Hiking - Cheaha State Park

 We awoke in the morning and were able to see the campground.  :)  We were right next to a hiking trail to the top of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama.  It was a whole .22 mile to the top.  At the top is a stone building, the CCC Bunker Observation Tower. The tower is approximately 50 feet high and the peak of this mountain is listed at 2,407 feet above sea level. There are fantastic views of the mountain range around us.  These are the foothills of the Appalachia.  There's also an outdoor seating.  All of this was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.   There's also a trail (LNT Bigfoot Challenge Trail 0.5 miles) into the woods encouraging visitors to look for Sasquatch.  This trail is one of the ten original "Leave No Trace Gold Standard Sites for teaching and leading environmental stewardship in the USA.  We didn't spend a lot of time here as this was our last stop before heading home.

Driving out, we were able to see that this is a beautiful campground atop the mountain.  There are several cabins that can be rented here.  There's a restaurant with fantastic views of the surrounding foothills (although I think it was closed).

1.28 miles, 38 min moving time

Our campsite

Morning View from the Campsite

Thanks given to the Civilian Conservation Corps and
the Boy Scouts of America for this building.

View from the observation tower.

Kayaking - Santa Fe River

Santa Fe River                                                                                        9.7 miles

2:31 moving time, 3.9mph avg speed, 13.2 mph fastest speed

Our original intent was to pack up the trailer and park it at our take-out spot. But, we were up early and changed plans. We straightened up the trailer and headed to the river. Scotty took the truck to the take-out and rode his bike back to me where I was waiting at the launch. When Scotty got back, we were in the water at 8:51. The river was high and there were reports of flooded areas. This is a wide river so it wouldn’t impact today’s paddle. If anything, it made the flow that much faster. We decided we wouldn’t paddle into every spring and I would not take as many photos. THAT is hard for me! So we paddled at a fairly constant rate. The river was very quiet, few other paddlers out and lots of great reflections. We realized we were making really good time and were pleased about that as we still had to break camp. We did notice that many of the springs had blocked access from kayaks entering, in an effort to restore the vegetation at the bottom of the springs. We did paddle up into Gilchrist Blue Hole. We noticed that today was probably the easiest time we’d had paddling up into this spring. There were only 4 people around - 1 little girl had the whole spring to herself for swimming as the other 3 were workers. They were tying up buoy ropes and appeared to be checking water quality or levels. Soon after this spring is the large camping park, Ginnie Springs Campground that goes along the river for 2 miles. This was probably the emptiest and quietest we’ve seen it here, few campers and no tubers. Probably the first time, we enjoyed this part of the river. After the campground, the river seemed to slow down some. After near constant paddling, this is when my arms started to ache some. But, soon enough we heard the sound of cars going over the bridge and we were at the end! We finished in 2 hours and 37 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend this speed for this river as it really is a beautiful river. But, we’ve paddled it several times before and our goal was to get one more paddle in on our ‘2021 Pandemic Paddle Tour’. Mission accomplished!

Our Kayak Trip

Scotty's Bike Ride

Back ‘home’, we had lunch and hitched up the trailer.,Scotty always seems so confident when doing tasks and it is really going smoothly. We look like we’ve been doing this for awhile! Today’s drive was 7 hours with a stop at Subway for dinner. We got to Cheawha State Park, Alabama a little before 8 and backed the trailer up in the dark. It was only after we were all settled that we realized we didn’t get Site21, a pull-through, but Site 12, a back-in site. Lesson learned- check the site on the confirmation when checking in.

Kayaking- Ichetucknee Springs

Ichetucknee River                                                                   3.86 miles

1:52 moving time, 2:14 elapsed time, 2.1mph art speed, 5.1 max speed

We had a slow morning as it was cold out. We drove over to Ichetucknee Springs and left Scotty’s bike at the south entrance of Ichetucknee spring State Park by the bridge. We put in at the North End Launch. There was one other couple putting in at the same time and throughout the day, we passed maybe a dozen people. We couldn’t paddle off into the springs today as they were all roped off with signs that stated reconstruction was happening. I’m sure this river sees a lot of people - it was packed yesterday, so today was really nice. After only about an hour, we wedged our kayaks into some water lilies and ate our lunch in the middle of the river. We saw many turtles along the way, and they just kept sunning as we paddled by. When we got to a wide open, sunny part of the river, we found some manatees. First we floated above 3 of them and then realized there were more just a short distance away. They never cease to amaze me and I really think I could spend hours there watching them. Today there was a baby manatee clinging to Mama’s side. Finally, Scotty said I had to leave. BooHoo! I’m just glad we saw them as it’s not always a guarantee to see them in March. The water was particularly high today as the river spread out into the trees. Around the docks, it was noticeable as the steps and part of the ramps were submerged. We arrived at the South take- out and Scotty rode his bike up to the truck while I walked around the park.

We arrived back at the campground about 2, too early to do another paddle. We cleaned up preparing for an early departure tomorrow. We had dinner and relaxed. We are so enjoying this trailer!

Kayak Trip

Scotty's Bike Trip - 5.6 miles

Biking - O’Leno State Park

 We’ve got the packing up thing down. We were out of the campground by 9. We thought we would kayak the Santa Fe today as it goes through our campground. But, they had blocked the access to the road where Scotty would leave his bike. So we set up the trailer and took a bike ride around the park - 5 miles in 45 minutes. I walked across the Suspension bridge. It’s located right by the old buildings that once made up Leno City. It was built in the 1800s and originally named Keno City, known for the gambling.

Our Bike Ride - 5 miles, 49 min moving time

Hiking - Bulow State Park Ruins and Tomoka State Park Campground

 Rain is predicted all day with the lightest period in the morning. We had breakfast and dressed for a rainy day and headed to Bulow State Park Ruins. We walked for 59 minutes (1.89 mile). There are ruins here from a sugar plantation built in 1821. It was built by Charles Bulow and taken over by his son. The plantation had 6,675 acres and was planted with sugar cane. The ruins of the sugar mill are still there, but the plantation house is gone. It was burned by the Seminole Indians. With today’s current events, it’s very sad to see how the white settlers displaced the Seminoles, and also exploited the black people using them as slaves. I couldn’t help but think how hot and miserable the conditions would have been boiling the sugar cane here in Florida’s hot weather. The plantation house would have been beautiful during its time, but again I imagined the owners sitting on the front porch and watching the slaves working in the rice fields directly over the waterway - not a view we'd want to see today.   We saw 2 other people during our walk around the plantation. So even though there are thousands of bikers here for Bike Week,  they apparently do not visit the beach or historical ruins. We drove to the seafood market to buy Wahoo fish and scallops. As we ate a light lunch, the sun began to peek out from the clouds. It drizzled on and off after lunch. Scotty sat outside and played computer games. I sat inside and painted with the watercolors that I brought along for exactly this kind of day. When the rain stopped, we decided to walk down to the Tomoka Outpost, which is located right along the inlet. We had Blonde Ales and some roasted peanuts sitting outside, overlooking the water. Retirement sure is good! We continued walking to the end of the peninsula, home to an Native American settlement years ago. These tribes apparently died from disease. 

Tomoka Park Walk - 3.25 miles, 1:14 moving time, 2:06 elapsed time