Paddling Blackwater River to Mud Bay

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Hi Blog!

One of the paddling suggestions we received from the Rookery Bay Environmental Center here in Naples, Florida was to paddle down the Blackwater River to Mud Bay. The route would take us through a thick, canopied mangrove forest to a large shallow bay full of wildlife. The launch for this paddle was from Collier-Seminole State Park, which was just 15 miles from our campground along the Tamiami Trail. 

We researched the paddling trail and learned that Mud Bay could only be paddled at high tide. We checked the tide chart and learned that high tide would be around 2:00 pm. With the tide coming in, we weren't sure exactly how long it would take us to get to Mud Bay, so we started our journey at 10:30.

Here we are at the launch. Notice Dave is sporting his new paddling hat:

The first part of the trail was straight as an arrow. Collier-Seminole State Park covers what is historically known as Royal Palm Hammock. Found here is one of three original native stands of royal palms in the State of Florida. Our paddle route also extended down into the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.  Both the Park and the Refuge include mangrove river estuaries and salt marsh preserves.

It was easy to see the high tide line. The red mangrove tree in South Florida is easily identified by its tangled, reddish roots, called “prop roots.” Because the tree seems to be walking on water, or standing on the surface when the roots are exposed, it has been dubbed the “Walking Tree.”

While mangroves are evergreens, they do lose leaves as they age. The yellow, red and orange leaves create interesting patterns in the shallow river water.

The entire Blackwater/Royal Palm Hammock Paddling Trail is almost 14 miles. Paddlers wishing to do the whole trail, usually plan an overnight at Grocery Place Campsite. The trail markers keep the paddlers going in the correct direction.

We did try and explore a few side bays, but the the thick mangroves kept us from venturing too far from the main river channel.

At the junction with Royal Palm Hammock Creek, a large sandbar provided the perfect spot for a break.

Oh the irony - an old trap trapped on the sand bar.

It felt good to get out and stretch our legs. The sand was a bit squishy, but we were still able to walk around without losing our sandals.

After a short break, Dave was ready to hit the trail.

We left the main channel of the Blackwater River and made our way down Royal Palm Hammock Creek to Mud Bay. As you can see from the photo below, Mud Bay was full of mud and not much water! We weren't sure what we would do next. Despite our planning, we had arrived too early to meet the high tide. 

We noticed a family of kayakers had beached their kayaks ahead of us and had begun exploring on foot. We weren't sure we wanted to slog through the mud, so we decided to eat our lunch and contemplate our options.

One of the kayakers came back and said she thought she could see a channel through the mud toward the deeper part of the bay. She grabbed her kayak and began to paddle. We watched as she weaved her way through the mud flat. Never ones to shy away from an adventure, we hopped back into our kayaks and began to follow her trail. 

After we snaked our way through a shallow, twisting channel, the water course petered out. Dave found a second channel and pushed his kayak through the muck. However, what appeared to be deeper water was only the reflection of light on wet mud. From Dave's vantage point, he looked back on Kathy and the mom and her two adult sons as they struggled to get their kayaks turned around to try the new channel Dave found.

Kathy began to push her kayak through the muck -- only to sink down over her knees!  Memories of the time Uncle Tom and Aunt Leenie got stuck in the bog on the Jersey Shore came flooding back. With the help of mom and her sons, Kathy was able to get free of the sucking muck. While Dave did his best to portage through the mud, it was just too shallow to kayak. We all turned around and returned to Royal Palm Hammock Creek. 

The mom and her sons wanted to paddle further down Blackwater River before returning to the kayak launch, so we wished them safe travels and took a few minutes to wash the mud from our boats.  Maybe we should have taken a few more minutes to wash the mud from Dave:

While we could see the water levels rising, there was still an hour to go before high tide, so we decided to turn back and use the rising tide to assist us in getting back upstream.

As the water level rose, the mangroves were almost in reach.

We enjoyed a leisurely paddle back into Collier-Seminole State Park. 

The land for the park was originally acquired by Barron Collier to preserve the old growth royal palms, and later the park land was donated to the county. The park then served as a memorial to Barron Collier and those who fought on both sides of the Seminole Wars. 

There is a saying that adventure happens when your plans go awry. We had plans of paddling around Mud Bay and photographing shore birds, maybe even seeing a roseated spoonbill. Instead, we had an adventure!