as well as a free map for day-trippers who don’t want to purchase the charts.
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK BOAT TOURS
815 SW Copeland Ave.
Everglades City, FL 34139
(239) 695-2591
► Located on the same property as the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, this is an official concessionaire of Everglades National Park. Brenda Hamilton claims, “We have the cheapest canoe and kayak rentals in the whole state of Florida.” In addition to canoe and kayak rentals, the shop sells both NOAA nautical charts and Waterproof Charts, as well as light gear (waterproof packs, water bottles, small compasses, whistles, and so on), soft drinks, shirts, hats, and souvenirs.
GLADES HAVEN MARINA
875 S. Copeland Ave. (FL 29 S)
Everglades City, FL 34139
(239) 695-2628 (marina)
(239) 695-2746 or (239) 695-2073 (restaurant)
► “We enjoy people, whether we’re feeding them, housing them, or sending them out in a boat,” says co-owner Patty Miller. Since 1984, she and Robert Miller Sr. and Bobby Miller Jr. have been expanding all of those services in their location directly across from Everglades National Park’s Gulf Coast Visitor Center.
They offer canoe and kayak launches on a rubber mat spread over concrete, and rental watercraft are available. On-site, there is a convenience store, The Oyster House full-service restaurant, and a liquor store. Glades Haven offers rental duplex cabins and houses, can lodge up to 70 people, and hosts group events.
Visit the website for details about additional services, including bike rentals, food prepared for a boat trip, and a shuttle back from Flamingo if you are planning to thru-paddle the Wilderness Waterway. Glades Haven also offers airport shuttle service to and from Fort Myers, Miami, or Fort Lauderdale; advance reservations are required.
If you don’t have time to thru-paddle, but you want to get deep into the Waterway, Glades Haven will boat-shuttle you and your canoe or kayak as far as you want to go, and then you can paddle back.
HISTORIC SMALLWOOD STORE
360 Mamie St.
Chokoloskee, FL 34138
(941) 695-2989
► In the 19th century, Chokoloskee was a busy center of commerce, receiving boat traffic from points both north and south. On the water passages now known as the Everglades Wilderness Waterway, much of the traffic was heading to or from this very spot.
Today, you can launch from the side of this old trading post perched on pilings at a historic point of Chokoloskee Island. But you must launch when the trading post is open so that you can pay the small launch fee; hours vary seasonally, so call ahead. For day trips, you can leave your car in the museum’s small parking area. If launching for an overnight or the full waterway, you’ll need to arrange to leave the car at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center or elsewhere.
Paddlers passing by are welcome to stop and visit the museum and store. You can buy a bottled Coke from a 1945 Coke machine, the first to appear on Chokoloskee. (It doesn’t look anything like the Coke machines of today.) Bottled water is also available. Just be sure, before you go up the stairs, that you’re not tracking mud and that the bottoms of your shoes are as dry as you can get them. The old boards dry slowly.
Parkway Motel & Marina
1180 Chokoloskee Dr.
Chokoloskee, FL 34138
(239) 695-3261
► Perched at the water’s edge on property that once belonged to the area’s renowned Smallwood family, the Parkway Motel & Marina sits only a short walk from the Historic Smallwood Store. Parkway also touts its southerly position on the island as “the closest access to Florida’s 10,000 Islands, Everglades National Park, and The Gulf of Mexico.” At high tide, you can simply launch over the side of the dock here.
At low tide, you may prefer to go a short distance to a different launch, but you still might opt to spend a night before or after your paddle in the four-room motel, or in the two-bedroom, two-bath house overlooking the marina. All offer free wireless Internet. Managers Geri and Bill Shelburne are quick to invite prospective visitors to check out their ratings on Trip Advisor (tripadvisor.com).
In the small store at the motel office, you’ll find bottled water, soft drinks, caps, shirts, and light fishing tackle. You can also arrange for guided canoe and kayak tours.
FLAMINGO
FLAMINGO MARINA
Everglades National Park
(239) 695-3101
nps.gov/planyourvisit/marinasandramps.htm
► If leaving for a Wilderness Waterway thru-paddle or for a paddle in Florida Bay, you will launch from the Flamingo Marina at the end of the main park road at the Homestead/Florida City entrance. Immediately adjacent to the marina store, canoe and kayak rentals are available from Everglades National Park Boat Tours II.
The store sells navigational charts, sunscreen, insect repellent, head nets, light gear, basic groceries, and ice. Store clerks post current weather conditions on a whiteboard at the checkout.