Kayaking - Econfina Creek - Tadpoles!

Econfina Creek, Florida - March 10                                          4.2                    516 total miles
75 degrees, beautiful blue skies
Me, Scotty, Jerry, Patsy
10:45 - 2:00 (half hour lunch)

We put in at SR 20 bridge and kayaked upstream. (towrds Walsingham Park until the trees wouldn't let us go any further!)  It was tough going, but lots of beautiful foliage along the banks - magnolias, ferns, some kind of pink blossoming tree, palm trees, pines and more.  The water was very clear - a brownish tea color.  Apparently, some rivers in Florida have a resin like appearance from the plant life along the banks.
At the very top of our trek, we encountered many trees down across the river.  This made for interesting passages through.  I believe we each got stuck at different times.
The guides said there were many springs, but we didn't see 'many'.  At one point, we came into a small lagoon with the biggest dang tadpoles any of us had ever seen!  They were about 5 inches long!   The bodies were bigger than a silver dollar.  I wonder what the frogs in that area sound like at night?
We had lunch along a bank covered with deer tracks - better than alligator tracks!  The banks were mucky and my shoes got stuck in the mud twice!
Going back was WONDERFUL!  We could have made it without paddling at all if we had wanted to just float.  But, we paddled some.  It took us 2 hours to get upstream and 1 hour and 15 minutes to go downstream - with a long stop at tadpole lagoon.
Two days of paddling and my arms are tired, but happy :)

My phone died, but we went from bottom to top, then paddled back downstream on this route.

Getting in at SR20.

This is actually at the end - getting out.

One of the docks we passed.

How cool is the scenery here?!

Another launch.

I'm going to call this 'Tadpole Lagoon'.  The tadpoles here were about 5 inches long - huge!

Jerry and Patsy Halvorson - friends we met on meetups in Tennesee.

Beautiful, clear water!

A palm tree!

Not sure what this pink blossoming tree is, but it sure is pretty against the blue sky!

An interesting paddle along the route.

We had some tricky passes to get through!

I tried to put my hand in to show the size of the tadpoles.  Can you see the one under my hand?

More tadpoles under my paddle.

Kayaking - Holmes Creek, FL - 14' of Trouble

 Holmes Creek, Florida - March 9, 2015                                       11 miles        511.8 total
10:00 to 3:30, half an hour lunch break, 2 other stops, about 70 degrees, slightly overcast
Put in at Cotton Landing, Take out at Hightower Springs
Me, Scotty, Richie, Sydnie, Jerry & Patsy Halvorson

We met up and did the shuttling business, then got into the river.  We met the Halvorsons who are spending their winter in Florida traveling around in their RV - I am very jealous!  This was Sydnie's first time kayaking so we spent a little bit of time at the beginning showing her what to do.  It didn't take long, and by the end of the day, she was a pro - making turns, paddling under trees and around logs.  We didn't see a lot of wildlife which surprised me.  We saw a few turtles, one osprey flying overhead, a crane hiding behind the cypress trees.
This creek had lots of twists and turns.  Any other paddle, I might enjoy that.  But, today I was paddling our 'new' used 14 foot kayak.  You wouldn't think an extra 2 feet would make a difference, but let me tell you - on a twisty creek, it makes a difference!  I got stuck several times and had to be helped through some narrow spots.  Richie enjoyed this immensely as he had the camera on one of my trickier spots.  He got a lovely photo of me grimacing.
Towards the end of our day, there were many islands.  We had to make decisions several times on whether to go left or right.  At one fork in the river, Richie started to go right, and yelled 'alligator'.  He had just seen an alligator's head sink under the water.  I was directly behind him, but only saw the trail of bubbles.  Excitement on Holmes Creek!
It was a wonderful day and after the last few miles of islands, twists and turns, we were happy to finally see the take out!

This is Cypress Springs which flows at 89 million gallons per day.  

Scotty joined Richie for a swim

Some of us decided to stay in our boats or on the dock :)

We saw many trees that buckled like this.  Anybody know why?  We don't!

Dogwoods in Florida?

Look at these kids that joined us on this paddle!

We saw this interesting cabin along the creek.

I learned a lesson today - a 14 foot kayak is not good for a creek with lots of trees down!

We don't see banks like this in Tennessee!

Another spring at the end of our paddle.