Two Days in the Glades: Swamp Buggies, Fly Fishing, Stone Crabs, and Scary Sounds in the Night

Mar 09, 2022 10:27AM ● By CAPT. BRIAN HOLAWAY

My plan is to spend two days in the Everglades. First on my list of things to do is to meet up with Texas friends for a swamp-buggy tour; after that, fishing; then spend the evening camping with my wife at the edge of the Everglades just off U.S. 41. I also know this two-day trip to the Everglades won’t be complete if I don’t find some local southern cooking and fresh stone crabs right off the boat.

So the trip begins...

My preferred route when heading south from Fort Myers to Everglades City is to take I-75 to State Road 29. Turning off the interstate, I take a deep breath and my blood pressure starts to lower. The two-lane highway is lined with a variety of trees and a canal. A panther-crossing sign, flocks of birds, and the feeling of stepping back in time all add to the road’s peaceful character. Nearing the small town of Jerome, you can’t help but notice the thriving tall Australian pines that let me know I am getting closer to the junction with U.S. 41, where I turn east to my destination.

I drive past the site of Monroe Station south onto Loop Road to C&G’s Big Cypress Swamp Buggy Tours. With my Texas friends we meet our tour guide, Capt. Bobby Weeks, at the entrance to Big Cypress National Preserve across the road. Weeks, who is a native of Chokoloskee and the Ten Thousand Islands, greets us with warm smile. His family, he tells us, was one of the first settlers on Chokoloskee Island. After loading ourselves onto the swamp buggy, we head off into uncharted territory and in no time see a seven-foot gator. Weeks explains everything you ever wanted to know about the American alligator and shares a few eye-popping stories of some of the old poachers who hunted the area before it was a federal park.

The view is amazing from the seat of the swamp buggy. We are eye level with the vegetation and have an expansive view of the diverse habitat as we do a slow crawl through this unique environment. Weeks stops the buggy to point out panther tracks. Our tour is filled with information on botany, birds, hydrology, and a few stories that make us laugh. One interesting tidbit we learn from Weeks is that a hammock in the Everglades is a high piece of land where a variety of hardwood plant species grow, usually surrounded by wetlands. Native Americans used to pull their dugout canoes from hammock to hammock. They knew all the hammocks in the area and traveled them in much the same way motorists today go from town to town for food and fuel. The abundance of natural history and firsthand stories of the Everglades make this swamp-buggy tour worth every minute.

Soon after disembarking from the swamp buggy, we are on the road to Everglades City, where our first stop is the Island Café, filled with southern hospitality and good food. Locals frequent the restaurant, and visitors can get a good taste of the local flavor.

After lunch we meet our two fishing guides in Chokoloskee. My Texas friends go on a boat with Florida native Ronnie Revels, and I go with an eighth-generation Floridian from Chokoloskee, Kent Daniels. Both guides are well versed in navigating the waterways of the Everglades and give us a true fishing experience. Revels takes his boat in search of redfish and grouper. I have my fly rod, so Daniels and I head for prime fly fishing waters on the leeward side of the mangrove islands. After about my fifth cast the water boils as I strip the fly line and what appears to be a redfish swims away. My heart is pumping. Throwing a fly rod in the waters of the Everglades is peaceful yet thrilling at the same time. Daniels picks up on my love of history, which leads him to tell me a few stories you won’t find in the history books.

We talk about Ed Watson, the outlaw, who lived on a 40-acre shell mound and grew sugar cane for his Island Pride syrup. Watson was known to hire help from Key West and bring them out to the middle of nowhere to work in his sugar cane fields. A lot of his workers would end up missing. Some people called this a Watson payday.

Daniels suggests going out on the boat the next day to show my wife and I some of the local areas where history has been made. He doesn’t have to ask me twice. After the fishing trip is done, we meet up with Capt. Revels and our Texas friends back at the dock.

While my friends end their day and head back to Fort Myers, I make my way out to Trail Lakes Campground to check in at the Skunk Ape Headquarters on U.S. 41 in Ochopee. This campground is a throwback to a quieter time. Relaxation begins when my wife and I enter the gate to the campground. We are greeted by a friendly fellow on a golf cart who leads us to a chickee hut, our accommodations for the night. Basically a raised platform with screen all around and a roof made of palm fronds, the chickee sits half in water with a prime view of the Everglades. After we settle into our camp surroundings, we watch the sunset from the back deck. When the sun goes down and the wind dies, the bugs begin to buzz, along with the night sounds of the Glades, and the stars come out.

Sleeping in the Everglades in an open chickee evokes all your senses. The sounds at night are, let’s just say, peaceful for a while, then bone chilling. We hear sounds I have never heard in my life—a cross between a hooting owl and the deep baritone call of a wolf. Once we get used to nature’s orchestra, the sight of the stars is mesmerizing. It feels like I have just drifted off to sleep when the first rays of sunshine come through the screen of the chickee. Camping at Trail Lakes is a memorable experience for all five senses.

We say goodbye to the campground at daybreak to make our way back to Chokoloskee, where Captains Daniels and Revels await. We navigate up the Lopez River into Sunday Bay, Oyster Bay, Huston Bay, Last Huston Bay, and Chevalier Bay to Cannon Bay. Daniels pulls the boat up to a spot on the bay side, which a sign proclaims to be Darwin’s Place. Daniels tells us this used to be the home of Jean Chevalier, known as “the Frenchman,” an eccentric taxidermist who killed birds for museums. Some believe he was one of the first plume hunters on the west coast of Florida. Daniels points out the concrete foundation of a building where the Frenchman kept his birds.

Chevalier is just one of many interesting people who lived at this location. Another was Arthur Darwin, a hermit who claimed to be a direct descendant of evolutionist Charles Darwin. He was the last legal private resident in the park. According to Daniels, he also liked warm beer. Definitely a step back in time, touring the Everglades makes you realize how isolated the area once was—and still is.

Our final tour stop with Daniels and Revels is the Watson place on the Chatham River. The water is high as we approach the dock. In fact, the water is over the dock. I am told before I hop off the boat, “Watch out for gators!”

Sure enough, on what little dry land there is, a gator scurries into the water. We see remnants of a large kettle from Watson’s syrup-making days. Farther back on the property, according to Daniels, are the remains of an old automobile that Watson brought in. I have to take his word for it, though, as the area is too overgrown for safe passage—especially after Revels warns, “There are rattlesnakes with heads as big as crab floats in there.” I promptly jump back into the boat and think I’ve seen all I need to see for today. Daniels motors us back through the bays and up the Turner River into Chokoloskee Bay.

After a full morning on the water, it is time for a lunch break. We go to Triad Seafood on the Barron River in Everglades City. All-you-can-eat stone crabs are a treat here, but there is something for everyone on the menu. My wife particularly enjoys their conch fritters and hush puppies.

We say goodbye to our new friends from the Everglades and drive back to Fort Myers heading north from U.S. 41 via Turner River Road, a scenic route recommended by the locals. The views of the wet prairies filled with birds in wading areas make me think of the quote from Marjory Stoneman Douglas: “There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them…”

Capt. Brian Holaway is a Florida master naturalist and has been a Southwest Florida shelling and eco-tour guide since 1995. His boat charters visit the islands of Pine Island Sound, including Cayo Costa State Park, Cabbage Key, Pine Island and North Captiva.

Capt. Kent Daniels

Fishing guide, sightseeing, historian

Half-day or full-day trips

Chokoloskee

239-784-8929; [email protected]

Capt. Ronnie Revels

Fishing guide

150 Smallwood Drive, Chokoloskee

863-673-1967; [email protected]

C&G’s Big Cypress Swamp Buggy Tours

Capt. Bobby Weeks

50910 Loop Road, Big Cypress National Preserve, Ochopee