Hell's Bay Canoe Trail (by John, September 2000)
If you drive too fast you might miss this. When you see a sign reading canoe trail, you look and think to yourself " Not much there but trees, bushes and small puddle. Doesn't look very interesting Probably a 1/4 mile loop.
Wow, how wrong can a first impression be. You put your boat into the water, that's only about 6-12 inches deep, ducking under the branched ans swatting mosquitos feverishly. The after a few paddle strokes you enter into another world of mangrove mazes. Magically mosquitos disappear altogether. It's almost as if you've crossed through the "looking glass" because it doesn't resemble anything you saw from the road.
Then paddling one hour through the maze, closely looking for the trailblazes to chart your path, you come into severla huge open lakes with wind and waves. You look at your map and see that this's what they call miscellaneous marshes on the map. HUGE LAKES. You paddle through the open water to a campsite called "Lard can" for a leg stretching break. The you find the mosquitos you though you'd lost. I can't imagine that anyone has actually camped there on purpose in the last 50 years. Then you can head out to the Pearl Bay Chickee, which is outfitted for handicapped taccess (which comes in handy when you are kayaking) You camp on the wooden deck on on the water. Further out, there are more chickees (Hell's Bay Chickee, Lane Bay, etc.) Can be extremely windy and challenging.
Best of all you can go for days without seeing another human being (at least during the week) Total seclusion. Well worth the effort enjoy.
Thank for the review John...
Please send me your reviews.
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