The Upper Manatee River is another of Florida's official canoe trails. The Upper Manatee River actually flows into the Manatee River before dumping into the Gulf of Mexico. The Little Manatee, 15 miles away, flows into Hayes Bayou before emptying into the Gulf.
After yesterday's experience with little water on the Little Manatee River, I had no expectations for today's attempt. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the launch site on Rye Road off of SR 675 when I found an actual river (looked like a creek) with water in it. The big decision was whether to turn left or right on the river. My instinct told me to turn right but looking at the compass I saw that way was east while the Gulf lay to the west. So, technology wins again.
The Upper Manatee at this point is 40 feet wide and I don't know how deep because of the darkly colored water. Whatever current there was, was negligible. A strong wind from the east was not.
Steep banks lined both shores. Hard mud at the bottom of the banks supported 6 feet or so of sand at the top. Live oaks covered with Spanish moss, cabbage palms and palmettos stood watch at the top of the banks.
A 6 inch bass made 3 quick jumps, moving a few feet each time. The 4th time it landed a few feet from the kayak. A 5th jump would have been right into the boat.
In 15 minutes I came to a fork in the river. I choose the narrower path. I had no maps or charts with me and wasn't even sure I was heading in the right direction to start with. With no fixed goals in mind, that didn't really matter. As long as I came back from the trip, I'd be happy.
10 minutes down the channel I came to an island blocking further access. I could see where small channels used to go around the island but the tide or the overall water level was down too far to navigate them. Open water lay beyond but I figured if there was one obstruction, there would be more farther on.
So I went back to the fork and started down another channel and immediately was blocked again with open water beyond. Turning back up this channel I finally found open water and a clear path. Wandering around in the area later on proved this was the actual path of the Upper Manatee River.
This channel had started out with steep 8-10 foot sandy banks with scattered palms and oaks on one side while the other shore had lots of bushes and more densely packed palms and oaks.
I was headed mostly west so I guess I was aiming in the right direction. The strong wind from the east was still pushing me along at a good clip.
While the river was pretty I was disappointed there wasn't more wild life. I saw one small alligator, a couple of herons and egrets, a few osprey, several turtles and the ever present black vultures.
A fair number of houses lined one shore for a stretch. Most were upper middle class types. Two canoe rental places and a Christian Retreat took up the rest of that stretch. I didn't see anyone on the river except one fishing boat and a couple of old(er than me) codgers at the retreat.
I stopped paddling at noon. With the wind that had been pushing me most of the morning, I knew I had a couple of hours of hard paddling to get back to the put in. Actually, it only took me an hour and a half or so. I must really do well under pressure <grin>.