Ocklawaha River

Because of Hurricane Irma, we decided to move our annual 10,000 Islands trip to another part of Florida.  I chose the Ocklawaha River because it's been on my radar for some time now.  There is a lot of fascinating history surrounding this river.  In the early 1800s, it was proposed to build a shipping canal across Florida.  Later in the 1930s, the US government starting looking at options to do this.  The plan was to start the canal at Yankeetown on the west coast and have it join the St. Johns River and go up to the Jacksonville area.  There was obviously a lot of push back on the project from environmentalists.  The Ocklawaha River would have been one of the main rivers dredged for the project.  Luckily, the idea was abandoned in the 1971 and officially cancelled in 1991.  Many dams, bridges, and other structures had been built already, but the remained on the land was given to the state to use as recreational land.  Read more about it here.

We drove up to the Ocklawaha Canoe Outpost near Fort McCoy, FL and car camped there for two nights.  The first full day of our trip, we went on a 7 mile hike along the Florida Trail in Ocala National Forest from Store 88 north to Lake Delancey.  Along the way we saw red-cockaded woodpeckers which are fairly rare.  

  

Alec, myself, and Auz on the Florida Trail 

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

The next day, we packed up our gear and got shuttled to Silver Springs State Park.  We quickly loaded up the canoes and headed down the Silver River.  We saw tons of birds: green herons, ibises, great blue herons, night-crowned herons, tri-color herons, wood ducks and many more.  Because the manatees were trying to avoid the cold water in the winter, we saw them in the clear blue spring water as well!

Auz and I on the Silver River

Wood Duck

Manatee

Silver Springs was a privately owned park from 1852-2013, when it became a Florida State Park. It was featured in many of the original Tarzan movies and was the filming location of The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The park had many different owners over the years.  In the 1930s, the owner wanted to create a Jungle Cruise and purchased a troop of Rhesus monkeys.  He placed them on an island in the middle of the river and shortly after discovered that they are excellent swimmers and he watched them swim away.  They thrived in the wilds of Florida and today, it is estimate that there are about 200 of them living along the Silver River.  We were fortunate enough to see them!

Wild Rhesus Monkeys

That night we camped along a pretty area of grass on the river, where we forgot to photograph the campsite.  Oops!  The next day, we headed out around 10 AM.  Hurricane Irma has knocked down many trees into the river which made for some interesting paddling maneuvers.  

Thanks, Alec!

Our original plan was to camp for two nights on the river since the total trip was 26-28 miles.  Unfortunately, after we stopped for lunch at Gores Landing on Day 2, we failed to find another suitable campsite.  Around 4 pm we found ourselves back at the canoe outpost, where we opted to car camp for another night.  I would highly recommend paddling the Ocklawaha River.  We did see crews out there trying to clear the downed trees and it should be mostly cleaned up by next year.  There is typically an option for a side trip along the Dead River, but we were told it was currently impassible.

 Gator

Bald Eagle in a front yard on our way home

8th Annual Ten Thousand Islands Canoe Trip

This past week, the usual suspects geared up to head out to the Ten Thousand Islands again.  Luckily, my husband was able to get the time off work to join us this year for his second time.  We wanted to further explore some of the northern islands so we chose to again leave from Port of the Islands.  However, to avoid the boat ramp fee, we left from a park just on the north side of the road on the water.  

Phil, Alec, and I at the launch site

We brought 2 of our own kayaks and rented 2 canoes from Everglades Adventures through the Ivey House.  They were by far the best place we have rented from any year.  They were on time (even though we weren't), flexible, and had great pricing even for non-hotel guests.  We got started about an hour later than intended which made us nervous since we didn't want to end up fighting the tide.  We still had plenty of time to make it out of the long, boring channel though before the tide changed and even saw some wildlife.  

Roseate Spoonbills

White Pelican

We weren't 100% sure of where we wanted to camp yet but knew it was between the north side of Panther Key, Hog Key, or Whitehorse Key.  We stopped for a quick lunch on the south side of Panther Key then headed around the gulf side, passing some feeding Bull Sharks,to head to Hog Key. While Hog Key looked beautiful from far away, it was definitely lacking in camping options.  Over the years we have become somewhat of campsite snobs and now only the prettiest will do.  We jumped back in the canoes and decided to head back to Panther Key.  We chose the spot right near the lagoon entrance.  

Our campsite at sunset

The next morning we decided that we would keep our campsite for the next 2 nights and just do day trips to explore the other keys in the area.  We first headed back over the Hog Key to check out a beautiful cove Eric told us about.

Path to cove on Hog Key

Cove on Hog Key at low tide

Next we headed over to Whitehorse Key since we had seen many beaches on it on Google Earth.  Whitehorse Key ended up being gorgeous with many beautiful beaches to camp on.  We ran into a couple of guys from Tennessee who said the rest of the group was on the other side of the island but we didn't hike all the way around.  

Exploring Whitehorse Key

Next, I wanted to go check out Dismal Key, where a hermit used to live.  We still haven't learned our lesson and yet again did not have a GPS, but it looked easy enough to find on the map.  Unfortunately, somewhere we took a wrong turn and ended up in some lagoon.  We were able to backtrack and get back to our campsite but I was super disappointed.

That evening while we were cooking dinner, my husband set up a fishing line baited to catch Bull Sharks.  Sure enough, within 30 minutes we heard the whirl of the reel and we hooked a bull shark.  Everyone took turns reeling it in so we could get pictures before releasing it.

The next day we decided again to attempt to find Dismal Key.  This time, Eric gave us good directions since he is expert navigator, and we found it without any problems.  I had read the autobiography written by Al Seely (one of the former hermits of Dismal Key) and had been wanting to visit it for awhile.  I had studied on Google Earth where the house and other buildings had been located and by following the tree line was able to find it!  Other than the cistern, there's not much left in terms of buildings.  We found the ruins on an old dock, the cornerstones of where the 1935 cabin used to be, and possibly the remains of an outhouse.  We did find tons of old bottles, cans, and other home furnishings such as pieces of rugs, the old icebox, and a bed frame.  I'm not sure which hermit it was since there were 2 in the later years but someone really liked Busch Beer since we found hundreds of beer cans out there.  It's a great lesson in recycling.

Dock remains

Cistern

Pile of old trash where center of house was

Cornerstone of house?

What's this? (We believe it was an ice cube tray from fridge)

Outhouse ruins?

Playing archaeologist on Dismal Key 

Different plant life than on other keys

We were also interested in the very different plant life on Dismal as opposed to other keys.  Dismal Key is almost entirely made up of an old Native American shell mound which makes it much taller than other keys.  It also contains a huge variety of plants such as Gumbo Limbo trees, wild poinsettia, and many types of cactus. After exploring Dismal Key, we ate some lunch on the oyster shell beach.  On our paddle back to Panther Key, we had to fight some strong winds, which made us feel as if we earned our beer when we got back to camp.

Relaxing in the water after returning to camp

That evening we caught another Bull Shark while prepping dinner.  Eric also caught some Redfish so we grilled those up for the omnivores.  For some reason, we were surrounded by bees while cooking dinner.  They weren't threatening in anyway but just annoying.  So we created a bee feeder out of a lid filled with Mountain Dew and that kept them focused on that and not us.

The next morning we had planned on paddling all the way back to Everglades City but Eric's weather radio was warning us of headwinds up to 19 knots.  We decided our best bet was to wake up incredibly early since the wind usually picks up in the afternoon.  We woke up at 6AM and launched by 8AM, but when we rounded the point of Panther Key we were smacked with strong winds.  We quickly came up with a plan B of going back to Port of the Islands and calling Everglades Adventures and having them pick us up there.  Unfortunately, with this decision we were fighting the tide the whole way back.  However, it was still the better option since those winds would have slowed us down tremendously and tired us out.  

It was, again, a great trip with good people and good food.  That's all you need!

Heading home

Loxahatchee River Day Paddling Trip

Yesterday, my dad and I joined a group of friends for a day trip down the Loxahatchee River.  We met up in Riverbend Park in Jupiter, FL and rented our canoes from the Canoe Outfitters in the park.  We stopped under the first bridge to look for bats and found a few.

Because it's still the rainy season the water levels were very high.  The first section of the river was by far the prettiest.  It was open but not too wide.  It was lined with tall cypress trees and beautiful undergrowth.

Eventually it became narrower and curvier as it wound through the cypress and palm trees.  Luckily my dad is an expert paddler and navigated us without any real problems.

We stopped at a large downed tree, parked our canoes and most of us ended up swimming for awhile.  It was fun to try and swim against the strong current.  Shortly after this stop we arrived at the first dam on the river.  Because the water was so high it was barely noticeable as we paddled over it.  A short distance later we arrived at the second dam (also known as Masten dam).  When the river is lower, it can sometimes create a problem for paddlers.  There is a ramp to get your boat over it if you do not want to paddle over it. Again, due to high water, it wasn't a problem.  Soon, the noise from the Turnpike and I-95 bridges became louder and we eventually paddled underneath them.  Most paddlers choose this point to turn again and head back to the outfitters.  The outfitters are responsible for maintaining the river up this point and the state park service and responsible for everything further downstream.  Unfortunately, they prefer to let the river in this area between I-95 and Trapper Nelson's place remain in its natural state so it can be very challenging to paddle through.

This section of the river took the longest since we encounter many obstacles such as large fallen trees blocking the river, low hanging branches, spider webs, and confusing river forks.  We attempted to look for the Governer's Dock but never did see it.  We assumed the water might have been too high.  Finally, we reached Trapper Nelson's place in Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  

Here we sat at the picnic tables to eat our lunch while listening to stories from the park rangers.  They were certainly a wealth of knowledge about Trapper Nelson and his life in this area.  My favorite part was hearing the stories about Trapper's family members that had visited the park since his death in 1968 and had provided them with even more stories and artifacts.  After we ate, we walked around the compound to look at his cabins, "zoo", smoke house, and even a modern bathroom.  While Trapper Nelson lived here, he not only hunted and sold furs to live off the land, he also created a zoo and tourist attraction.  

Finally it was time to head back and meet our shuttles.  Downstream from Trapper Nelson's place the river becomes much wider.  We even ran into some motor boats and jetskis.  We also saw 4 manatees!

We stopped for a quick swim at the "beach" at Jonathan Dickinson before paddling the 1/3-1/2 mile back to the boat ramp.  The trip in total was somewhere around 10 miles and took us around 6 hours with all of our stops.  Definitely a fun but challenging trip!