Like its name implies, Black Water Creek has very dark tannic colored water, maybe not as dark as the St. Johns River, but still pretty dark. It empties into the Wekiva River about 45 minutes south of where the Wekiva dumps into the St. Johns.
I launched once again from the High Banks boat ramp in DeBary, paddling to the mouth of the Wekiva in 20-30 minutes of moderate effort. Unlike my previous trip up the Wekiva, there were no fishing boats to be seen and wildlife was a little more in evidence with some turtles and a couple of gators plopping into the water and some herons and Ibises flapping away at my approach. Another 45 minutes paddling against the 1 knot current of the Wekiva brought me to the mouth of the Black Water Creek.
Turning up the narrow, 15 foot entrance to the creek, I again found my self going against the flow as another 1 knot current worked against me. For the most part, Black Water creek is 15-30 feet wide and really deep, even with the lack of rain, although its hard to tell with the dark water.
The shores on the lower part of the creek are lined with live oaks, maples and cypress and some myrtle (I think) with longer, waxy leaves, with little Spanish moss to be seen. Lily pads and hyacinth edged out from one shore or the other, sometimes both. Sometimes there was only a narrow channel to squeeze through the water plants.
Passing under the canopy of tree limbs, I heard, but didn't see, occasional thrashing and splashing as 3-5 foot (by the sound of them) gators hit the water in panic. Turtles usually just go plop, as they fall into the water in retreat. A gator seems to at least make a splash when he's in a hurry. A few herons and egrets would take flight and fly up the creek ahead of me.
Rounding a small bend in the creek I could see a small muddy beach. A few feet out from it I saw a pair of beady eyes looking at me and a snout at least 18 inches from the eyes. You tell me how large that alligator was. I wasn't sticking around to find out.
In these small rivers and creeks, I've been kinda careful to stay more towards the center and farther away from the shore than normal. If I do round a bend almost on top of an alligator, I don't want it to run over top of me in panic. I also don't want it to feel cornered or trapped when it hits the water and finds this big plastic thing blocking its way. I suspect mating season is approaching too and I don't want the highlight of a trip to be an encounter with a horny alligator. They're more aggressive then and I don't want to mistaken for another alligator, male or female.
I had been concerned about accessibility to the creek. Opinion was about equally divided among locals if there would be a lot of downed trees. There were some recently cut trees and branches. I believe the Black Water Creek is another of Florida's official canoe trails so they may well do a little grooming when required. There's also a couple of canoe rental place farther north so they may also be involved too.
Now I know where robins go in the winter time. A couple hundred of them flew ahead of me as a flock for a while. When I'd stop paddling, they'd settle down and come closer. Several little tiny finch type birds could be seen hopping around in the trees then, as could many song birds. The robins seemed a little skittish on the one hand and on the other seemed kind of happy to have a human around. I thought I recognized a pair that used to hang out in my back yard in New Hampshire but may of been mistaken because they didn't come over to say hi.
Farther up the creek (without a paddle?) the hardwoods thinned out and palm trees became the primary tree, a whole forest of them with slash pines providing a back drop. Many of the tree trunks were blackened from fire not too long ago. The slash pines and the palms have a very high tolerance to fire and it takes a lot to burn one down. The forestry service burns scrub brush in a lot of areas every 3-5 years to reduce the possibility of a really severe fire. The palms and pines just kinda shrug those fires off and come back stronger than ever. Trees on the other side of the creek showed no evidence of fire so that kinda supports my theory of them being set by the forestry service.
At noon I came to another creek or river crossing the Black Water Creek. That seemed as good a place as any for lunch after which I started back.
I didn't see the big guy on the way back but saw a few other small and mid-size gators either basking in the sun or crashing into the water. One log was crowded with 3 little guys of different sizes. One was about 1.5 feet, one 2.0 and the third was about 2.5 feet in length. A half dozen fishing boats dotted the Wekiva when I got back to it. Many more gators had appeared to soak up the rays and I passed a small (2.5 foot) cotton mouth stretched out on a low hanging branch. That was funny because I had just been thinking I hadn't seen many snakes so far.
All in all, this was another great trip. The Black Water Creek goes on for miles and miles. I believe it starts at Seminole Springs, on the other side of the Seminole State Forest, 20-30 miles away.