Fishing By Bridge And Boat

Channel Five Bridge is one of two 70-foot tall bridges in the Keys and it happens to provide great shade if you choose to walk the old Flagler Bridge or fish from there.

I was encouraged to see them  keeping the new bridge up to snuff in whatever way they do that kind of thing: 

Fishing, and I am not an angler so I'm theorizing here, requires quite a bit of equipment. He smiled cheerfully from behind his mound of stuff at young Rusty whom I leashed as we walked by, mostly because I remember what a hound Cheyenne was when bait  fish were lying around. The old Labrador was after them like a pig on truffles. Rusty is less food driven but I figure it's better to be cautious.

 It was  a glorious day.

 The temperatures were below 80 degrees, the wind was light but cool, seas were flat.

 Rusty enjoyed himself too I am happy to report, as we strolled all the way to the end of the fishing pier.

 This lot looked terribly disappointed:

 The inevitable exercise enthusiasts:

We stopped and looked and ambled and took pictures:

We had most of the bridge to ourselves. Imagine driving a car down here in 1981 and meeting your neighbor head on. It was a slow tense drive to Miami in those days. 

 These solid cement arches are well over a hundred years old and as strong as ever. Impressive:

Channel Five Walk

This is the top of the Channel Five Bridge, Mile Marker 71, about 70 feet above the water looking north while travelling south paradoxically, and heading toward Long Key. This expanse of water to the west is called Long Key Bight which looks like a snug anchorage. It is quite shallow far in but the center of the bight (a bight is defined as wide bay by sailors) carries about four feet at low tide. I don't usually see any boats inside as most people like more than a few inches of water under their keels. Shallow draft boats are handy in the Keys.There is a convenient gravel parking area at the east side of the north end of the bridge on Long Key. It's actually convenient enough that I have seen more than one MCSO patrol car checking speeds on the slope down from the bridge. I stopped at the bridge to take Cheyenne for a walk.Cormorants resting on the base of a power pole. Even at rest they look speedy.There is a long line of poles paralleling the bridge:The bridge is the only viable channel for tall masts to cross from one side of the Keys to the other between Windley Key's Snake Creek drawbridge and the Seven Mile Bridge tall span on the west side of Marathon. The old railroad bridge makes for a pleasant half mile walk out to the channel itself.The wooden rails at the channel make a good resting spot for more birds.They cut the old Flagler bridge here and abandoned the piece that stretches out from Craig Key. More birds, amazingly enough.

And there, up above is the location of the Channel Five Bridge. I am not exactly sure where the other channels are though there is a channel two bridge, a more modest affair, nearby.

These modern cement spans are quite elegant in their way.

I was glad to get out of the wind and warm up in the sun while my Labrador rooted around.

The old and the new bridges, side by side. For a one hundred year old structure Flagler's bridge is amazingly solid.

And this is me driving my dog home on the Overseas Highway, here coming into the City of Layton (Mile Marker 69). From here to my home at Mile marker 27 will take about an hour, maybe a little less, and a very pleasant drive it is too, when all the Christmas tourists aren't clogging the road to Key West!