The peaceful solitude will be striking once you reach the giant cypress a few miles upstream or downstream of the Palmdale paddling launch area. No noise, no sign of civilization. Birds roosting off in the distance give an eerie murmur.  The appeal of Fisheating is its wildness. Wildlife viewing is spectacular. You are guaranteed lots of sightings, including the Creeks famous residents, alligators.

This is my favorite creek in Florida.  So beautiful, so peaceful, and so close by.  Most of the South Florida coastal residents can reach this creek in an hour’s drive. Well worth the trip anytime of year, for either a spur of the moment canoe trip and picnic, or an overnight camping trip along the Creek.

If you go
The easiest access to the Creek is at the FFWCC Wildlife Management Area on SR 27 in Palmdale.  From there you can rent a canoe to launch from the campground and go upstream or downstream in high water.  Also, transport is available to two upstream sites, for trips of 8 miles or 16 miles.  Livery service information is available by calling 863-675-5999.

Always, always, always check the water levels before you go.  The USGS maintains a continuous water level recorder at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/uv?02256500 . You need water over 1’ to paddle, 3-4’ is great for average paddlers, 5-7’ is lots of water moving fast, for experienced paddlers for long upstream legs.

The Creek is marked with mile markers (MM) and arrows.  You will most likely not see the channel upstream in some of the cypress heads.   And the channel is not necessarily where the water is going.  But don’t panic, you will find it again.

For the more adventuresome, there are paddlers who go downstream from Palmdale through Cowbone Marsh or all the way to Lake Okeechobee.  Do not attempt this unless you are an experienced paddler with GPS coordinates or a group with an experienced leader.

Camping available at the Fisheating Creek Resort in Palmdale, please call for rates and availability at 863-675-5999.

Must haves
Water / snacks
GPS, compass, map  (download official Fisheating Creek WMA map)
Cell phone
Whistle
Camera for unbelievable photography

For more information
For great Fisheating Creek coordinates, photos, and trip logs, see the Southwest Florida Paddling Club’s website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swflpc/ . You must first sign up as a member (free) to view the site, but they have great resources and it is well worth it.

Lots of groups paddle Fisheating Creek , so typically you may meet up with paddlers from Charlotte or Palm Beach Counties or beyond. Do a search online for kayak “meetups”and find some new friends!

Best paddling is in the late summer and fall.  Birding is awesome year round.  I personally prefer the solitude and usually go with one other paddler.  If you really want solitude, go on a week day, no one is on the Creek.

Happy Paddling!

This new sub-chapter will focus on hiking and maintaining walking, biking and canoeing trails in the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area stretching from Palmdale to Lakeport in Glades County, as well as the OK Slough near Felda in Hendry County.

Meet Up Time & Place
The orientation begins at 10 a.m. with FTA members guiding a casual hike on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, a segment of the Florida National Scenic Trail. We meet up at the Alvin Ward Memorial Park. The hike will be about an hour, more or less. Everyone walks or cycles at their own pace and meet people of all ages who share your enthusiasm to walk, hike, bicycle, canoe or kayak in the great outdoors.

Following this “social” walk, we will gather at the Glades County Historical Society’s Westergaard House located at 270 Avenue L for a brief meeting to begin about 11:30 a.m. FTA members will explain the goals and purposes of FTA. To learn more about FTA visit its website at www.floridatrail.org.

No lunch is being served but we do plan to eat so please bring a sack lunch of your own, or stop and pick up a lunch from a local restaurant. Ice tea, water and coffee will be available at the Westergaard House.

Contact Info
If you wish more information about this event, call Margaret England 863-674-0695, Patty Register 863-675-0623, Susan Etchey 863-946-1626 or Betty Loomis 863-946-3560.

Please RSVP to this invitation by email or phone so we can plan ahead.

Sunday November 1st – daylight savings time is gone and we’re now back on Eastern Standard Time which means there’s more daylight in the morning right now. This is good news for a morning person like me, because I really enjoy those early morning bike rides. I was in touch with a large group of cyclists from West Palm Beach before the weekend. They were planning a bike ride around Lake Okeechobee starting in Pahokee at the pier on the Lake. I’m thinking to myself, count me in. Since I didn’t want to drive to Pahokee my plan was to start from my house towards Glades County hoping to meet the group around highway 27 and highway 78.

I like that route west if I’m going to be on the highway because Glades County roads around the Lake are much more bicycle friendly than they are in Pahokee, Belle Glade and South Bay. So it wasn’t a difficult decision to go counter clockwise around the Lake and meet the group near Moore Haven. Besides I wasn’t mentally prepared to go 115 miles today simply because I knew it would take me into the afternoon when the temperatures would be heating up. Instead I ended up with 73 miles in what turned out to be a pretty hot morning too and by noon I was glad my ride was over.

I started at my house at about 7:30 Sunday morning. I road to Beck’s Store in Lakeport and stopped for more water and snacks. Beck’s store is my standard stop when I’m in that neck of the woods. They always seem to have everything I need as well as service with a smile. Most importantly you have to eat and drink anytime you’re riding more than 2 hours, especially when it’s hot. My thought was I would likely meet the group at highway 27 when then were turning the corner at highway 78. However, I didn’t realize by that time the group would be split into several packs. I saw the first two guys riding down the road and said no way am I going to hook up with them. They were going way too fast for me. My patience got the better of me so I went with the second group of 8 guys.

This was probably not the best decision since they were riding at around 22 to 23 miles per hour. Although I can ride at that pace in a larger group I knew it was going to take a toll on me and I would never be able to keep pace all the way back to Okeechobee. My decision was to ride with them back to Lakeport and stop at Beck’s Store again for fresh water and more food. I decided to mosey on back toward Fisheating Creek in hopes of catching the next wave of riders. The next wave must have been poking along so given rising afternoon temperatures and the winds picking up I gave up on them and decided to turn around and head back to Okeechobee alone. I ended up catching some stragglers that were shelled off the back of the fast packs but unfortunately they were so wasted they couldn’t even keep up with my 17 to 18 mile per hour pace, so on I went on by myself finally making it back to the house by noon. Just in time for lunch. Thank God for those wide shoulders on the roads in Glades County.

Check out birds sightings being reported in Glades County on Cornell’s free eBird website at www.ebird.org. This website is great for keeping your life lists for you to view or share with other birders.

In Glades County the summer birds, including the swallow-tailed kites, common nighthawks and chimney swifts have returned to their home grounds. Ruby-throated hummingbirds were reported in September. Wintering raptors, swallows, sparrows, ducks and the feisty belted kingfisher have returned. Start watching feeders for retuning buntings and songbirds. Please share stories and photos of birds you observe in our area and other birding adventures.

Download a map of birding hot spots (PDF)

Birding hotspots in Glades County

Birding in Glades County is great year round. Trails, roadways and parks provide public access to the area birding hotspots. Some birds to watch for during the fall and winter months are limpkins, purple gallinules, herons, wrens, sparrows, crested caracara, sandhill cranes, eagles, swallows, roseate spoonbills and various duck species including the fulvous and black-bellied whistling ducks.

Trails, public roadways and parks are alive with birds. The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (L.O.S.T) around Lake Okeechobee offers public access to some of the best birding in inland Florida.. Trailheads are located on CR 78 north of Lake Okeechobee and in Moore haven. Fisheating Creek Wildlife Area in Palmdale and the Fisheating Creek Ft. Center trail are alive with warblers, raptors during the fall and winter. On a trip on Fisheating Creek is a great birding trip. If you are searching for Florida Scrub-jays a small patch is was seen on the power lines during the September North American Migration Count on the east end of CR 74 south of Palmdale (Pranty’s “A Birder’s Guide to Florida, p. 165). The south end of Fernwood Road in Muse is another location reporting scrub-jays. Caracara and sandhill cranes are often seen along SR29 north of LaBelle and CR78 near Ortona.

During visits to the Ortona Locks or Larry Luckey Ortona Indian Mound Park you will find a variety of wintering birds and raptors. Witherspoon Wetlands, the restored wetland east of Florida Rock Mine on 78 is one site you won’t want to miss. There are no signs marking this restored wetland area which attracts large numbers of wading birds, waterfowl and shorebirds. A trip on Wayman Road south of Palmdale which connects SR27 and CR 78 is worth visting. American robins frequent the area during migration and a variety of herons and egrets are often close to the roadway.

Please e-mail or share your Glades County birding lists or photos. “Bird’s the word in Glades County”.

It was another hot summer morning and although only 7:30 the temperatures were pushing 90 degrees.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and in the corner of my eye I noticed an osprey flying off the lakeshore with breakfast of what looked like a hefty catfish in its talons.

During the summer months it’s not unusual to see catfish coming up to the surface gulping for air so they become fair game for birds of prey like the osprey.  I quickly looked up to get a better glimpse of this bird and suddenly in my peripheral vision an eagle came swooping in to challenge the smaller osprey for its meal.  I guess I was at the right place at the right time only without a camera as I was treated to quite a display of aerial acrobatics by both birds but in the end the eagle proved too much for the smaller osprey with a fat catfish.  In a split second the osprey released the fish only to be caught in mid air by the eagle.

This is just one example of what Mother Nature has afforded me through many years of riding my bike on the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, otherwise known as the LOST.  I’ve lived in Okeechobee for more than 30 years now and for most of that time I have biked and ran along the dirt trail on the levee around Lake Okeechobee.  In the early 1990’s I was a member of a committee who worked on promoting the levee trail as a recreational resource for the communities around the Lake and for tourists visiting the area.  As a result of the committee’s persistence and hard work portions of the levee were paved around 2003.  The first paved segment was on the north end of the Lake from the Kissimmee River to Port Mayaca and the second segment was from Pahokee to Alvin Ward Park in Moore Haven.  Although the paved trail offers a nice smooth surface for biking the unpaved portion between Buckhead Ridge and Moore Haven in Glades County offers some of the most scenic views of any of the areas on the trail.  In total the LOST is approximately 115 miles around, which takes you through four Counties, Glades, Hendry, Palm Beach, Martin and Okeechobee.

There are many places to begin a ride but none more convenient than at Alvin Ward Park, which is nestled at the junction of Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River in Moore Haven.  For starters you can hop on the trail at Alvin Ward and ride 13 miles to Clewiston.  But before you do you might want to check out the locks at Moore Haven.  This structure is part of the inland navigation system that allows boats to travel from the east coast to the west coast of Florida or vice versa.  The LOST route at this point offers an variety of wildlife viewing on the Lake side and a flavor of the farming that goes on in Glades County along the levee on the inland side.  I invite you to ride along with me during weeks to come as I share some of my experiences biking on the trail in this blog.  Perhaps I may even convince you to take a trip to Glades County and experience, for yourself, nature’s beauty from a vantage point atop the trail.  Don’t forget your camera!

By Deen Mountain

The Fort Center Trail at Fisheating Creek offers one of Glades County’s most interesting hiking trails. The FWCC officially opened the Fort Center Trail in January 2009.

About 300 visitors enjoyed hay rides, interpretive hikes, birding tours, guest speakers, demonstrations, music, and BBQ.

The trail head starts at the west end of Banana Grove Road, off Rt. 78, and it ends at the Fort Center site (about 2.4 miles).  Take Rt. 78 from Moore Haven, or from Okeechobee.  Turn west on Banana Grove Road at the Fisheating WMA sign, then drive about a mile to the new parking area located adjacent to the FWCC office.  Look for the viewing tower located next to the parking lots.

Fort Center Trail is a treasure of interests and activities.  Few trails in the region offer such interpretive resources as the Fort Center Trail has to offer.  The trail is also a multi-educational experience.  You will find information about the archaeology, Native American history, wildlife viewings, and biological interpretations of the Fisheating Creek flood plain.

Before you set out on the hike, be sure to check the map located on the interpretive kiosk (located in the middle of the parking lot) to find where key interpretive points are located.

Carry plenty of water, about three or four pints are recommended per hiker, and a snack or a picnic for your family.  Also take your binoculars, a cell phone, and camera.  Comfortable lightweight hiking boots are recommended.  Sunscreen, insect repellent, and a suitable hat are also important.

To enter the trail, continue to the swinging pedestrian gate, located next to the vehicle gate.  You are now entering the Fort Center Trail.

The first mile is improved two-track, open trail.  A good hat and sunscreen are highly recommended for this section.  You will pass three covered kiosks with interpretive boards along this section.  A Florida rain shower might blow along at any time, so the covered kiosks will provide shelter from storms.

You will see the Creek, pasture, cattle, and marsh along the open stretch of the trail.  Watch for deer, turkey, birds, raccoons, armadillos, opossum, wild cats, and wild hogs.  Especially keep an eye in the skies for graceful, gliding, swallow-tailed kites!

In about another quarter-mile further, you’ll reach the hammock area and a fence line.  On the other side of the fence line begins a loop trail leading around the hammock to the south, but for today we are staying on the main trail.

In the hammock area, you’ll find huge, ancient oak trees, sabal palms, palmetto, and wild citrus trees.  The late afternoon sun gives the resurrection ferns and oak limbs an unforgettable glow.

Next, look for two interpretive points located a short distance down the trail, once inside the hammock.  On the right, a short trail leads to a view of Fisheating Creek, and an Indian mound.  On the left, a short trail leads to one of the sacred, ancient ceremonial sites located in the hammock area.  The entire hammock area has provided cover and protection for hundreds of years to protect this most important archaeological and historical zone.

The two-track, sandy hammock trial leads to another fence line, then it curves to the right.  At this point, the loop trail rejoins the main trail.  Continue to hike a few hundred more feet until you see the Fort Center sign on the right.  Walk to the sign for an unforgettable, breathtaking view of Fisheating Creek and the hammock.

A few more hundred feet to the north marks the end of the official trail.  You’ll arrive at two picnic tables located under an oak tree.  What a perfect place for a snack, picnic lunch, and maybe a short nap!

You might walk just a bit further up the two-track trail to enjoy a view of the vast, open Fisheating Creek marsh.  If you walk far enough to clear the hammock line, you’ll see a rolling view of Cowbone Marsh to the west.  With binoculars, a view of the edge of the Cypress balds located about 7 miles to the west should be visible.

Fisheating Creek winds a total of 12 miles across this side of the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area, between Rt. 78 and the western edge of Cowbone Marsh.

Allow plenty of time to return before darkness.  Depending on your hiking speed, and stops along the way, your hike should take about an hour to two hours to reach Fort Center.

You can hike, walk, run, and ride bicycles on the Fort Center Trail.  Primitive camping is allowed anywhere on the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area.  Make sure you park in the 2nd lot located next to the fence, and leave a note on your windshield with contact information and your camping location.

No weapons or hunting allowed in this part of the WMA.  Fishing is legal with a proper Florida freshwater license, so you might take a fishing pole, and try your luck!

Overall, including the return trip, the Fort Center hike is about 4.8 miles in length overall.  Next time, we’ll add the loop trail around the hammock area.

Enjoy the Fort Center Trail!