Russell Pass Anchorage and Everglades City
Russell Pass intersects the primary Indian Key – Barron River route to Everglades City, several miles upstream of Indian Key. The many anchor down spots on Russell Pass are some of best and most isolated anchorages you will ever discover, though you do have to watch out for the currents. As Captain Norm discovered, it’s a long dinghy ride from here to Everglades City.
Next stop for three days was Russell Pass outside Everglades City. A wonderful anchorage.
We dinghied four miles into Everglades City . They really shouldn’t’t call it a ‘city’. Got bait there (frozen shrimp – hope the catfish don’t like it), but couldn’t get a Sunday paper. The reason for the trip to Everglades City was to lunch at the Rod and Gun Club – a very “old Florida” experience. It opened in the late 1800s and was one of the first winter destinations for the well-heeled from up north.
As the name implies, they came to hunt and fish, and enjoy the sunshine. The walls of the place are crowded with the heads, bodies, and skins of their trophies as well as newspaper articles about the place through the years.
It’s been quite the draw with presidents Truman, Roosevelt, and Cleveland visiting there as well as Sally Field and Mick Jagger (now there’s an unlikely collection). We dined on the large veranda and had OK food and delicious Mango Iced Tea. I’d put this on the ‘must see’ list for cruisers. Our chief photographer, Rick, sent us a lot of these photos he took of our dingy ride and lunch at Everglades City.
Now, Everglades City is not just known for the Ron and Gun Club. It is air boat ride capital of the Everglades. So, for $37 per person, one can ride on one of those propeller-driven, water top skimming, turn-on-a-dime, flat-bottomed boats. Really, they told us that they only did the mangroves; and, WE DID MANGROVES!! So, what fun would that be? We decided on a nice lunch amongst the dead carcases instead.
Norm Naughton
Aboard M/V Tide Hiker
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