Withlicoochie River 12 miles 1234.1 total
84 degrees, blue skies, some wind
Put in at Marion Blue Spring State Park
Take out at Suwanee River State Park12 miles, 3 hr 40 min
Average Speed 3.3mph, Max Speed 6.3 mph
After driving through the night from Ethan’s, we stopped at the Florida Welcome Center and slept several hours so we wouldn’t lose a day of paddling. This makes us think we’re still young and invincible- haha, tell that to our bodies!
We dropped Scotty‘s bike off at Suwanee River State Park and drove up to Marion Blue Springs. There is a nice spring there with a walkway around it, but it actually looks more like Marion Green Springs. A launch is listed here, but we never really found a true boat launch. We had to walk our kayaks down the ramp around the springs, over the cypress knobs and into the Withlacoochie River. We did encounter a man here that had been canoeing for eight days. He said we were the first people he had met in eight days that were paddling in this river. He warned us of some rapids ahead on this river. We did encounter three fast little areas of the river and we didn’t think they were that bad, and actually thought they were fun. And then we heard it - the shoals! The river was low so that the rocks were very exposed and it didn’t look safe for our kayaks to go through. We kayaked a short distance through the rapid waters down to where the shoals began and even that little distance was a bit of a challenge. After much observation and discussion, we decided to tie up our kayaks and guide them down the river from the bank or actually Scotty did that. We got down to a point where we felt like we could safely kayak through the rest of the river. My kayak was up on the bank at an angle; Scotty put me in it and pushed me down into the river and let me tell you my heart was racing! The Withlacoochie is a wide river with lots of cypress trees along the bank and big white rocks that I read later were limestone and we encountered many hawks along the way. There were several houses on the banks, but we passed very very few people. For the first half of this river we had lots of wind and it felt like we weren’t progressing fast although we were actually averaging about 3 miles an hour the whole day. The Withlacoochie runs into the Suwanee so we turned into the Suwanee and paddled to the state park. From here Scotty rode his bike up toMarion Blue Spring State Park which he said was not an easy ride because a lot of it was on a dirt road that was not easy to ride on, it was a 13 mile bike ride for him and I spent the time walking around the park talking to many people as they got in and out of the river. We set up camp at Suwanee River State Park, a nice little park and then we drove to Live Oak and had dinner at the All Decked Out Café. Scotty had cobia fish over tortellini and I had swordfish with bits of bacon over greens. Both dishes were excellent. At the campsite we watched Wind River and slept very very well that night.
84 degrees, blue skies, some wind
Put in at Marion Blue Spring State Park
Take out at Suwanee River State Park12 miles, 3 hr 40 min
Average Speed 3.3mph, Max Speed 6.3 mph
After driving through the night from Ethan’s, we stopped at the Florida Welcome Center and slept several hours so we wouldn’t lose a day of paddling. This makes us think we’re still young and invincible- haha, tell that to our bodies!
We dropped Scotty‘s bike off at Suwanee River State Park and drove up to Marion Blue Springs. There is a nice spring there with a walkway around it, but it actually looks more like Marion Green Springs. A launch is listed here, but we never really found a true boat launch. We had to walk our kayaks down the ramp around the springs, over the cypress knobs and into the Withlacoochie River. We did encounter a man here that had been canoeing for eight days. He said we were the first people he had met in eight days that were paddling in this river. He warned us of some rapids ahead on this river. We did encounter three fast little areas of the river and we didn’t think they were that bad, and actually thought they were fun. And then we heard it - the shoals! The river was low so that the rocks were very exposed and it didn’t look safe for our kayaks to go through. We kayaked a short distance through the rapid waters down to where the shoals began and even that little distance was a bit of a challenge. After much observation and discussion, we decided to tie up our kayaks and guide them down the river from the bank or actually Scotty did that. We got down to a point where we felt like we could safely kayak through the rest of the river. My kayak was up on the bank at an angle; Scotty put me in it and pushed me down into the river and let me tell you my heart was racing! The Withlacoochie is a wide river with lots of cypress trees along the bank and big white rocks that I read later were limestone and we encountered many hawks along the way. There were several houses on the banks, but we passed very very few people. For the first half of this river we had lots of wind and it felt like we weren’t progressing fast although we were actually averaging about 3 miles an hour the whole day. The Withlacoochie runs into the Suwanee so we turned into the Suwanee and paddled to the state park. From here Scotty rode his bike up toMarion Blue Spring State Park which he said was not an easy ride because a lot of it was on a dirt road that was not easy to ride on, it was a 13 mile bike ride for him and I spent the time walking around the park talking to many people as they got in and out of the river. We set up camp at Suwanee River State Park, a nice little park and then we drove to Live Oak and had dinner at the All Decked Out Café. Scotty had cobia fish over tortellini and I had swordfish with bits of bacon over greens. Both dishes were excellent. At the campsite we watched Wind River and slept very very well that night.
