Highland Beach By Alec Thompson 2/22/10

When the South East Costal Tickle Sticks went to the Everglades National Park we visited a place called Highland Beach. When we got there it was a calm and windless day. The Tickle Sticks set up camp and started a fire to cook dinner. After dinner we had a big bonfire. We had it in the sand near the water because the low tide had started. We used palm fronds to start it. It was very big and hot because the palms started really quickly. It only lasted about 45 seconds but it will be my favorite bonfire that I have had in my life. After the fire we went to bed and talked for a while before going to sleep. In the morning we woke up to find that the water was about ¼ of a mile away from our canoes. The Tickle Sticks had a morning fire to cook breakfast and ate while doing some reading homework. After all the homework was done we decided to walk our canoes out to the water. It was easy at first then we hit the sinking mud or silt. When we went closer to the water the muck sunk the group in knee-deep silt. Many people lost their shoes so Logan made a judgment call and told us to take our shoes off. There was one problem with that. There were shells in the muck and our feet were getting cut up and poked by sharp shells but we were all ok. After getting all the gear and canoes in the water, we went back for a bathroom break and I lost my shoe in the muck. I quickly grabbed it before it sunk down deeper in the muck. After getting out of the muck we walked our canoes out a little bit and paddled. We soon found out that the water was only 1 foot deep and we could barely get anywhere. After a while we walked our canoes out for about 1 mile and stopped to rest. The place where we stopped was a bad place. When Mitch was walking his shoe came off and sunk about 3 ft down in the muck. He couldn’t find it so he left it there. After about 10 minutes we left and paddled to the Lopez River. Finally, after getting out of the muck we got back on track and went 9 miles to our destination. Our destination was Lostmans five. After all that work we chilled out at the camp hoping never to go to Highland Beach again.