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Surfacing In The Swamps

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By WILLIAM KRONHOLM, For The Associated Press

Published: December 30, 2007

EVERGLADES CITY - The Everglades are among America's most famous swamps, with a reputation for mosquitos to match.

So we bought repellant for a quick trip to view the swamp and its wildlife there last winter. But on a perfect day spent kayaking through the mangroves of Big Cypress National Preserve, we didn't even bother applying it.

Not too hot. Not too cold. Low humidity. And nary a mosquito to be seen.

Our trip was organized by the Ivey House Bed & Breakfast, a 1920s boardinghouse in Everglades City that now is an outdoors-oriented bed-and-breakfast and lodge.

The Ivey House also is a full-service outfitter for Everglades explorers, offering everything from guided multiday trips through the swamps, to rental canoes and camping gear for those setting off on their own, to shorter day trips such as ours.

And its daylong kayak trips have an unusual aspect: The minimum number of guests is two. So although our midweek tour drew no other takers, it wasn't canceled. My wife and I had the services of guide Dave Kochendorfer to ourselves.

Driving to the put-in, Kochendorfer turned at an unmarked corner and stopped beside a backwater. We walked to the edge and waited. Soon, a blunt gray nose poked barely above the water and exhaled. Then another. And another. We were watching manatees surfacing to breathe, drawn up from the Gulf Coast by the warmer inland water.

But soon we were kayaking on the Turner River, paddling against imperceptible current to explore the freshwater cypress community of the preserve.

As we paddled north, the river narrowed and gently wound its way toward two small ponds. Anhingas, a diving and swimming bird that feeds on small fish, perched in trees, their wings spread to dry in the morning sun. Snowy egrets and great blue herons stalked the shallows.

On the shore - if it could be called that - were bald cypress, maples, oaks, willows, cattails, cabbage palms, swamp dogwood and pond apples.

We paddled through sawgrass, stopping to watch two small alligators sunning themselves, until we found ourselves in the heart of a cypress forest, arching trees with buttressed bases and freestanding "knees."

In the afternoon, we paddled south toward the coast, and the character of the river changed. As we entered the brackish water of the mangrove forest, the river closed in to form a narrow tunnel, the roots creating an intricate web.

We paddled through an open pond full of blooming water lilies, then plunged back into the mangrove tunnels. The trees crowded until we had to break down our kayak paddles and paddle canoe-style. Soon it was too crowded to paddle at all, and we simply pulled ourselves branch by branch through the mangroves.

Finally we reached another open pond, perhaps 50 feet across. A 3-foot alligator drifted motionless in the center, and we laid back and watched him. There were splashes from the forest, and we thought more kayakers were coming behind us. Instead, four river otters swept into the pond, diving for fish and frolicking all around us.

One circled the alligator for a time. Kochendorfer explained that otters sometimes feed on small alligators - but not usually one this large. Perhaps they were calculating the advantage of four against one. But if so, they soon decided against it and disappeared into the mangroves again, their splashing slowly fading.

We were back in Everglades City in time for dinner, and for me it was another encounter with alligator. This time, however, it was an entree at the laid-back Oyster House restaurant. How could I resist Southern fried alligator?

I expected some kind of alligator steak, but instead what arrived was a platter of oyster-sized breaded nuggets, with a taste resembling a slightly rubbery chicken. With fries and a beer, it was a fitting end to the day.

Gator McNuggets, anyone?

EXPLORE THE EVERGLADES

EVERGLADES CITY: Everglades City is on the Gulf side of Everglades National Park. It is still a rural community, an active commercial and sport fishing port lacking most of the usual tourist ticky-tack. Although it does not have full park facilities, it does have a National Park Service visitors center, and it is the jumping-off place for canoeists and kayakers leaving on long wilderness treks through the Ten Thousand Islands region of the Everglades.

GETTING THERE: Everglades City is at the northwest corner of Everglades National Park, about 60 miles south of Fort Myers via State Road 29 off U.S. 41.

IVEY HOUSE BED & BREAKFAST: 107 Camellia St., Everglades City; www.iveyhouse.com/ or 1-877-567-0679. Full-service hotel rooms with private bath, $75 to $140; rooms with shared baths, for adventurers on a budget, $50 to $75. Rates include a breakfast buffet.

GUIDED KAYAK TOURS: Offered by the Ivey House. They include a Mangrove Tunnel Eco-Adventure, $95 for 4 1/2 hours, including lunch; Sunset Spectacular Eco-Adventure, $80 for 2 1/2 hours.

INFORMATION: Travel information for the Gulf Coast Everglades area, plus Naples and Marco Island, www.paradise

coast.com (free visitors guide, 1-800-688-3600). Everglades National Park: www.nps.gov/ever/. Big Cypress National Preserve: www.nps.gov/bicy/.

PARADISE COAST BLUEWAY: www.paradisecoastblueway

.com. A new GPS-marked paddling trail system in Collier County. The Ten Thousand Islands section has been mapped with GPS coordinates for one long trail route from Everglades City to Goodland, along with six shorter day-trip paddling routes. Day-trip routes include Turner River in Big Cypress National Preserve.

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