Florida, 2009
Submitted by George Granlund
posted February 4, 2009
click to enlarge
"A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill will hold more that his belican. He can take in his beak food enough for a week, but I'm damned if I can see how the helican." Dixon Lanire Merrith
We couldn't figure out how the hellicould either. But we never tired of watching them. Brown pelicans are divers. From about 10', they fold their wings and dive straight down onto their fishy prey. The white pelicans that we watched were herders. They worked in groups on the water to herd schools of fish together before enjoying their meal. Roseate Spoonbills sort of swept their bills under water like minesweepers and herons and egrets stand stockstill with laser concentration until a fish swims into the range of their pointy beaks. Ibis used their curved beaks as probes in the river bottoms to find their lunches.
It's amazing what you can learn while paddling. I've lost track of the many interesting things that our paddling group saw on our recent trip to Florida. But here is my best recollection;
The trip was a joint Pape/McCormick production. Patty provided superb destinations, navigation, and organization and Bill provided his cushy van for transportation along with his pithy observations on Republicans and life in general. The cast of characters for the trip was Brenda Battin, Duke Yost, Phil Crookshank, Tom and Elaine Ogden, Jim Ledtke, George Granlund, Bill McCormick, and Patty Pape.
We left snowy and cold Michigan on January 3rd and made our way to the Sunshine State to meet Patty near Ocala at the Silver River State Park. The park is set up for tenters and RV'ers alike and had all of the amenities. At the park, the four of us from Bill's van met up with Phil, Duke and Tom and Elaine.
Our plan was to paddle the Ocklawaha River the following day in hopes of seeing alligators, monkeys, and plenty of bird life. It was a little chilly when we shoved off, but we were immediately treated to hundreds of white Ibis roosting in the trees. As the weather warmed, we hoped that alligators would come out of the water and doze along the river banks. It stayed pretty cool during the remainder of the day so we saw quite a few turtles but no 'gators of any size.
Our second day paddling took us upstream on the Silver River. It was a bit warmer and we began spotting 3'-4' 'gators resting on the banks. We paddled up to Silver Springs where millions of gallons of fresh water pours from vents in the river bottom. Unfortunately, this natural wonder is surrounded by glass-bottomed boat vendors, and an amusement park. Fortunately for us, it was closed on the day that we visited and we were able to paddle in and enjoy the springs. The area was once a movie location for Tarzan movies. It's reported that some Tarzan movie monkeys got loose during filming and their offspring are still swinging from the trees. On his day, we only caught glimpses of monkeys and didn't see Jane either.
From Silver River SP, we made our way to the Hillsborough River State Park. The Hillsborough River is a slow, winding river rich in wildlife. The ‘gators were bigger, and we were amazed at how close we could get to the big wading birds that we encountered. No zoom lenses were required on this river. I couldn't identify all that we saw but there were Anhinga and Cormorants everywhere. We also saw huge Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Ibis, Otters and, of course, dozens of turtles on every log. Toward the end of the day's paddle we spotted a trio of Roseate Spoonbills. Near the take out, some of the group paddled up a narrow creek just to see where it led. It led to "Big George's" place. "Big George" is a jowly 12' alligator with enormous teeth and no sense of humor.
Our journey further led us to a number of places where Manatee's are easily viewed. Like us, they enjoy warm water but the temperatures were unseasonably cold much of the time so we didn't see them in their normally large numbers. Bill took us to the outflow of a power plant south of Sarasota and we saw more than a dozen of the large creatures surfacing and lolling in the warm water.
If we had little luck with the manatee, we had very good luck paddling with alligators. One our way south to Collier Seminole Park we stopped at Myakka River State park where some of the group frequently paddle. Once there, some of us went hiking while Patty went paddling. Wouldn't you know it, she reported seeing some of the biggest 'gators yet. Calamity struck at Myakka when we inadvertently parked under an overhanging palm tree. My boat was in an unfortunate position on the trailer and collided with the palm. The collision broke 6" off of the bow and cracked all of the chine joints on the hull in addition to crushing a rear bulkhead. You know that "oh s**t!!!" feeling that you sometimes get? I had that feeling when I saw what had happened to my beloved wooden boat. The damage necessitated a stop at West Marine in Sarasota where we picked up fiberglass and resin to make the repair.
Our last civilized campsite was Collier-Seminole State Park between Marco Island and Everglades City. I spent an afternoon doing repairs to my boat while the rest of the crew explored some of the many waterways near Marco Island. While in camp I was also in charge of adding vegetables to the crock pot and beef roast that Brenda had prepared. Late in the day, I got out onto the Blackwater River in the park to see if the boat would float. The repairs didn't look pretty, but I finished the paddle high and dry. Dinner was wonderful.
Collier-Seminole was the base for our primitive paddling foray into the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge that abuts the Everglades. Patty selected that location north of Everglades City because no camping permits are required and the islands provide relative protection from the wind and waves of the Gulf of Mexico. We made good use of our maps, compasses, and everyone's GPS to wend our way through the labyrinth of mangrove islands that make up the Florida gulf coastline.
Being from Michigan, we tend to take beaches, fresh water and lack of tides for granted. On the Gulf in Florida, it didn't matter when we wanted to paddle, we had to wait for the right tidal flow. We also had to carry all of our cooking and drinking water with us. If we timed the tide wrong, we'd either have to fight the current or carry our overweight boats over razor sharp oyster beds or knee-deep muck until they floated. Patty kept reminding us about the tides and we did quite well. We only had one incident (not Patty's fault) where we had to cross a wide, mucky bay at low tide in two inches of water. We went from paddling to poling, with the muck sucking at the hulls of our boats. They don't show this stuff in the adventure magazines.
We finished the four day backcountry trip by paddling with the rising tide up the Blackwater and into the park. We reluctantly said goodbye to Patty, Duke, the ‘gators and birds and palm trees and readied our gear for the long drive back to snowy, cold Michigan.