03/08/07 Paddling Owl Creek:
Paddling against the current at Weeki Wachee Springs a few days ago apparently put too much strain on my right shoulder. Tendons were quite achy for several days. I finally got something called Ice Hot that got rid of the ache.
In the mean time I just drove around exploring some of the Florida Panhandle, checking out camping areas and put ins. Did quite a bit of work on the Trip--->Logistics section. Today I paddled Owl Creek near Sumatra.
I 'm camped at Hickory Landing for $1.50 a night. Its right on Owl Creek so I dumped the kayak in the water there and paddled upstream (I think). There was almost no current so it was hard to tell.
The creek is more like a river, about 150 feet wide and who knows how deep, I certainly never hit bottom or even saw it through the deep brown water. Small cypress, not pygmy cypress, line the shore the entire 4 miles I paddled. They're just starting to turn green. Much of the creek was covered with pollen.
I passed 3 homemade houseboats just tied up to some trees here and there. It looks like people just take them out on the river and park them. If so, I guess its a cheap way to have a weekend getaway. Also passed what can best be described as a sunken tour boat with walls and a roof.
Didn't see a single bird the entire way but did see a couple of 5-6 foot gators and a few turtles.
At about 4 miles the river narrowed down to 10 feet. The river was up and I could see water way back into the cypress. I didn't want to have the channel disappear on me so turned back. I've been kinda lost amid cypress before. As it was I got turned around once on the way back before I got back to the nice wide river. That experience reminded me I had actually paddled up Owl Creek in 1999.
03/09/07 Paddling Owl Creek:
Yesterday I watched two jet fighters playing tag directly overhead. That was interesting but the noise sucked. Today I got to watch a bald eagle soaring on the thermals for a few minutes. The white head and tail were clearly visible although it was much too far away for a photo. Another bird about the same size soared nearby. That was probably an immature bald eagle that hadn't turned white yet. Probably mom showing junior what to do when looking for food.
I just turned downstream today. 1.5 miles brought me to the Apalachicola River. There's no current on Owl Creek but close to 2mph on the Apalachicola. I found more green on the downstream paddle. Closer inspection showed the cypress starting to come to life and some other kind of tree sporting its leaves already.
I found a creek flowing into the Owl and followed it about .5 miles until I started feeling uneasy with the closeness of the cypress trees again. I took another waypoint on the GPS when I decided to continue up the creek. The channel might be obvious on the way up but looks quite different on the way back. The creek narrowed again and began to twist and turn when I headed back.
I just poked around here and there in little coves and inlets to see what I could see. No critters anywhere today.
03/10/07 Paddling Graham Creek:
Still at Hickory Landing and still on SR 65. Today I paddled Graham Creek. Looking at the map I saw I could get to Deep Creek from Graham Creek so turned upstream. I soon came to a railroad bridge and thought I'd have to turn back but found a passage through all the crossbeams.
No current at all and with the dark water and smooth surface it was like a piece of black glass reflecting everything almost perfectly. Not much green today and most of the shoreline was some smaller trees with rough, bark like oak. Only about 5 percent of the trees were cypress. All trees along the shore were in the water but the water didn't extend back very far.
I soon came to what I thought was the Doyle Creek Campsite in Tate's Hell State Forest but in reality could have been any other campsite. I continued up the creek for .5 hours. Things got narrower and trees and bushes started growing out of the channel. I could see clear water ahead and the water didn't extend sideways very far. I wouldn't get lost in there but I soon got tired of trying to push my way through the trees and turned back.
I continued past the put in and soon came to a fork in the creek and stayed left since that seemed to be the general direction of East Bay which the creek flows into eventually. The creek is much wider down here, somewhere around 150 feet wide. Pretty much the same shoreline though.
No critters again today except for 3 boats of fishermen. I went a couple of miles, had lunch and then came back.
03/11/07 Paddling River Styx:
The River Styx flows through Hades. It also flows through the Florida Panhandle. I don't think they're the same river. At least the Florida one doesn't hiss and steam and boil and bubble and doesn't smell like sulfur. No guy running around in his red long johns either... at least not that I saw.
Another beautiful day in Florida in March. Temperatures in the upper 70's and just a few white clouds in the sky.
The River Styx, southwest of Tallahassee shows to be about 5 miles long on the map with a boat ramp right in the middle. A current of about 1mph was flowing but I decided to go downstream anyway. I figured I'd go downstream with the current for about an hour and then spend 2 hours coming back. Seemed like a good plan.
Almost no cypress trees at all on the downstream side. Looked like a river anywhere else in the country. A fair amount of green and lots of yellow flowers growing in the water 50-100 feet back from the main flow.
It didn't take me long to realize the current was picking up the farther I got downstream. GPS showed 1.5mph and then 2.0mph. When it got to 2.5mph after .5 hours I turned around and headed back. I didn't want to get in a situation where I had to hurt myself to get back to the put in.
I was still feeling frisky an hour later when I got to the launch site so kept on going. Of course the current slowed back down as I went upstream and continued to do so. Now I had some cypress trees and they were sprouting new needles. The river narrowed as I continued and soon was down to 20 feet. Eventually I came to an overgrown section where the channel might be going left or right. Lots of trees ahead so I had lunch and moseyed on back.
03/12/07 Paddling Kennedy Creek:
Kennedy Creek seems to be pretty typical of the creeks in this area southwest of Tallahassee. 50 feet wide with the waters overflowing into lots of cypress trees. Only a few trees starting to turn green makes me wonder if all those cypress trees along the creeks and rivers are dead or alive. Only 2 great American egrets and 1 anhinga today, although I did see a couple of red cardinals.
The map showed Kennedy Creek flowing into Salty Creek or some such thing so I turned left and went .25 and sho' 'nuff, there was another creek. Seemed to be pretty much the same as Kennedy Creek. I turned around and headed the other way though to see how far up Kennedy Creek I'd get.
No current and no wind so I cruised along at a pretty good pace... until trees started appearing in the middle of the creek. The channel was obvious most of the way but it would disappear every couple hundred feet and I'd pick my way through to some open water again. I could see one shore or the other and sometimes both through the trees so I wasn't worried about getting lost amongst a never ending forest of cypress trees.
I got tired of that after a while and gave it up. I also think I gave up on Florida for this year and will head for Louisiana tomorrow.