Our trip would take us through the Ten Thousand Islands area. We would be paddling 11 miles down the Gulf to Pavilion Key. The next day would be a short four miles to Mormon Key, allowing time for exploration and fishing. Then we would turn inland up the Chatham River and pass the old Watson Place, a pioneer homestead, before staying at Sweetwater Creek. We would then head north on the Wilderness Waterway seven miles to Sunday Bay, and finish our trip back at the Gulf Coast Ranger Station, for a total of 53 miles.

Loop possibilities in the Ten Thousand Islands are limited only by the paddler's imagination, considering the numerous rivers, bay and creeks of the area. Sixteen backcountry campsites in the vicinity, open to boaters of all stripes, make desirable routes all the more feasible. There are three types of backcountry campsites in Everglades National Park: beach campsites, ground campsites and chickees. Beach campsites are located along the Gulf of Mexico, either on the mainland or on islands.

These beaches are formed by the disintegration of millions upon millions of shells, pulverized over time by wave action, and deposited on the shores of the keys and coast. They have a yellowish-white tint, and are not as fine as the sands of the northern Gulf, where the sand is deposited from the Southern Appalachian Mountains, then bleached sugar white.

Ground campsites are primarily located inland. They are situated on discarded mounds of shells, remnants of numerous generations of Calusa Indians who roamed the Everglades since pre-Columbian days. The Calusa wandered Florida from Lake Okeechobee south to Cape Sable, the southwestern tip of the Florida mainland. They paddled long canoes made from hollowed-out cypress logs to collect food from the abundance of saltwater, freshwater and land sources. The shell mounds they created provided a place to camp where there was no land, and they still serve this purpose today.