12/15/06 Paddling Silver River (9 miles round trip):
Silver River is one of the top 5 or 10 paddling trips in Florida. Heavy storm clouds have been hovering overhead for several days now; not even a hint of sun. Not any better today either. So to paddle or not to paddle. The decision is to paddle in gloomy weather or possibly wait for the weekend with hoards of screaming boaters. Not much choice there.
Got a little drizzle on the way to the bridge over the Ocklawaha near Silver Springs but it didn't continue. Found two boat ramps and put in at one and came to find out there is an area for hand launches at the end of the parking lot.
A channel leads .4 miles to the Silver River. 50 feet wide, lily pads sticking out 10-15 feet from each shore, cypress trees, (what I call) pineapple palm trees and vines hanging down on both banks. A street sign at the river junction provides help for the navigationally challenged indicating Silver River to the right and the Ocklawaha River to the left.
You paddle upstream 4.5 miles or more against a 1-2mph current. I thought I was paddling about 2mph but it took me 4 hours and maybe 30 minutes of that was gawking, taking pictures, etc. The river is probably 100 feet wide most of the way and the lower half is pretty deep. Big patches of sand where the grass doesn't grow lets you see way down through the clear waters.
I no sooner made the turn onto the river and a large alligator gar swam past. That was the only one of those I saw though. Lots of large bass and something called a mud fish just kinda lies there on the bottom. 'No Fishing' signs keep the fishermen away and 'No Wake' signs keep most of the power boaters away. All day I saw one other kayaker.
The lower, deeper half of the river was mostly cypress and pineapple palms while the upper part was shallower and mostly cypress. I think the water spread over a wider area on the upper half possibly making it too wet for the palms.
Lots of great blue herons, tons of turtles and anhingas, lots of ibises, limpkins, kingfishers, and egrets. Except for the egrets and kingfishers, the other birds were much less shy than in other areas, probably because of the number of people they see. I also saw a small hawk and the tail end of a bald eagle flying through the woods. Later on I had another eagle sighting and got one picture. A tour boat came by and scared it off before I had another chance. Yeah, tour boats. They're on the upper section but didn't seem to go very far. Good thing too, the monotonous drone of the guides drove me out as it was.
Stopped to take a picture and the current pushed me against a couple of cypress trees. I looked down and there was a water snake curled up in the roots of a tree a couple of feet away. Maneuvered around a bit and took a couple of pictures. Then I turned my head to look at some flowers near my head and there was another snake curled up not 2 feet from my ear. I said 'Thank you for not biting my ear, Mr. Snake' and removed myself from that area.
Didn't see many alligators on the lower section but saw 10-15 of them on the upper. Don't know if it was the difference in water levels, vegetation or just the difference in the time of day. There are several floating platforms of vegetation and many hauled themselves up on these to catch what sun they could. I was maneuvering the kayak upstream of one while trying to get a good angle shot of a 6 footer not 10 feet away. I stopped to diddle with the camera and the current took me right into the platform and there I sat not 2 feet from this guy... and he hardly even moved. That was a little closer than I really wanted to be so I removed myself from that area pretty quickly too. The alligators are pretty used to people too but this seemed more than that. I think he and the rest of the alligators seemed pretty lethargic, maybe due to the weather, I dunno.
Silver River is fed by Silver Springs, a tourist trap now but in the 1940's they used to make Tarzan movies as well as Ester Williams movies there. A bunch of monkeys escaped from the Tarzan movie set and are often seen along the Silver River and the Ocklawaha River. I saw some on the Ocklawaha in 1999 when I was here. None today though, no otters either.
12/16/06 Paddling Ocklawaha River:
Thought I'd have a clear day, then it clouded up and then the clouds finally started to break up after several days of gloomy weather.
I figured the crowds would be out today so I chose a trip I didn't think would have many people on it, the upper Ocklawaha, from the SR 40 bridge to the CR 314 bridge. I put in the same place as yesterday and turned left at the street sign instead of right. I paddled down the Silver River .25 miles until it joined the Ocklawaha and turned right, upstream.
Here the Ocklawaha is all brown water and no current at all, nada! I passed a small alligator up on a log and .25 miles later ran into a log jam. Well, not a log jam. A couple of trees had fallen almost across the river and other branches and debris had come from upstream and jammed up there. I found a way through but it was kinda tuff for a 17 foot kayak.
This part of the Ocklawaha is mostly smaller cypress trees with a few palms trying to make an appearance. Saw a large hawk and a few minutes later a bald eagle flew by. A fair number of herons, a couple egrets, lots of ducks, a couple of ibises and limpkins. Only a couple of turtles on the way up but many more on the way back down. Nowhere near the number as yesterday.
The sun tried to come out, the river widened and most of the palms and birds disappeared.
I was picking up some trash and when I turned around I saw 5 baby alligators on a log. Not more than 2 feet long. Moms hang around their young for a year or so to protect them. I didn't know how long it takes to grow to 2 feet but I grabbed a couple of pics and got out of there.
A little while later I came across 5 more baby alligators, this time all on different logs. When I came back I thought I saw Mom cruising around the kids but she disappeared as I got closer.
As I got to the CR 314 bridge I saw where all the trash was coming from. The shores were lined with local fishermen and the area was a trash dump. I got annoyed and threw the trash bag I'd been filling out on a bank and paddled about 1.5 miles beyond the bridge.
When I got back to the place where I'd seen 5 baby alligators on one log, they had been multiplied by 2. There were now 10 of them on the same log. One dropped off and then I saw 2 more on another log. As I was paddling away from them I saw 2 wild pigs rooting around right on the shore. They looked to be half grown and all black.
As a final treat, just as I was joining up with the Silver River again, I heard a splash and a second later a little head popped up out of the water... a river otter. I got the camera out, turned it on and was zooming in when the little bugger dived under the water. They're supposed to be very curious so I sat there and waited a couple of minutes for it to reappear. I could see its reflection in the water as it moved around behind a log but it didn't come back out again.
12/17/06 Paddling Ocklawaha River:
This trip wasn't so hot. I put in at the SR 40 bridge and headed downstream as before. This time I continued downstream on the Ocklawaha. It passes under the 40 foot SR 40 bridge shortly. The street noise coming off that bridge is horrendous. Local fishermen have left their trash all over the banks too.
I expected a lot more canoe and kayak traffic as well as pretty heavy boat traffic on this Sunday morning and I got it. Not that many canoes and kayaks but a lot of powerboats on that little river less than 100 feet wide and much of that taken up by lily pads. Some of those boats were sporting 35-50 horsepower outboards too... and if they got 100 feet of straight river they would open them wide up too.
The scenery wasn't bad but there was little wildlife. When going downstream I have to judge the current so I don't overextend myself on the way back upstream. I misjudged today but on the side of caution. I drifted or paddled downstream 1.5 hours in what I judged to be 1-2mph current. I thought that wouldn't take more than 2 hours at most to paddle back up. It only took 1 hour. I'll know a little better next time.
I really haven't paddled any creeks or rivers since the last time I was in Florida, in 1999. All my paddling since then has been lakes or ocean. So it will take me a while to determine what I physically can and can't do.