02/25/07 Paddling Chassahowitzka River:
Cloudy and kinda windy today, particularly later in the afternoon. I had paddled this river before. This is where I had a really great manatee experience. Click here for the previous trip report.
Nothing much different this time except it was Sunday and there were a lot of canoes and kayaks out there as well as smaller powerboats. I checked the main spring out and found about a dozen needle nose pencil fish. About a foot long and not much thicker than a pencil. Pretty cool. Only a few birds including a few brown pelicans and a couple of tri-colored herons. No manatees or alligators today.
I poked around in a lot of the little tributaries this time rather than paddle out to the Gulf. When I did head out that way I got hit in the face with a lot of wind and turned back.
02/27/07 Paddling Weeki Wachee River:
Bad clouds yesterday but no rain except for when I was out for my morning walk. Looked like it might clear up this morning but I got rained on again during my walk. Then the dark clouds moved in again and we had a thunderstorm for about an hour. I was getting a little cabin fever so when it cleared a little I took off for Weeki Wachee.
I found a put in at the mouth of the river and another 3 miles down from the springs. I decided to put in on the Gulf and soon as I hit the water the sun came out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
I followed the channel markers to the left in search of the river. The whole area is saw grass with many hammocks thick with cabbage palms. Anywhere there was a slight rise palm trees moved in to take advantage.
This wasn't a very exciting day. I found the river and a lot of development too. That turned old in a hurry so I turned back and just putted around a few of the island hammocks.
A fair number of fishermen were out as were a number of crabbers. A bunch throwing their pots off the pier and one kayaker with a net.
02/28/07 Paddling Weeki Wachee River:
Heavy fog again this morning. After my walk and breakfast I decided it was going to clear up and headed back to the coast. Glad I did because this trip was pretty good.
No birds or manatees or alligators. Lots of mullet, a few 2 foot long gars and a few needled nosed pencil fish. Not much in the way of palm trees, palmettos, cypress or Spanish moss. Lots of development along one bank for at least half of the 6 miles... and the tide was out So why did I like this trip? I dunno. Maybe because of the clear water and sandy bottom. That certainly made the fish visible. Maybe because of the 20-30 springs along the way, many 10 feet deep and some with one or more limestone sides. Maybe because the whole trip was at least green and formed a canopy across the small river most of the way.
In any case I didn't mind paddling 3 hours against a 1.0-1.5mph current. Whenever I checked the GPS I was doing 2.0-2.5mph. Passed about 30 kayakers and canoeists heading downriver from Weeki Wachi Springs as I headed up. I got all the way to the springs and was stopped by a sign saying "No vessels beyond this point". Other signs had said no docking and such along the way so I just turned around and headed downstream.
Tide was coming in and the water level had risen a foot or two and here came the power boats, 10 of them altogether. A couple of pontoon boats, a jet ski that almost ran me down in a "No Wake" zone, a rubber raft with electric motor and various other noise makers. GPS said I was doing 3.5-4.0mph on the way back and it only took 1.5 hours.
The first thing I saw when I got back to the Rogers Park where I put in was several great looking bikinis. The second thing I saw was my headlights shining at me. On about 5 hours and the van still started right up. I'm sure it didn't do my battery any good though.