Santa Fe River

 Santa Fe River                                                                       4.7 miles            989.7 total miles

2.3 Avg Speed, 4.5 Max Speed, 2:02 hours

We were meeting the Adventures in Florida group to go paddling, but it appeared they were moving slow and a paddle for the day didn't look feasible.   So Scotty, myself, Dick and Dina packed up our kayaks and headed to the Santa Fe.  We didn't want to shuttle so we went upstream and then back.  The scenery was great - lots of birds (herons) and cypress trees.

Merritt Mill Pond - Before a cold night of camping

 4 miles, 1:42                                                                     4 miles.     985 total miles
Avg Speed 2.4 mph .
Temperature 68° a bit overcast

 We sit out onto the lake from a public boat launch. We paddled 2 miles up through many many cypress trees. At the end there  was a park and be Dr. boats and walked around on land for a little while. There were many scuba divers going down into the cave into the springs.  The one thing that surprises on the way back we're too big splashes that occurred in front of my boat. We never did see what it was maybe an alligator maybe a vanity or maybe just a big turtle.  We camped at O'Leno State Park and it was cold, cold, cold!  The last photo shows my camping joy!

Kayaking - 11/11 - Pennyrile Lake

Pennyrile Lake                                                        4 miles                  981 total miles

We started the day with a lunch at DaVinci's Italian Restaurant.  I had eggplant parmesan with a side of spaghetti, Scotty had spaghetti funghi with mushrooms and bacon.  The restaurant had a very European feel and the food was excellent!

With full stomachs, we headed off to the lake.  It has been 6 weeks since we paddled; because of no rain, the rivers around us are very dry.  In fact, Tennessee is currently plagued with many wildfires.  The tricky part of this paddle was getting our boats into the water.  The park had blocked the access road down to the lake.  There was a trail behind the lodge, but with my bad knees there would have been no way I could have safely gotten down along with bringing our boats.  We drove around and found some cottages that overlooked the lake.  Aha!  We could tie a rope to the boats and slide the boats down the leaf covered hill to the lake.  Once in the water, we paddled twice around the lake.  Many of the leaves were off the trees, but there was still some color surrounding us.  And after paddling, we headed back towards the cottages and tied the boats up to drag them up the hill.

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It wasn't easy getting the boats down this bank, but we did it!