Kayak - Santa Fe River 2/23/20

Santa Fe River 2/23/20                                                                       12.9 miles
Avg Speed 3.0mph, Max Speed 8.5 mph, 4:13 moving time, 5:15 elapsed time
Temperature 61 degrees - up to 72 degrees
Me, Scotty, Dick

We put in at High Springs State Park into the Santa Fe River.  The Santa Fe River has a brown color which is the tannin from the trees.  All around the boat ramp we can see cypress knees.  We have beautiful blue skies and a few white clouds, which is a very pleasant change from the gray skies that we've had for weeks in Tennessee.  All along the route, we could see turtles sunning themselves, who were obviously enjoying the nice weather as much as us.  I wouldn't be surprised if we had seen over 300 turtles today.  It wasn't long until we saw an alligator along the shore.  I paddled over to another alligator to take a picture, but he submerged below the water.  It makes you wonder just how many alligators are in the water below us or in the weeds that we pass.  We decided to eat lunch at Poe Springs where we had to leave our boats on the main river and wade through the current over to a dock.  Sitting on the dock eating our lunch in the beautiful weather with the beautiful clear springs running before us reminds us of just how blessed we are to be able to enjoy God's creations!  I take a quick walk around the park along the boardwalk and pass only 3 other people.  We wade back through the water over the moss covered rocks to our boats to continue our trek.  We pass other springs along the way, but don't pull over until we get to Gilchrist Springs where there were definitely fewer swimmers/people than usual.  When we paddle past Ginnie Springs this time, there were no tubes on the river which pleases us because there are typically lots of people both in the river and on shore camping, with lots of noise and music blaring.  We get to the end and all I can say is it's the best day ever!

We set up camp and head into High Springs for dinner.  We ate at the Diner which is one of the very few restaurants open on this Sunday night.  Unfortunately the service was extremely slow which doesn't please 3 hungry paddlers.  We camped at O'Leno State Park and we're 99% sure that this is the exact same camp site we had the last time we camped here with Dick and Dina.

Nestle bottles over 1 million gallons of water a day from Ginnie Springs.  Residents of Florida are protesting this and we saw several of the signs along the river.  

Kayak 2/3- Harpeth River Quick! The sun is out!

Harpeth River (Hwy 249/70 to Gossett Track)                                     10.7 miles
2:42 moving time, Avg speed 3.9 mph, Max Speed 10.3 mph (what?!), elapsed time 3:28
Temp 68degrees to 73 degrees when we got in the car
Me, Scotty, Dick, Ann, Mary,  Luke

Weather forecasts 2 days ago said that today would be nice and Mary asked if anybody would be interested in paddling.  Well, of course we were - even though I had to cancel a small Red Cross meeting.  (I guess my volunteer pay will be docked!). Our group grew and 6 of us showed up.  The sky was a beautiful blue - beautiful because for weeks we've had gray and often rainy skies.  The river was crisp and clear.  The nice thing about paddling off season is that there aren't a lot of paddlers and boats stirring up the water and it can be clear.  We started off facing some strong headwinds, but they died down.  The day was very enjoyable and even though we hadn't been out a lot lately, it was not hard paddling.  We had an enjoyable lunch break on a shoal.  Interestingly, I found the most river glass I've ever found here on this shoal so that was fun.  We saw only a few cranes, several turtles and maybe one hawk.  And as clear as the river was, I didn't see any fish.  It just felt so good to be outside.  Here's to sunny, blue skies in the middle of a dreary winter season!