Mangrove Madness

Hi Blog.  We had such a good time camping with Toni and Jim that we agreed to meet up again and spend the day doing a little kayaking.  Toni and Jim have come to the Keys for the past four winters for extended vacations.  They have kayaked all over.  For the past few days, we've had such high winds making it unpleasant to be out in the ocean or the bay.  Toni thought a trip into the mangrove forest on Marathon Key would be a fun adventure and sheltered from the wind.

Toni and Jim have their own boats. We arranged through a local kayak dealer to rent a couple kayaks.  They delivered them right to the boat launch and picked them back up again when we were done.  Our boats arrived right on time.  We found out where old limos go to spend their retirement - the Keys!

Here we are getting ready to set sail on our four hour tour.

Once we got off the main channel, it was time to get lost in the mangroves.  Some of the trails were so narrow, we had to break our paddles down and just use half a paddle - canoe style.

 Here is Dave getting ready to limbo under some mangrove roots.

Jim hangs out waiting for the rest of us to wrestle our way through the roots.

Toni keeps one eye over her shoulder to make sure we don't take a wrong turn.

We spotted plenty of birds and fish as we paddled from one hidden lake to the next.  You never know what your will see around the next bend. Here is Kathy reaching out to a local mangrove leopard. These cats are very shy and difficult to spot in the dense foliage.

Actually, local kayak guides have marked the trail with various stuffed animals in order to give their clients a little something to look for besides mangroves.

Here we are practicing our synchronized paddling.

There was a nice strong headwind on our way back to the boat launch.  We had to work hard to get the boats back on time.  We worked up quite an appetite.  To celebrate a great paddle, we stopped at Lazy Days for a fabulous dinner.

Thanks Toni and Jim for a great outing!