Wilderness Waterway
 

I am planning on doing a southbound trip of the wilderness waterway in
November and have a few questions.

Has anyone had any luck using a cell phone for emergency contact
purposes?

Can you get weather radio forecasts?

Since I plan on fishing, has anyone found the TopSpot maps helpful in
navigation and finding fish?

Can I get by on less than the 1 gallon per day of water recommended by
the park rangers?

I am sure others are wondering, "Where is this Wilderness Waterb Way ?
"
Where I live , any time you leave the populated areas or the main
highway the cell is a sometimes thing.
I pack survival stuff, a marine VHF that is likely useless as well,.
flares, the cell is there in a plastic bag.
The answer here is a sat phone. I don't have one of them but my day
pack is substantial.

I should have been more precise. It is the Everglades Wilderness
Waterway that stretches approximately 100 miles through the western
Everglades National Park. The trip should be 8 or 9 days with no
roads, stores, etc. along the route. The Florida Keys are 20 to 30
miles across Florida Bay but I don't know what the range of a cell
tower is. When I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail a few years ago I
was able to get cell coverage on the peaks of most mountains.

I'm not ready to invest in a sat phone at this time but it may be an
option at some point.

I have spent a couple of weeks in Florida Bay, so I can say that weather
radio forecasts should not be a problem in that area. You could always
take an AM radio as a backup, just ask before you put in which station
has detailed forecasts, at what time.

I would not go much below a gallon a day. You will be exercising, hence
sweating, breathing heavily, so will tend to lose water. I would also
make sure I had the water in multiple containers, to avoid an emergency
if you had a container leak.

Have you asked these questions of the park rangers? If you can figure
out who the ranger is, and persuade them that you have real experience,
you can probably get the straight scoop. I have noticed they get a lot
more helpful when you explain what other trips that you have done. I am
assuming, of course, that this is not your first major wilderness trip.

Richard

AlanR wrote:
I am planning on doing a southbound trip of the wilderness waterway in
November and have a few questions.

Has anyone had any luck using a cell phone for emergency contact
purposes?

Can you get weather radio forecasts?

Since I plan on fishing, has anyone found the TopSpot maps helpful in
navigation and finding fish?

Can I get by on less than the 1 gallon per day of water recommended by
the park rangers?

Greetings,

Over seawater and with the lack of terrain variance (to say the
least), you may be able to get cellphone coverage in that part of
the country. If it were an old-fashioned AMPS system, there
would be no question -- it would probably work. The new-fangled
digital stuff is questionable since they traded off power and
sensitivity for capacity and speed.



Graham

"AlanR" wrote in message
oups.com...
I should have been more precise. It is the Everglades
Wilderness
Snip...