Hey, what are we doing in Sarasota? I thought we were supposed to be paddling the Withlacoochee River on the Georgia border.
Well, it's like this. After paddling the Georgia side of the Withlacoochee the weather took a slight turn for the worse. Rainy, cold and miserable, the forecast was for temperatures in the lower 30's that night and low 20's the next night. No thanks, not for me.
I spent the next night at Blue Springs in Orange City, 30 miles above Orlando. I didn't outrun anything. When I woke up in the morning, everything was covered with frost and ice and my water jugged was frozen. It did bring the manatees in to the warm springs for the night. I spotted between 20-25 in the run between the spring and the St. John's but none in the spring itself. It looked like they were headed out into the river to feed and once they got there decided it was too cold. Half were heading towards the river and half were returning, I figured it would be warmer on the Gulf Coast than eastern or central Florida so here I am.
Myakka River State Park is beautiful, one of my top three in Florida (Tomoka & Kissimmee) and on the eastern US. Several miles of palm trees and palmettos and live oaks with Spanish moss dripping from their branches like the long gray hair of an old lady. Just during an evening and morning walk I spotted five deer, six sand hill cranes, an otter crossing the road, a raccoon crossing the road, six wild turkeys and lots of egrets, Ibises, hundreds of coots or small ducks and other shore birds. Someone had also told me a 17 foot alligator hung out by the bridge in the park but I didn't see it. In fact I didn't see any alligators in the park.
My mind was off in never, never land and I almost walked up to a doe and a fawn before I realized they were there. I was down wind of them and the doe couldn't quite make out what I was. She would stamp her foot and then sniff the air. After a time or two I began stamping my foot every time she did. She tried working her way around me, little by little so I'd be up wind of her and she could get a sniff. Eventually they head back into the forest.
The park has lots of service roads for walking. What they don't have is a decent campground. Most commercial campgrounds have more space for campsites. You would think with miles and miles of wilderness they... Never mind.
Last night was around 35 degrees and a 15-20 knot wind was gusting. The wind hadn't let up a whole lot by the time I launched at the park's boat ramp onto Myakka Lake at 9am. By then it was in the low 50's even with a bright sunshine.
I had to do battle with a dozen brazen black vultures that insisted on trying to steal my lunch out of the kayak while I parked the truck. They were persistent. I eventually got off, lunch intact. Pulling out of the short channel I passed a snowy egret, then two glossy Ibises, then two sand hill cranes, a flock of white Ibises and then six more sand hill cranes. As I watched, three more cranes flew in to join the first two. 30-40 small swallow type birds darted all over the place while an osprey soared around looking for breakfast.
Upper Myakka Lake is 1+ miles long and 1/2+ miles wide. The Myakka River is supposed to flow into the upper lake, connect it with Lower Myakka Lake and then flow out of there. I couldn't find the river anywhere so didn't get to the lower lake.
The lake had little water this day before Thanksgiving, only a few feet at the deeper parts. Parts of the shore now extended an extra 50 feet into the lake showing a new growth of grass because of the low water.
Lots of glossy Ibises fed in the shallows along both the east and north shores of the lake. I've never seen that many before, maybe a hundred or so altogether. I was paddling directly into a steady 10+ knot wind. Each time I stopped paddling I'd find myself going backwards at a 1+ knot speed.
Hundreds of white Ibises and other birds flocked at the north end of the lake, apparently to get out of the wind. Several blue herons stalked the shores and I saw one heron sized bird fly away. It was white with black borders on its wings, a white heron? More likely a wood stork.
I ran out of water on the north end looking for the river. Thick globs of peat made it impossible to go any farther. Backing out of that mess, a flash of pink caught my eye amongst a bunch of snowy and great egrets. Looking a little closer I saw five rosette spoonbills, sweeping their heads back and forth in the water like a vacuum cleaner so as not to miss a single tidbit. Their bodies are mostly a light pink and their heads are mostly white. Their bill, shaped like a soup spoon is where they get their name. Lots of snowy egrets could be seen up at the north end too.
Hoping to see some alligators out sunning themselves I paddled down the far shore. Off in the distance I saw several dark shapes I thought might be wild turkeys. Instead they turned out to be wild hogs. Two sows with enlarged udders fed along the shore with eight youngsters. I couldn't get close enough for a picture but one pig is pretty much like another.