Ichetucknee Springs

Ichetucknee Springs                          9.9 miles                   1012.6 miles total

3.1 mph Avg. Speed, 7.8 mph Max Speed, 3:11 paddle time

This is an absolutely beautiful river and I had really hoped to see manatees on this river like we did when we were here 2 years ago.  But, we had no such luck.  The water here is so very clear and with the sunny skies, the trees and the shore line provided mirror reflections for most of the trip.  Again, the river was low and we saw the cypress knobs sticking up all along the shore.  We paddled 4 miles to the take out and were quite disappointed.  Apparently, some in the group had stayed up too late drinking a bit too much the night before (or maybe it was the guide) and this was going to be the end of our trip.  Eight of us banded together and decided we would paddle further.  Scotty and Dick shuttled a car to the end, came back to meet us and we paddled 6 more miles.  We were so glad because this is really a beautiful river.  The Ichetucknee then meets the Santa Fe River which is a wider river.  Along this river, we enjoyed looking at the many different kinds of homes built along the shore.  I especially enjoyed this section of the trip as I was able to talk with 3 of the ladies more (Tony, Angela and Beverly).  Beverly is a kayak trip leader and leads trips into Crystal Bay to see the manatees where she also volunteers to protect the manatees. This trip was a perfect (but too short) end to our quick little Florida kayak trek.

Santa Fe River - Blue, Blue River

   Santa Fe River                                                                     13 miles                1002.7 total

Avg Speed 2.9 mph, Max Speed 6.1 mph, 4:29 time

On this day, the entire Adventures in Florida group paddled - 24 of us.  It was a good group of people and I was especially impressed by the number of solos women on this paddle and they were all very good paddlers!  It gives me hope as several were older than myself, one was in her 80s.  Florida is the place to be for paddlers!  This river is wide and has many springs along the way.  The first spring we passed was actually going underground.   Apparently, the river was low and the water was flowing into the spring.  Two of the women paddled into see it and couldn't get out as the current was so strong.  Scotty and the assistant guide went in and helped them out.  Scotty and I paddled into all of the other springs that we passed.  The river was low so paddling into the springs, against the current was difficult and a good workout.  Blue Springs was absolutely beautiful - a dark, vibrant blue.   Most of the group paddled into this spring and we took pictures of each other floating over the beautiful,, blue water below us.  We also paddled into Lily Spring, but Naked Ed was once again not home.  This time we were also able to paddle into Ginny Springs where there were lots of scuba divers in the water so we didn't go all the way in.  It looked different than our September visit when this section of the river and the springs were taken over by college students.  After coming out of Ginny Springs, Scotty and I had no idea where we were within our group of 24 - at the beginning of the group, middle or end.  So we paddled without stopping, met up with a few more from the group and although we were tired for the last 2 miles, we continued to enjoy the beautiful scenery and made it to the end.

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.