NewYearsTrip: Collier Seminole SP

Collier Seminole State Park, December 31, 2018 - January 4, 2019

Collier Seminole is about a hundred miles South of Oscar Shearer. There are two main roads in that direction: I-75 and the Tamiami Trail. (The Tamiami Trail is the old road connecting TAMpa with MIAMI. Its construction across the Everglades was an impressive effort, and the route from Naples north is the traffic clogged main drag for every town.) Both parks are on Tamiami, but in between are countless traffic lights trying to rein in the madness of the psychotic drivers inhabiting SW Florida. I-75 is mostly snowbirds and semis and speeders, so we chose the faster route. Between strong winds and trailer of kayaks and 70 mph speeds, Ernie spent the drive never getting more than 16 miles per gallon.

Collier Seminole is outside Marco Island and Naples at the Western end of the single lane portion of the Tamiami Trail across the Everglades. As a State Park, it's unaffected by the current shutdown of National Parks. (Our reservations starting Friday are in Everglades National Park, and that may prove to be a problem.)

Sharon got our reservations here because several of our friends chose to come here for New Years. Dale and Mary, George and Michelle, Mari and Jerry, Sterling and Susan, and Gary and Kathy all arrived just after Christmas.

Being the last to the party, we were heartened that we were welcomed to their New Year's Eve party. A great potluck and games and gift swap, it was a fun time to complete 2018.

We started the new year with a hearty breakfast. George brings his grill and used his grillmaster abilities to cook up potatoes, bacon, sausage and eggs as everyone wants. Yum.

Most of us then gathered and caravanned to Turner River with our kayaks. Turner River is one of my favorite paddles, wending through mangrove tunnels narrow enough that a kayak paddle is too wide to use. And when you break out of the tunnels into a more open area, you usually find alligators sunning. Pictures from the paddle are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/XRFUmto3zBpspxs68

 Wednesday morning saw an exodus of many of our friends, with only Dale and Mary staying an extra day. We rode with Dale on the mountain bike trail in the park. No climbing, and we were lucky it hadn't rained recently, so the trail was completely rideable. But short. So we rode it twice. The roots were slippery, so we had to stay alert.

Sharon and I decided to go for a short paddle in the afternoon, but we ended up doing the full loop instead of the out and back I thought we agreed to. It ended up being a 14 mile, four hour paddle, with only one place we could have gotten out for a stretch. The water was high enough in Mud Bay that I only hit bottom once. Sharon scraped a few times on lurking oysters. The tide was going out, so our return paddle was against the current. We tended aching muscles (my hips and legs and back, Sharon's arms and shoulders), but felt better by the next morning.

Pictures from Collier Seminole are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/6q279xbaXcoz7AWa9