05/04/00 Paddling From Marianna:
The Chipola River flows out of Blue Hole Springs above Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna. I put in at the SR 167 bridge launch. The Chipola flows through the state park but a log chute and some shoals make things dangerous coming down that part of the river.
The river is 40-50 feet wide where I put in and a grayish greenish color with a 2 knot current. Cypress, beech, magnolia, dogwood and oak line both shores with a few palmettos here and there. A local indicated I might see a gator or two and possibly some beaver and river otter.
I didn't like paddling downstream with a 2 knot current at the beginning of a trip but had no choice. Knowing I have to paddle back up at the end of the day usually makes me cautious and turn around sooner than need be sometimes.
A fair amount of fishermen's trash, cans, worm containers, etc. lined both shores for the first mile or so. I had forgotten to bring a trash bag along so I just let it all sit where it was. Things were much cleaner a little farther on.
A lot of big trees were down in the water. Channels had been cleared wherever they crossed the entire river. 0.25 miles into the paddle a 4 foot alligator slithered off one big log into the water.
Big thick clumps of what looked like Romaine lettuce swayed back and forth in the current. Big green leaves edged in a brownish red made me hungry for a salad. Further investigation, however, showed the red was actually red silt that had settled on the leaves. I dunno if this is the stuff manatees really like or not. It doesn't much matter because I'm not aware of any reports of manatees in the area.
The banks of the river frequently rose up to 4 feet or so and actually seemed to be dirt rather than the usual Florida sand. Long stretches of the bottom appeared to be large ledges of limestone. My paddle would go clunk whenever I hit bottom. I could also see long scratches and gouges where a propeller shaft had scraped bottom.
After 45 minutes or so I came to the SR 90 bridge and listened to traffic whiz by as I passed underneath it.
A 5 knot wind was blowing in my face from the southeast. I hoped it would continue and help me against the current on the way back.
Another 25 minutes brought me to a railroad bridge.
I thought I was paddling along a 4 foot mud bank but it turned out to be limestone covered with moss. This led into a 15 foot high limestone wall about 100 feet long. Large pieces of rock had broken off the cliff and blocked part of the river. Over the eons, wind and water had eroded the wall forming several rather deep caves of fair size. These looked pretty neat with ferns and some other plants growing around the entrances.
I had seen a couple of hawks on the way downriver along with several small gray egrets and another lone blue heron. Many turtles could be seen sunning themselves on all the downed trees. Some of them were up quite high. It must of hurt like hell to dive into the water from those heights.
The paddle back upstream wasn't too bad. There were several fairly tough sections and one really tough one. It took 2-3 minutes to get my tired old butt 100 feet up river. I worked up quite a sweat in the 80+ degree temperature. The wind was now at my back (for the most part) and I'd stop and turn into it for a minute or so just to cool off a little.
I scared the crap out of another 4 foot alligator as I came around a bend.
Then I came to a fork in the river. Fork? What fork? I don't remember any damn fork. I went to the right and came to another fork. What the fork is going on? Am I lost? The GPS said I was dead on course so I just kept paddling, hoping I'd see something I'd recognize. Eventually I did and everything ended well.
05/07/00 Paddling From Union City:
This morning I drove down to Union City and put in at the CR 278 boat ramp onto the Chipola River. 5 boat trailers were already in the parking lot on this Sunday morning. This section of the Chipola is pretty much the same as the upper section at Marianna. A little wider at 50-60 feet but the same grayish green color with the same 2 knot current. Some pine, cabbage palms and palmettos were scattered in amongst the oaks, cypress and other hardwoods. When the bottom was visible, it showed most of it to be one large sheet of limestone.
Paddling upstream into the current I immediately came upon 3-4 foot limestone banks on either shore. The water level was down 2-3 feet so most of this would normally be underwater. The first section of limestone was so smooth it looked more like concrete than a natural geological feature. Except for the bottom of the wall where you could see the effects of the current as it undercut the rock.
A little farther upstream the limestone looked like Swiss cheese full of holes and pitted areas. Moss, ferns and hanging vines grew out of the limestone in many places providing a pretty picture.
A bright red cardinal flew across the river in front of me. Alas, that was it for wildlife the entire day.
A number of really large, twisted, gnarly oaks dotted both banks. Draped in Spanish moss they also had mini-ecosystems of small plants growing out of and upon large branches. Some of the branches were dead but it didn't make any difference as the small plants put their roots down.
I encountered some Class II stuff 1 hour into the paddle. A small, natural dam stretched half way across the river. Standing waves up to 1 foot in height could be seen above and below the dam as well as to the side. The whole thing was close to 200 feet long.
I worked my way up to within 20 feet of the dam but couldn't go any farther. For all the waves, the water was very shallow and I had to be careful about digging the paddle too deep, particularly with my paddle the shape its in. I slowly ferried across through the standing waves, looking for some slack water that I could make some headway against. Over on the right hand side of the river I managed to work my way up against the standing waves until I was above the dam.
I was still in very fast water and felt myself running out of steam. I started ferrying back across again looking for that elusive slack water that would allow me to get into some calmer waters. I lost the angle on the boat and drifted downstream near the rim of the dam. There wasn't any more steam in the furnace and I just let go. I went backwards over the dam (only a foot high) and then through a small hole without picking up any water. Once out of the larger stuff, I ferried over to shore and like the tired old man that I was, I carried up past the dam.
There must be a few springs in the area. Several tiny feeder streams with nice clear water cascading out of tiny inlets fed into the Chipola River.
20 minutes later brought me some really shallow water flowing rapidly over the limestone bottom. I spent a little time trying to find my way up some of the slacker water but there just wasn't enough water. A narrow channel of deeper water had a 3+ knot current flowing through it but I finally had to bite the bullet and go for it. It was slow progress but not too difficult.
I passed a couple of decent size caves carved out of the limestone walls.