We arose the next morning to gentle waves lapping at the beach and a slanting sun promising a warm day. I started the coffee and Bill began breaking camp. We quickly loaded the boats to take advantage of the smooth water. The placid ocean made for easy paddling as we left the Gulf on the Chatham River Route and headed to the "inside," up the Chatham River. The tide was in our favor, and after three miles of paddling, we found ourselves at Watson's Place campsite. Watson's Place is a 35-acre shell mound that was once the farm of the notorious Ed Watson. He had the nasty habit of hiring workers for his sugar cane, banana and vegetable farm and killing them after they had worked for him, rather than paying them. Word of Watson's deeds spread among the locals and, in 1910, upon landing at Chokoloskee Island, Watson was gunned down by a posse. Most of Watson's victims were never found. It is rumored that the ghosts of the slain roam the homesite.

We pulled up to the wooden campsite dock and tied up the boats. A large black kettle circled by bricks and a low, square cistern lay to the left of the dock. Everglades settlers obtained fresh water by collecting roof runoff, then running pipes to cisterns for storage. The kettle was once used to boil sugar cane "juice" into syrup. Tall gumbo-limbo trees that once shaded the homestead backed the clearing. Gumbo-limbo trees are sometimes called the "tourist tree," since they have a distinctive peeling red bark under a spreading leaf crown.

After stretching our legs at this unfortunate site, we climbed back into the kayaks and continued up the Chatham River. A short time later, we intersected the Wilderness Waterway. The mangrove-lined river is around 100 feet wide here, in contrast with the open Gulf. While strong tides can effectively block passage around the mouths of rivers at the Gulf, the effect is more moderate farther inland. Here, seven miles inland, while the tide had turned against us, there was minimal tidal influence. The shadows and rich colors of the dense green foliage indicated that it was late afternoon.