Avg Speed 2.9 mph, Max Speed 6.1 mph, 4:29 time
On this day, the entire Adventures in Florida group paddled - 24 of us. It was a good group of people and I was especially impressed by the number of solos women on this paddle and they were all very good paddlers! It gives me hope as several were older than myself, one was in her 80s. Florida is the place to be for paddlers! This river is wide and has many springs along the way. The first spring we passed was actually going underground. Apparently, the river was low and the water was flowing into the spring. Two of the women paddled into see it and couldn't get out as the current was so strong. Scotty and the assistant guide went in and helped them out. Scotty and I paddled into all of the other springs that we passed. The river was low so paddling into the springs, against the current was difficult and a good workout. Blue Springs was absolutely beautiful - a dark, vibrant blue. Most of the group paddled into this spring and we took pictures of each other floating over the beautiful,, blue water below us. We also paddled into Lily Spring, but Naked Ed was once again not home. This time we were also able to paddle into Ginny Springs where there were lots of scuba divers in the water so we didn't go all the way in. It looked different than our September visit when this section of the river and the springs were taken over by college students. After coming out of Ginny Springs, Scotty and I had no idea where we were within our group of 24 - at the beginning of the group, middle or end. So we paddled without stopping, met up with a few more from the group and although we were tired for the last 2 miles, we continued to enjoy the beautiful scenery and made it to the end.
