12/20/06 Paddling Spring Garden Lake:
I put in from Ponce de Leon Springs State Park (the famous Fountain of Youth) thinking I was going to paddle out into the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge but you can't get there from here. Water levels are way down and Jones Island, which separates Spring Garden Lake and Lake Woodruff, is no longer an island. It's part of a prairie that has sprung up because of lack of water.
Ponce de Leon Springs is nothing but a spring with a pool built around it. I have no idea what a couple of scuba divers were doing there. It did have a very pretty man made waterfall over which the waters from the spring poured into the lake.
Stormy clouds threatened most of the time I was on the lake. On the way out the waters were perfectly calm but the wind picked up on the way back. Only had a little sprinkle of rain though.
There is hardly any water at all in the lake. It's about a foot deep by the spring but dwindles off to 6 inches once you get out on the lake. I could really feel the drag of the silty bottom on the kayak as I paddled. Felt like I was going against a 2 knot current. I saw a 6 foot alligator shortly after I hit the lake. I have no idea what he was doing there with so little water. Probably stranded as a baby when the water dried up.
Ibises, blue herons, American egrets, anhingas, limpkins and hundreds of coots everywhere. A couple of smaller versions of the great blue heron and a couple of snowy egrets, smaller versions of the great American egret. Also signs about manatees coming into the spring during cold spells. No way that was going to happen now unless they come cross country.
An unattractive sulfur smell accompanied me halfway down the lake and then disappeared. Trains went by every 30 minutes blasting their whistles for my listening pleasure. Small planes droned past in the skies to add a little variation to the noise.
The left side of the lake was actually very pretty with dense stands of cabbage palms, some of my pineapple palms and live oaks with some Spanish moss dangling from them fronted by a few feet of vegetation. The lake is about 2 miles long by 1/2 mile wide.
When I got down to the far end I could see what might have been Jones Island. A big stand of palms is where it might have been during a previous existence. Lots of grass around it now, though.
The right side of the lake sits back quite away from the lake. Lots of palms but difficult to see.
12/21/06 Paddling St John River:
Been here before but came back hoping to see some big alligators up on the banks. No such luck. Saw several in the 6-8 foot range cruising in the water but nobody up on shore.
Got several of my best photos so far of Great American Egrets. Lots of Ibises in the trees hiding out of the wind.
Paddled north which is downstream on the St John. Mostly smaller cypress trees with no needles and a fair amount of Spanish moss. The river is close to 100 yards in most places here with little current. I made up for that on the way back by paddling into a pretty stiff breeze.
Manatee signs all over but none in the river I that could see. They go into Blue Spring next door when the weather turns cold. They must sleep on the surface where the cold would really impact them. One or two nights of cold wouldn't/shouldn't affect the main body of water. I wonder what the alligators do when its cold?
A fair amount of wildlife on the way out. Coming back at noon I ran into several large houseboats, several pontoon boats and several fishing boats. They weren't bad because of the "No Wake" signs but still made a lot of noise. Most of the wildlife disappeared and it was time for me to disappear too.
12/2/06 Paddling St John River:
Got to the put in next to Blue Spring, unloaded the kayak and got hit with a face full of wind. Stood there 5 minutes debating whether to go out in the wind and some ugly looking skies or do the sensible thing. So I went out.
The entrance to Blue Spring is 100 yards south of my put in. It took me a good 5 minutes to get there against the wind. I saw 2 kayakers loitering there the whole time and went to see what they were doing. A half dozen manatees were hanging out right there. One big guy about 7 feet long and he seemed about that wide. A couple of smaller ones about 5-6 feet long and a little guy 3-4 feet long.
I hung out with the kayakers for 10 minutes or so watching the manatees and taking pictures. There was a glare on the water and only one of my pictures turned out.
All three of us turned into the wind and started paddling. They were on vacation and didn't want to miss a day paddling and I wanted to work out a little. They had little recreation kayaks and I soon out distanced them. I paddled for about an hour and when the St John made a dog leg right, I kept going straight up a feeder creek.
The scenery on the St John wasn't pretty. The shores of the creek was pretty much the same but since they were closer seemed much more interesting. The wind seemed to be keeping the wildlife away on the river but some appeared on the creek. A 4 foot alligator, a few herons and egrets and I saw one manatee munching on some vegetation.
On the way back I turned into another feeder creek and found the 2 kayakers from the manatees. We stopped for lunch and then I continued on back while they went poking around some more.