– – OWLS 2008 Spring Paddle Marathon – – – – – Trip Report

Well, it’s almost April and I do believe I’ve fully recovered from paddling 160.5 miles along the Suwannee River from Woods Ferry Access to the town of Suwannee, FL. I’d go ahead and publish this report right away if it weren’t for the fact that there might just be more than a reasonable number of doubters if I posted it too close to April Fools’ Day.

I paddled a Necky Looksha V kayak during this trip. It’s a relatively heavy, rotomolded, expedition kayak but, with its pronounced raised bow, steerable rudder, and high volume, I thought it would give me what I needed if the wind and waves turned nasty. As it turned out, the worst weather was during the times that I was off the water, and a canoe would probably have been a much more user-friendly selection. Mileage paddled was calculated with a Garmin Vista HC Global Positioning System.

Paddling Day 1

The Paddle Marathon to help raise support for the Outdoor Wisdom Leadership School’s programs for disinherited, at-risk teens started on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 with a very busy day which included driving, paddling, hitchhiking, driving some more, pre-running the last leg of the journey via motorboat, procuring a return ride for the following day back up to Live Oak, FL to meet up with the inaugural Paddle Florida contingent on Thursday, and trying to sleep through a tropical storm/hurricane while lying in a hammock behind a mobile home. Thank goodness the rest of the trip was much more relaxing!

I should take this time to let you know that, if you didn't make a sponsorship pledge before I left, you can still do this now as we have a long way to go to cover all program costs for the OWLS courses. Or, better yet, consider partnering with us and make a monthly contribution so we have a better idea of what we will have to work with in coming months!

I unloaded my kayak at the newly rebuilt Woods Ferry Access located at river mile 158. With all the work done there by the Florida Parks personnel and the very high water in the river, I hardly recognized it as the same place I had put-in during a canoe-camping trip back in February. The beach where I had launched before was completely underwater and I found it easier to just slide through the Palmettos into the rain swollen river than try and use the stairs which simply disappeared into the dark, tannin stained water flowing down from the Okefenokee Swamp. About 8 miles but only an hour and a half downstream, I was surprised to see the abandoned bridge which reminded me to look back over my shoulder on river left for the old Suwannee Springs site, usually high and dry but, on this day, only the very top edge of the old limestone ruins were visible.

After paddling (and feeling like I should duck) under the old Suwannee Springs bridge and, shortly thereafter, the following Hwy 129 Bridge, I realized just how close to flood stage the river was. All the usual spots to stop for lunch, set up camp, or just go for a cooling dip were gone and the trees that usually shaded us would now be obstacles to avoid as I paddled the recently swollen river. The good side of this was that the river was flowing at such a pace that the amount of paddling it usually took to go 2 or 3 miles per hour would now allow me to progress at about 6 miles per hour. Since my goal on this trip was to put river miles behind me, God was certainly answering my prayers and the prayers of those who were paddling along with me in spirit!

I pulled up (actually paddled over) the landing area at the Spirit of Suwannee Canoe Outpost and found a sturdy tree to which I could cable my kayak. Miraculously, a music fan, disappointed by the cancelled concert that weekend, was sitting there by the river with nothing better to do than run me back up to Woods Ferry to retrieve my car. Shortly I was on my way back down the highway to Suwannee, FL, the last bit of land before the Suwannee River runs into the Gulf of Mexico. Total mileage paddled this day was 8.9 miles.

The following day I was able to catch a ride back up to Live Oak with a delightful Russ McCallister, who along with his wife (and boss) Kay operate Suwannee Guides and Outfitter (352-542-8331) which organized the “Finish the River” event for those who didn’t see enough of the Suwannee during Paddle Florida. I highly recommend Kay and Russ if you are interested in fishing, paddling, sightseeing, or just happen to be in the Suwannee area for any reason at all. Once back at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, I made sure I was registered with Paddle Florida so I would be assured of the meals and campsites needed during the Paddle Marathon.

Paddling Day 2

The next day on the river was billed as a 21 mile paddle from Spirit of the Suwannee, with a rest stop/lunch break at Holton Creek River Camp, roughly 7.5 miles downstream. The night before had been frosty and the river was shrouded by thick fog as I approached the put-in spot.

My kayak was right where I had left it but was now in the company of over 100 other colorful boats awaiting the first day of the first Paddle Florida. Paddle Florida introduced many people to the Suwannee River and to paddling in general but I think the greatest benefit was the way it served to introduce the new improvements along the “Suwannee River Wilderness Trail” maintained under the auspices of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The paddling went quick and I arrived at the lunch stop by 9:45 that morning and had my tent set up by 2:30 at our campsite in Suwannee River State Park. Some of the memorable sights along the way included the fisherman pulling in a fish while sitting right where I had parked my vehicle a month earlier at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch, the boat ramp under water at Gibson Park, a fast flowing Alapaha River actually adding enough flow to the Suwannee to be noticed, the numerous Live Oak and Cypress trees adorned with flowing gray beards of Spanish Moss, and an abundance of blossoming Wild Azalea, Hawthorne, and Dogwood. It was definitely early spring as demonstrated by the tiny, almost fuzzy beginnings of the Cypress needles beginning to form on the otherwise dead-looking branches. The GPS told me I must have been able to cut a few corners and that I paddled a total of only 20.8 miles on Friday.

Paddling Day 3

The trip from Suwannee River State Park, past the confluence with the Withlacoochee River, under the railroad bridge and the nearby Hwy. 90 Bridge, as well as I-10, and down to the lunch stop at Advent Christian Village, a retirement community in Dowling Park, took me as far downstream as I had ever paddled on the Suwannee River before. This segment of the trip was followed that afternoon by eleven more miles on the river, finally reaching the evening campsite and a much appreciated warm shower at Lafayette County’s Blue Springs State Park. Total mileage logged on Saturday was 24.7 miles.

Easter Sunday – Paddling Day 4

A Suwannee River Sunrise

Sunday started with my conducting a “Sonrise” service on a bluff overlooking the first magnitude Blue Spring which discharges up to 168 million gallons of water in a typical day. That’s over 7,100 cubic feet per second! Definitely no water shortage in this part of Florida! The topic of the lesson was “The Case for the Resurrection” and, in spite of the long mileage paddled by everyone the day before, about 60 people were there to sing (led by Charlie Cottingham on the guitar), worship together, and consider for themselves the importance of the empty tomb. A number of people asked for copies of the sermon and if you want one just email your request to BenSimms@aol.com and I’ll be glad to send you one as well. The woods around the site were full of some pretty, white, Atamasco lily flowers with six petals just beginning to bloom. It seemed especially fitting for an Easter morning.

Paddling on this “day of rest” was billed as “a relatively easy 13 miles.” It turned out to be even easier than that as, after taking time to study the interesting old “turnstile” bridge, compare it to the modern suspension bridge used at the Hwy. 51 crossing, and looking at the baby beaver my new friend, Guerry Bradley, pulled from a logjam, my GPS said I had reached the daily goal of Convict Springs, so named because the State of Florida housed chain gangs and ran a hard labor camp here back in the 1900’s, after only 11.8 miles on the river. Several sets of leg-irons have been found back in the 80 foot main cavern near the Spring Run and it is surmised that some of the convicts may have hopefully but unsuccessfully tried to use this as an escape route to the Suwannee River during low water periods.

Paddling Day 5

Monday morning I left my campsite near Convict Springs and continued downstream, stopping for lunch at Troy Springs, another of Florida’s thirty three 1st magnitude springs and site of the submerged remains of a Civil War era steamship, the Madison, sunk there by its Captain, James M. Tucker to keep it from falling into the hands of the invading Yankee troops. The original plan had been to lunch just beyond here at Little River Springs, a favorite spot for cave divers as the spring is the entrance to a cave system more than 1,200 feet long and 100 feet deep but we learned from one of the Park Rangers that the high waters had completely flooded that park and had caused Little River Spring to reverse flow creating a whirlpool flow somewhat like a giant bathtub drain.
"The Roost"

As I headed on downstream to the Paddle Florida campsite in Branford’s Ivey Memorial Park the numerous buzzards overhead and lining the ever widening riverbanks seemed to be hoping I wouldn’t make it. There were at least two types of buzzards sharing the trip with me: the larger Turkey Vulture with its red head which we see all around the southeast and the smaller but more aggressive Black Vulture which lives in FL all year long. The Black Vulture is easily distinguished when flying by the white tips on the underside of their wings. I understand from the rangers that, despite their nasty reputation, buzzards like to be clean and try to bathe daily. I often spotted them perched on a tree with outspread wings, waiting for them to dry. My theory however is that their penchant for baths is a result of their keen sense of smell and that, after eating, they just can’t stand themselves. When pulling out of the river just beyond the Branford Bridge that day, I had logged an additional 16.0 miles for the kids. Once there, the buzzards were replaced as my companions by numerous lizards, including Chameleons, Pine Lizards, and Skinks.

That evening I enjoyed a visit with Dr. Kenneth J. Sulak, perhaps better known as Florida’s “Sturgeon General.” He discussed various theories of why these strange looking fish have a habit of jumping straight up out of the water and falling back with a belly flop motion that makes a splash and noise that could just about cause a heart attack in those of us paddling alligator filled waters and have actually caused several deaths and injuries to motor boaters colliding with these aerial performers. Let me assure you that this is nothing like the Mullet which jump constantly or even the larger Bass or Mackerel. The Gulf Sturgeon grows to 8 feet in length, 200 pounds in weight, and jumps six to eight feet out of the water! There are signs at most boat ramps warning boaters to be careful not to collide with these giant fish.

Paddling Day 6

The next day I decided to make my put-in a bit easier by doing a rapid seal launch off the fifteen foot bluff above the Branford boat ramp. This resulted in a near mystery move and a splash that would have made any Gulf Sturgeon proud. Today the Buzzards and the occasional Great Blue Heron would escort me on a paddle down the Suwannee to the Santa Fe River where I would turn upstream for about a mile, making my lunch stop Sandy Point at Ellie Ray’s River Landing. Since the Suwannee had backed up into the Santa Fe, it took on the character of a swamp with the water covering any land one might otherwise have been able to see between and beyond the trees. I was particularly amused by a sign posted on a tree, completely surrounded by water for a far as you could see, reading “Beware of the Dog.” Must be quite some dog!


After taking a break along the Santa Fe, I headed back to the Suwannee, pushing ahead some Snowy Egrets as well as a number of Ibises with their distinctive long curved orange beaks, paddling under the Rock Bluff Bridge, on down to our campsite at, depending upon who you ask, either Guaranto or Gornto Springs, and bringing the day’s paddle to 23.4 miles.

Paddling Day 7

Leaving the park in Dixie County was done at a leisurely pace on Wednesday, since the high levels and fast flow of the river continued to allow me to reach the lunch spots by mid-morning. Today’s lunch spot was worth every minute spent there however. Although much of it remained underwater, Hart Springs Park and Campground is a real gem of a facility in Gilchrist County offering all types of recreation and relaxation. Go to http://www.hartsprings.com/ to read about it all. Since last night’s showers were cold and those at Fanning Springs tonight promised the same, I took my time to enjoy the warm showers and the cold Diet Cokes available at Hart Springs; truly “the pause that refreshes.”

Buzzard Countin'

More Buzzards overhead urged me on downstream and, just below the 19/26 Bridge between the communities of Old Town and Fanning Springs, I pulled off the river to set up camp for my last night with the Paddle Florida folks. While waiting for dinner and the remaining Paddle Florida festivities, I walked around the park, inspected the swimming area built around the springhead, and noticed some really strange looking growths on many of the trees in the area. I asked around and eventually learned that these sea urchin or porcupine lookalikes were an epiphyte in the bromeliad family usually called an air plant. Epiphytes (like the Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns which are so prevalent in this region) are plants which grow on another plant, generally for support or protection, but not as a parasite.

Grand finale entertainment for Paddle Florida was provided by a band comprised of various people working in the Florida Park Service playing a range of popular songs but the cold night air and the 21.6 mile paddle earlier that day took their toll and I found my sleeping bag much more appealing.

Paddling Day 8

The portion of Thursday’s paddle from Fanning Springs State Park down to Manatee Springs was peaceful, relaxing and generally uneventful until I started paddling up the spring run and noticed the river bed through the clear water. The 80,000+ gallons of water per minute flowing from this spring was finally sufficient to hold back the dark brown water of the Suwannee River. Furthermore, its constant 72 degree temperature provided the warmth required by the warm-blooded mammals for which this spring gets its name. As I approached the landing, I could see around and under my boat eight or nine of these monstrous animals. They were very large, some perhaps more than 1,000 pounds, but seemed to move in slow motion. They must move in this fashion out in the river as well since a number of them had long and deep scars, apparently caused by their inability to avoid speeding motorboats. There is also lots of archaeological evidence suggesting that the early Indian inhabitants of this area found manatees to be an abundant and easily harvested resource.

After saying good-bye to the Paddle Florida participants, I continued my journey downstream with eight others who had decided to “Finish the River” as it had been billed by Kay and Russ McCallister. We were originally planning to stop that evening at Yellow Jacket Campground, however, when arriving there, there was just too much daylight left and it was just too far from the river to the campsites, so we paddled another six miles to a spot on river left called Treasure Island. Along the way, I saw several derelict boats, an occasional refrigerator, woods full of colorful wildflowers in yellow, purple, white, red, blue, orange, and more turtles and butterflies than you can imagine. Total mileage for Thursday, March 27th was 17.9 miles.

Paddling Final Day 9

This was not only the last day of my journey but definitely the most interesting. Remembering the 4-1/2 foot swells we had fought in the motorboat just over a week earlier, I was up early and ready for an exhausting day fighting wind and waves. Instead the water was still flowing smoothly downstream and the winds were generally mild. As I cut a corner off the journey passing through the narrower, river left side of Turkey Island, I had my first really clear alligator sighting of the trip.

There he was, sunning himself on a log and not the least bit interested in this bright kayak cruising by. A few miles farther downstream, as I turned back sharply to my right around a point covered in large lily pads and entered Shingle Creek, I heard a strange squeaking sound and looked up to see a pair of Bald Eagles flying overhead. Shingle Creek is not a creek as we usually think of it but a creek in the ocean marsh sense. It was a narrower stretch of water which flowed around some of the numerous islands in the river delta and eventually joined back into the main channel. This decision was made to avoid most of the potential strong winds and waves coming across the nearly mile-wide water found from the split of East and West Pass, through Alligator Pass and on out to the Gulf.

Once into Shingle Creek, I had another reason for making this decision every time I’m down here from now on. It was like entering the pages of a National Geographic Magazine. The creek closed in bringing the trees and woods that much closer. Alligators peered at me around every bend and often swam under my boat, birds sang and flew with me through the bends, the marshes and woodlands were full of blooming flowers and unusual tropical plants, fish jumped all around and even over my boat at times, and the mirror-like water multiplied all these scenes for even more pleasure. When I came back out into West Pass, it was difficult leaving this all behind to continue on into the town of Suwannee.

Suwannee, FL is an interesting place in its own way. It has two restaurants (one of which is closed most of the time), one convenience store (but it doesn’t have gasoline), two places in town to buy gasoline (both catering to marine traffic rather than cars), lots of very friendly people, and every lot in town is a waterfront lot. There are more canals here than in Venice, Italy. I saw numerous pelicans perched on dock posts and flying overhead as I paddled through the various canals approaching the final take-out at Anderson Landing where my GPS reported 15.4 miles for that final day. Anderson Landing is a public landing, ramp, and park where Suwannee Guides and Outfitter is in the process of moving their operations. It is right on the side of the main road into Suwannee and I’m sure Kay and Russ McCallister would be glad to help you with whatever you need in the area. And no, this is not a paid advertisement but it is a strong recommendation for http://www.suwanneeguides.com/, P.O. Box 304, Suwannee, FL 32692.



Spring 2008 Paddle Marathon
Day 1 8.9 Miles
Day 2 20.8 Miles
Day 3 24.7 Miles
Day 4 11.8 Miles
Day 5 16.0 Miles
Day 6 23.4 Miles
Day 7 21.6 Miles
Day 8 17.9 Miles
Day 9 15.4 Miles
Total 160.5 Miles

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S.Y.O.T.R. - Ben