Kayak Yakking and More: Kayaking - Rainbow Springs

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Kayaking - Rainbow Springs - Beautiful Springs

Rainbow Springs, March 25, 2014 Miles Traveled 7.9, Total Miles 267.4
Morning Route - High 74 degrees, Blue Skies
Average Moving Speed 2.0 mph, Max Speed 4.1 mph, Traveled 4.1

Afternoon Route - Average Moving Speed 2.9, Max Speed 5, Traveled 3.8
me, Scotty, Dina & Dick

From our campsite, we drove about 15 minutes. We put in at a beautiful state park, K P State Park that had winding ramps leading down to the river. There was a concession stand, restrooms, dock and swimming area. The water was crystal clear and we could see plant life and fish swimming around. As soon as we got into the river, we saw some playful otters darting in and out of the grass. Overhead we saw a bald eagle flying. The skies were a beautiful blue and we knew it would be an awesome day of paddling. We went a mile and a half upstream to Rainbow Springs. This is a state park area and we could not disembark from our kayaks along the shore, unless we had gotten out before the barriers. We chose to paddle around. There is a roped off area with a swimming area and there were lots of swimmers and snorkelers the day we were there. We paddled around looking down into the crystal clear water and took lots of pictures once again. The water is surrounded by a beautifully landscaped park. We took off our watershoes, sunned our legs and discovered it's nice to paddle around barefoot! We paddled back to K P Park and had lunch on the dock. Scotty and Dick took 1 car down to River Run Park, came back and we all paddled downstream. We saw many different styles of homes and it was apparent that this river does not flood as they were built very close to the water and not up on stilts. It was another beautiful day of paddling and we saw many birds and lots of turtles.
After paddling, we drove an hour and a half to O'Leno State Park. It was nearly dark when we got there, so we set up our tent quickly and made dinner. Dick and Dina arrived later and set up their tent. We didn't have much time to sit around and got into our tents quickly. It was cold and actually got down to 37 degrees during the night. We had noisy neighbors celebrating a birthday that kept us awake for awhile, along with a dripping water faucet outside our tent. It's amazing how the littlest sound at night in a campground can seem so much louder. Even with all of that, I slept great this night. But, the next morning, I was VERY reluctant to get out of bed!