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. 

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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.

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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.  

Two Mondays on the Wekiva – Part I

I was lazy last week and didn’t post about one of my trips, so will have to take care of that today.

In the past when I’ve tried to get back to paddling, one of the problems has been time.  With a family there always seems to be something that needs to be done, so the “not enough time” excuse rears its head.  This time, though, I’m working on the theory that two hours on the water is still two hours on the water, so I’m taking opportunities as they arise.

So since my daughter has classes several times a week, I’ve started taking the opportunity to do something other than drive home and sit on the couch before it’s time to pick her up – whether paddling or hockey or something else.

Under this premise, a friend and I headed for Wekiwa Springs State Park Monday (5/10) to get on the water.

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With two people, the portage from the parking lot to the water wasn’t too bad and we headed out.

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The GPS went a little hinky and didn’t track as often as it should have, but we first headed up Rock Springs Run until the water got so shallow in spots that we had to get out and pull the kayaks.

This bird was there on our way up Rock Springs Run and didn’t budge as we went by.  After we paddled upriver for a while and came back, he was still there – apparently unmoved.  We considered the possibility that he was some taxidermists prank until we got close enough to make him stalk off indignantly.

Once off Rock Springs Run and back on the Wekiva, we found the Wekiva Marina much changed since my last visit and pretty busy for a Monday afternoon.

Last time I was on this river, the marina was pretty dilapidated and didn’t get much traffic.  It looks like things have had significant changes.  I’m going to have to stop by and check it out.

Further down the river, we came across this little place, posted No Trespassing by the Florida Farm Bureau.

Not sure why it’s there or what it’s used for.

Not much wildlife on this trip, but all along the route we saw signs of the most invasive species in Florida.

I really don’t understand how people who go out on the river and clearly enjoy doing so can so casually toss crap everywhere – do they not care if they’re swimming and fishing in a garbage dump?

Honeymoon Island

I had a bit of a later start than I planned this morning, due mostly to a muttered “oh, hell, no” and slap at the alarm clock around 0-dark-thirty.

Once up, though, I loaded the car and hit the road for Dunedin, FL, stopping just twice:

1. Subway for breakfast and lunch – their new breakfast is pretty good, easily in the top five of semi-fast-food, after Panera, Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A, and the cheapest of the four.  Quite a bit above McDonald’s or Burger King.  Plus you can pick up a cooler-friendly lunch at the same time.
2. The Best Buy in Dunedin to pick up an iPhone battery.  Yes, I know you can’t replace the battery in them.  I was looking for either a solar charger or charger that uses regular batteries, because I’ve been using the iPhone as my GPS tracker on trips (safely ensconced in the deck bag, of course), but the GPS eats battery life.  What I found was this thing from Energizer that works as an external rechargeable battery:
   

   
   So far, so good – it ran the iPhone for GPS tracking over four hours today and the phone still had a full charge.

A good put-in to paddle either Honeymoon Island or nearby Caladesi is from the Dunedin Causeway.

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View Dunedin Causeway Put In in a larger map

You can enter the state park on Honeymoon Island, but the portage from parking lot to beach is a lot longer than on the causeway:

Of course I still haven’t repaired the seat padding that blew off, so I had to improvise an ass-pad cushion.

All in all a folded towel is okay, except for the part where it gets saturated and you sit around in salt-water all day … but the Tarpon’s a wet boat anyway, so I didn’t really notice.

My goal today was to circumnavigate Honeymoon Island then paddle around St. Joseph Sound on the east side of Caladesi.  With the late start and the stops, I only managed the first half of that.

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The weather forecast called for the winds to be out of the ESE between 8 and 12 MPH, so I started my trip on the east side of the island (going counterclockwise), putting the wind and waves at my back and quarter for the first part of the trip.

I did have to paddle into the stronger wind for the latter part of the trip down the west side of the island, but it was a much shorter distance to face that than the east would have been.  You can see from the GPS track that I was a lot slower on the West side, especially when I got far enough south to be out of the lee of the island.

I passed near Grassy Key on my way north, a small mangrove island.

Most of the southeast portion of Honeymoon is mangrove also, with no beaches or stopping places.

It’s not until you round the northernmost headland of mangroves that the shore begins to offer places to beach.

I stopped three times on the east side of the island.

The first stop was because I had to pee.  I know, TMI, but under the Florida sun: If you don’t have to pee, you’re not drinking enough.  Something Florida paddlers should keep in mind.  I also picked up about a dozen cans and bottles at this stop to dispose of properly.

The second stop was because I thought I remembered there being an easy portage spot there – clearly I was mistaken, since that stop was at about the widest part of that portion of the island.  So much for my memory.

And the third stop was because an osprey had perched on very low post.

The wind and waves were driving me right to the beach at the base of this short dune, so I was able to keep still and exit the boat out of his site.  This let me get a lot closer for a picture.

The north end of Honeymoon is roped off and signed as restricted to protect nesting birds.  The sandbar there is also a gathering spot for the feathered ones.

Rounding the north end of the island presents you with a view of the open Gulf.

The ocean-side of Honeymoon should be considered an open-water paddle.  Unlike the sheltered sound to the east, the west-side can get the full force of wind, waves and currents.  A basic understanding of currents and tides is helpful and you should be comfortable having nothing on one side of you until Mexico.

The combination today was a light wind out of the south and a moderate swell out of the south.  Since I had to go south, this made the second half of today’s paddle more challenging.  But I find swells easier to handle than the chop the wind was kicking up on the east side, so I’m glad I went counterclockwise today.

The northern beaches on Honeymoon are the farthest from the parking lots, so they’re not very crowded.

But this changes as you head south.

I saw only one dolphin on this trip, that just as I was turning east around the south end of the island.  I wasn’t able to get a picture, because he only surfaced twice, both times quickly and heading north. 

I pulled onto the beach at the very southern tip of the island, just before the channel and crossing to Caladesi, where I had a quick lunch.  As soon as I had my sandwich in hand, this guy showed up to try mooching a bite.

His presence also irritated a couple other gulls who were busy with the preliminaries to seagull sex.

After lunch, I crossed the channel to the Caladesi side.

But I decided to call it a day and head for the causeway and home.