The Ten Thousand Islands are a popular place for locals as well as visitors to celebrate the new year. We in Florida like to call it "New Years Everglades Style". It has been toned down quite a bit over the years since the celebratory gunfire and illegal fireworks that used to occur on Camp Lulu Key.

You will know you are a "gladesman" if you heard of the Camp Lulu Key new years celebration. This used to be a big deal for Port of the Islands residents and always had a somewhat infamous reputation. It was kind of like "Burning Man Island Style" from what I've heard.

For new years day we decided to check out one of the Ten Thousand Islands new years parties to see that New Years in the islands was all about.

It was a foggy morning when we launched out of Goodland Boat Park to make our way to the gulf via Coon Key Pass. As we passed sugar bay the fog lifted. We stopped off at Coon Key, but there wasn't anyone there so we made our way out to Brush Island.

Once we got out to Brush Island there was a fairly large boat rally on the northwest sandbar. Several john boats were anchored in the channel, and there were lots of canoes on the beach.

For the infamous reputation these islands have of harboring outlaws, everyone here was very friendly. The island had the whole castaway feel. We stopped and joined in for a small bonfire and cooked up the hot dogs and canned collard greens we had brought out to the island.

We had our picnic lunch, and then burned off old papers from 2021, and 2020. What crazy years those were.

We then told a group of paddlers how to get out to Hog Key to camp for the night. We weren't camping for the night but we have camped here before. I then told the story of John Panther Gomez and how he was the real Jose Gaspar.

Pirate legends are a thing here, and John Panther Gomez is Collier County's Jose Gaspar.

We then headed back to Goodland with the wind and tide at our backs to finish out a new years eve day in the Ten Thousand Islands.