Afternoon on the Wekiva

An afternoon paddle on the Wekiva today, but no pictures or GPS due to battery issues.  Those should be resolved before my next paddle, though.

I started at Wekiva Springs State Park and turned onto Rock Springs Run to paddle upstream until the water became to shallow to continue.  Then I returned to the Wekiva and paddled downstream past the marina for an hour or two.

Two small gators, a number of birds, and a bevy of drunken paddlers from the marina.  The highlight of the trip was a hawk carrying a squirrel (or some other small, furry dinner) that back-winged mid-river to reach a tree on the bank.

Part of this trip was to try out a couple pieces of new equipment.

First was a carry strap I got from topkayaker.net:

(stock photo – sadly neither the yak nor the brunette are mine)

I’ve used this the last couple trips, but those were short transfers.  It worked well for those, but the 100-yard sand path from the parking lot to the launch at the Park would be a good test, with soft sand much of the way that tends to bog down some kayak cart wheels and a significant elevation change between the parking lot and the launch area.

So what I found was that the weight, even on one shoulder, wasn’t a problem.  The 16’ length of the Tarpon is an issue, as it’s simply unwieldy to carry – controlling the ends, and such.  The biggest issue for a long portage with this device is that the bottom of the boat presses against my leg just below the knee – so each step rubs that spot back and forth along the bottom edge of the boat.

On the trip down to the water the kayak had been on top of the car for a couple hours, so had plenty of time to heat up the plastic and it was uncomfortable.  On the way back up again, the friction was noticeable – in fact, I believe there is a spot bare of hair on that leg now.  Next time I’ll have to bring some pants to change into for the portage – that should alleviate the rubbing.

Next were these:

I’ve been looking at the Vibram Fivefingers brand for a while and my kayaking sandals are just about at the end of their useful life, so I decided to try a pair.

These are the KSO model, along with the Flow, designed for watersports. 

So comparing them to the sandals I usually wear, I was favorably impressed.  Yes, the having-stuff-between-your-toes thing takes a bit of getting used to, but aside from my left pinky-toe, all adjusted quickly and even that awkwardness went away once they got wet the first time.

I was in and out of the boat several times and when the water got very skinny on Rock Springs Run I got out and walked for a couple hundred yards pulling the boat. 

The “feel” of these is very much like being barefoot, but still protected from rocks and logs.  I didn’t have a need to perch on a log while pulling the boat over, but I do think these would provide better grip and balance than sandals.

The bottom of Rock Springs Run is more sand than mud, but there are spots where the sand isn’t hard-packed and your feet sink.  These were easier to deal with in the KSOs than in sandals.  With sandals, once you’re foot sinks, pulling it out often creates a void between the sole of your foot and the sandal – that creates some suction and makes it more difficult to get out.  These both stay on and avoid that problem.

The fit around the ankle is tight enough that very little sand or dirt is able to get into the shoe.

Overall quite comfortable and effective.

Florida Keys

With a new car that gets much better mileage than my V8 Mountainer (even if a 16’ boat on 14’ Prius does look a bit silly), I can now worry more about where I want to paddle than how much it will cost me to get there and back.

Since Orlando to Key Largo costs about $25 with this new rig, I decided that’s where I wanted to go this weekend.  Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, with 15+MPH winds Saturday and Sunday, I was only able to paddle on Friday and Monday.

After driving down and checking in at my hotel in the morning, I stopped at Florida Bay Outfitters for a new hat and rash-guard shirt.  Since I was there and they’d started selling their rental fleet for the off-season, I also bought a boat … which will bring to five the count of boats in my garage when I pick it up in July.

Now, five boats may seem excessive to some people, but each has its own specific purpose and use.  So to justify myself explain each boat’s purpose:

• My primary boat is the 16’ Tarpon pictured above.  It’s stable, tracks well, and it’s generally comfortable, except for the still-missing ass-pad seat cushion that I still haven’t replaced.
• Then I have a Pamlico tandem, which I’ll likely be selling soon, as I have a new rule of never going with someone who won’t paddle their own damn boat.
• Next is a 9.5’ Swifty that’s mostly used by my daughter, but it’s a light, handy, cockpit boat that’s nice to throw on top of the car for a quick paddle in the morning or afternoon.
• Lastly is an Ocean Kayak surf boat which I got to have a surf boat for the boy-child to use.

The new boat will be a 14’ Tarpon 140:

This will give me a boat similar to my primary, but a bit shorter (easier to control) for when I want to take someone who doesn’t have their own boat.  In addition, it has a rear well instead of a hatch, so it’ll comfortably hold dive gear.

See?  I absolutely need five boats …

Friday Afternoon – Lignumvitae Key

(view in Google Earth)

2.5 hours – 5.5 miles

My plan for the weekend was to paddle the three Keys accessible from the causeway between Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys, Lignumvitae, Shell, and Indian Keys, with a possible diversion to snorkel at the wreck of the San Pedro (about a mile south of Indian Key):

I took a quick paddle around Lignumvitae – it was a beautiful day, with little wind and crystal clear water.  On the way back across the flats, I passed a 3’-4’ nurse shark cruising along the bottom. 

Saturday & Sunday

The weather forecast for the weekend called for 15+mph winds.  When I arrived at the put-in Saturday morning, it was clear that the wind would be an issue on either the Gulf or Bay sides, so I took the opportunity to spend the day in Key West. 

That turned out to be a good decision, as the beach rental at Smather’s Beach in Key West claimed 20-30mph winds and Bahia Honda wasn’t even renting kayaks because of the wind.

More of the same on Sunday, so I drove to Everglades National Park and spent the day there.

Monday Morning – Blackwater Sound

(view in Google Earth)

3.75 hours – 10.3 miles

The forecast for Monday called for 10mph winds dropping to 5mph in the afternoon.  I put-in at Florida Bay Outfitters and paddled across Blackwater Sound to Dunedin Creek, taking a bit of a detour into the mangrove creeks to explore.

Coming out of Dunedin, I made for the western edge of Little Buttonwood Sound, which put the paddle at five miles.  My plans were to head west from there toward Porjoe Key and then on to North and South Nest Keys.

At this point, though, the winds did not seem to have died down and were out of the East and Southeast, so continuing the trip another five miles to Nest Keys would mean a ten mile return mostly into the wind – with the first half of it giving the wind a five mile fetch across open water. 

If I’d had camping gear with me, I’d have taken the chance, knowing I could just stay overnight and paddle back the next day.  In fact, I think I’ll do that next time.

Saint Joseph Sound Spoil Islands

December in Florida.  On the water at 11:30, clear blue skies and 72-degrees.

This was a trip to visit the spoil islands in Saint Joseph Sound to pick one for camping in a few weeks.  Spoil islands are the result of dredging channels – the material dredged from the bottom of the channel is loaded on a barge and the barge is periodically dumped to the side of the channel.

This results in evenly spaced islands (or bars if there wasn’t enough material) along the line of the channel.  In this case there are six islands about a half mile apart running north of the Dunedin-Honeymoon Island causeway.  The channel continues to the north, but the islands stop – the northern dump sites didn’t rise to the level of islands.

(open in Google Earth)
(7 miles – 3:30)

There’s a lot of rock and oyster shell around the causeway and islands, much of it exposed at low tide, which is when I arrived to put in.  The oyster shell will tear up a boat faster even than rock, so don’t drag your boat over it.  Also watch your step, as it’ll slice your feet up just as easily.

I set course for the first island in the chain and started off.  Getting there from where I put in on the causeway meant crossing the boat channel.  I always laugh at kayakers who start talking about marine law and right-of-way regarding powered boats. In my book, right-of-way goes to who won’t wind up as flotsam and chum after the collision, so I always make sure the channels are clear for a long ways before trying to cross.

This is not clear enough:

The reason we wait until it’s completely clear, of course, is because no matter how well the day’s going, no matter how swift your stroke is … dead center of the channel will be the spot your cooler decides to slide off the back deck of the boat and become a sea anchor.  Did this happen today? Of course it did.  This is why I want a new boat.

On some of the islands, local conservation groups are busily at work replacing non-native vegetation.  While I can agree with this in principal, I still think the Australian pines just look better than native growth.

The first and second islands north of the causeway have rock fire pits and cleared areas suitable for camping.  The second is larger and someone has brought in a picnic table.

Both were nicely free of trash, with only a few cans or bottles around.  Most of these had already been placed in the fire pits.

On the first island, though, there’s clearly a “bathroom” area that some people aren’t following “leave no trace” in.

If you can’t handle packing it out, then stay somewhere there’s a toilet. 

The third island north of the causeway is an Audubon sanctuary, so landing is not permitted.  The fourth was inaccessible during my trip due to the tide – exposed rock and oyster shell made landing a bad idea.

Island five had a little surprise in store for me.  The low tide exposed a spit of sand and an odd looking rock that turned out to be this little guy:

Not every day that you see one of these on the beach.

The last island in the chain is small and rocky, with only a few scrub trees for cover.

Even so, if the weather forecast is good, it will probably be my choice for camping, because it’s isolated and well-positioned as a base.  From here, it’s only two miles to either Honeymoon (red) or the bars north of Honeymoon (green), and from them it’s only another two miles to Anclote (blue).

Happy Birthday at Haulover

For my birthday morning, I took my daughter and a friend of hers to Haulover Canal.

View Haulover Canal in a larger map

After a long drive to pick up her Little Boy Friend*, we hit Subway for breakfast and to pick up lunch.  At Subway, they gave me a Sharpie to put our initials on the lunch sandwiches, which, of course gave me the opportunity to write LBF on her friend’s – he seemed to have a sense of humor about it, she erupted in a chorus of “I can’t believe you did that!”

Kayaking and annoying the girl-child … life is good.

We were on the water by 10:00 and headed up the canal.

(view in Google Earth)

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

I put the kids in a tandem Pamlico while I paddled my Tarpon.

Shortly into the paddle, we spotted the first dolphin of the day.

And shortly after that, the manatees.

We left the manatees and the kids did a little exploring of Haulover’s unique shoreline.

Shortly after this picture, they drifted closer to the branches and I heard the girl-child express her concern that a snake might drop on her. (You may express your ridicule in the blog comments and I’ll make sure she gets them.)

Under the bridge and past the manatee observation deck, there was a pair … sporting.

Some conversation in the other boat about what they were doing prompted the girl-child to ask me what I thought:

“Well, sweetheart, when a mommy manatee and a daddy manatee love each other very much …”

“So you think they’re having sex too.”

A short way further along I spotted an alligator near the bank, but he sank out of sight before I could get a picture.

We exited the canal to the North – here are the mangroves where I stopped us to tell the kids the Mangrove Story.

What’s the Mangrove Story?  Well, I believe that we should take advantage of opportunities to educate children:

“Mangroves are very important to the coastal eco-system, because their roots provide a protected environment that acts as a nursery for many different species of fish, crabs and shrimp.

“Interestingly, if you take a 10’x10’ piece of nylon netting and some lead weights and use them to submerge a body amongst the roots … in two weeks it’ll be nothing but bones from all those little baby fishes and crabs.

“You should remember that as you spend time hanging out with my little girl.”**

The kid seemed to be a good sport about this story, too, because, of course and on advice of counsel, the Mangrove Story is just friendly kidding.

Just before heading out into the lagoon, we came across a barnacle-covered piece of driftwood.

The wind was out of the NE today, so we headed in that direction, crossing the lagoon before stopping to drift back as we ate lunch.

After lunch, on the way back, the girl-child will claim I fell in the water.  I deny this charge.  Here’s what happened:

Because I had forgotten to bring towels, I was unable to improvise a ass-pad seat cushion as I have recently.  After the paddle across the lagoon, the lack was being felt, so I stood up to stretch my legs.

The Tarpon is a very stable boat, so standing up is not foolish.  I’ve stood in it to fish before with no problems on calm water, and it was quite calm today.

From my standing position I was enjoying the view of the clear, shallow water when I spotted what I thought was a small turtle.  A second look showed that it was a large crab and since the water was so shallow and clear, I wanted to get a good picture of it, so I quickly sat down.

Standing in the Tarpon is perfectly okay … sitting quickly, not so much.

So, yes, part of me left the boat, but since it was only one leg and became wet only to the knee, while the other leg and the rest of me stayed in the boat, I do not believe this qualifies as falling out.

I subscribe to the philosophy that any exit in which my hair remains dry qualifies as a controlled-exit from the watercraft.

I did not get a picture of the crab.

After that incident, though, I did get a picture of a pelican in flight.

We also saw the second dolphin of the day off in the distance.

On the way back, the kids took a disturbingly close look at the mangroves.

Of course I actually use a far more remote patch of mangroves there was nothing out of the ordinary for them to see.

Back through the canal, now much more crowded with fishermen, and saw the third dolphin of the day off-shore as we loaded the car – or, more probably, saw the first one of the day again, but still good to see.

 

* I call all of the girl-child’s female friends her Little Friend and the males are referred to as her Little Boy Friend.  I do this for two reasons: first, it saves me the trouble of trying to remember names; and, B, it annoys her to no-end.  Yes, I’m lazy and cruel.

** The Mangrove Story is intended solely as an amusing anecdote and does not constitute an admission of guilt or any knowledge whatsoever about missing teenage boys who’ve hung out with my daughter.

Two Mondays on the Wekiva – Part II

For today’s trip on the Wekiva, I headed for Wilson’s Landing at State Road 46 to put in. 

View Wekiva - Wilson's Landing in a larger map

The forecast all week calls for scattered thundershowers and halfway to drop my daughter off for her class and my couple hours on the water I ran into this.

Traffic on the 70 MPH highway slowed to 40 as the storm cut visibility, but it soon cleared a little.

The SR46 bridge is off-limits for boat launching, but Wilson’s Landing is close by.  There’s no official boat launch at the park at this time, but Seminole County recently approved a quarter million dollars to build a pavilion and launch there.

Frankly, I think I could build a pavilion and canoe launch for a lot less than $250,000, but that’s a different issue.

Until it’s built, though, launching is a little … unofficial.

Parking is a good distance from the water, but there’s a paved sidewalk most of the way (if you have wheels) and terrain’s mostly level (unlike Wekiwa Springs State Park).  There’s also a dirt road that continues past the parking to a roundabout that gets you about halfway closer to the water.

The sidewalk leads to a boardwalk over the water, but there’s a dirt path branching off it to the only clear area of shoreline in the park.

The path is surrounded by landscaping, but hasn’t been landscaped itself and there are no signs prohibiting boat launching, so I’ve assumed it’s okay to use this spot until the official launch site is built.

The site itself, though, is pretty cramped right now and it’s a bit tricky to maneuver a large boat onto the water and back to shore for boarding.

Once on the water, you can see that you’re only a short distance from the SR 46 bridge.

I had limited time for this trip, starting at 5:00 and needing to be off the water by 7:00 in order to pick up my daughter at 7:30, so I started upstream – planning to paddle until six and then head back to my launch point.

(view in Google Earth)

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Shortly into the trip, though, I found that staying by the right-bank had been a mistake and the channel I’d followed became clogged and impassable.

After heading back downriver, I decided to keep going that way, rather than retracing my path nearer the left-bank, so I headed for the bridge, taking a couple photos along the way.

The Wekiva’s an interesting river, because it can change from the very open river I started paddling in to a much closer, tree-lined river in a very short distance – as it does, just after the bridge, splitting into two channels with a tree-covered island between them.

And then opening up again just as rapidly.

Ducks were out in force this trip and I saw quite a few of them.

And farther down river, two deer were getting an early dinner.

You’d think after almost forty years in Florida, I’d know what some of these damn birds are, but I really have no idea.  I got a decent picture of this thing, though.

And to think the mess I’d driven through earlier turned into this:

Ducks I can recognize, though, and this one seemed to not care at all about me.

By this time it was six and time to turn around, but looking ahead I could see that I wasn’t nearly out of river yet …

Surely I could paddle a little farther and still make it back in time? Right?  I decided to paddle until 6:15 and then head back.

And I’m glad I did, because just a little ways downstream an alligator left the reeds ahead for the far side at my approach.

He was followed by a second, larger one, who reached the far shore and then paralleled my course for a while.

Shortly thereafter, I ran across this plant – not sure what it is, but it looks nice.

At this point, it’s 6:08, so I decide to turn around and head back … mostly because my watch is slow and it’s really 6:12.

Remember all those big open spaces on the river … well, now the current’s against me and the wind seems to have picked up and is funneled between the trees and I have to hurry back to the put in.

Why does this little stretch of river seem so much harder to paddle than the open-ocean side of Honeymoon was Friday? 

Finally, ahead of me, the river splits and I paddle into the narrower channel on the right-bank.  Once I’m through this tree-covered area, I’ll be going under the bridge and then it’s just a few hundred yards to the park.

Doh!

Not quite at the right split yet, and the homeowners have built a wall across the river – probably too many boats cruising through ignoring the No Wake signs.  So I have to backtrack and get out of this dead end, but if I hadn’t taken it, we wouldn’t have this picture of a pony in someone’s back yard.

Yes, the best picture I could get was of the horse’s ass.  I’m in a hurry and have to get off the water by 7:00 or I’ll be late picking up my daughter – give me a break.

As an aside, is that really a pony, or is it a demondonkey?

I’m just asking.

Saw another large alligator cruising ahead of me, but he submerged before I got close enough for a photo.  And now that I’m hurrying, fighting against the current and the wind to get back and off the water by 7:00 so I won’t be late for that 7:30 pick up, there’re smaller gators on every freakin’ dock I pass, it seems.  No time for pictures of them, though.

Finally, I’m in the right channel and reach the bridge.

And back to Wilson’s Landing where I can get off the water.

Yes, that’s the target I have to line my 16’ boat up against, get close enough sideways to step out onto land, then maneuver the boat around to pull it out.  I didn’t say it was an easy site.

Off the water, drag all the gear back to the roundabout, load the car and ready to drive only a few minutes late.

My schedule had some buffer time in it, so I’m able to make it with a couple of minutes to spare, arriving to pick my daughter up at 7:28.

At which time, I sit around and wait until 7:45 because her class ran long.