My Obsession With Paddling the Timucuan

Obsessed? Or simply crazy....You be the judge

Note: I originally wrote this page back in 1999 when I was just thinking about creating this web site. Recently, I realized that it needed some updating which I finally did in May of 2007.

Welcome to my latest venture on the internet. My name is Kevin McCharen and I have lived here in Jacksonville, Florida for 22 years. For the last 20, my family and I have resided on Heckscher Drive, which is located along the southern edge of the Timucuan Preserve, a beautiful 43,000 acre salt marsh within the city limits of Jacksonville which stretches to the east and north of here, all of the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

My #1 paddling buddy - wife, Hope

About 20 years ago, I purchased a beat-up 17 foot Grumman canoe and began dragging it through the mud to the closest water behind my house. Once I got out in the marsh, I fell in love with it and although my second major back operation sidelined me for a while, I longed to return to beauty of the Timucuan Preserve. After a ill-advised venture into power boating, I finally did something I'd wanted to do since seeing an ad in the back of the Smithsonian Magazine over 20 years ago - I bought a Poke Boat from Phoenix Boats. Actually, I bought two (you get a better deal if you buy in bulk) and since then, I have literally become addicted to paddling in Northeast Florida. During the period that I had not been able to get out on the water, there had been some significant changes in the types of boats that were available and their prices. 15 years ago, it seemed, I was about the only one out there not in a power boat. Now, I see more and more people out there in kayaks of all sizes and shapes. While I used to only rarely see a canoe strapped ot the top of someone's car on Heckscher Drive, it is now quite common to see kayaks or at least vehicles with kayak racks drive past my house on weekends. Of course, the water has gotten a lot more crowded out there with more and more power boats and Jet Skis but it is nice to see a lot more human powered boats out there than ever before.

So why am I doing this web site? Well, I like to play around with building web pages, I like to write and I like to take pictures. I have had a few other pages out there on the web and, briefly, I even had my own business designing them. I used to run a fairly popular Fan Page about the Jacksonville Jaguars - MacJag's Jaguar Page and also wrote for Netsport, Fanstop  and The Football Network as their Jaguars correspondent. My football web-journalism career allowed me to have a press and sideline photo pass during the 1998 season and I also worked the 1999, 2000 and 2003 Gator Bowls. I've since given all of that up but it re-kindled in me the creative juices to write and take pictures that I have had most of my life.

My #1a Paddling buddy - son, Andrew

Since I like to paddle, write, take pictures and design web pages, what else could I do but this? That's the great thing about the internet isn't it? Anybody with something to say has got an outlet to do it. What I intended for this page was for it to be a source of information to all of the paddlers in Northeast Florida and originally, I thought the main emphasis would be to map out some routes and give a few tips about how to get started. Although I still consider that to be an important part of it, the main emphasis  for most of the eight years it has been online has been my journal and my photography. While I still get a few comments thanking me for the good information about areas to paddle and tips on getting started, I get most of the comments about my photos and journal entries.

I believe that I probably do get out there more often than most people, largely due to the fact that I live and work within minutes of several places to drop my boat in the water and often I will leave my boat strapped to my truck for days at a time - "just in case." Since I have started keeping track, I have logged over 500 hundred journal entries (as of May, 2007) and I estimate that I have traveled over 2500 miles in that same period of time. In the main part of the Timucuan Preserve - from the St. Johns River to the Nassau River and from Browns Creek to the Atlantic Ocean there are probably few places that I haven't been to at least once and I seriously doubt that anyone in this area has paddled it as extensively. If you want to know the best way to get from point A to point B on the water, where to put-in and what to expect when you get out there - Ask me. If you can stand the long winded reply -  then I will do my best to tell you what I have learned over years.

So, that's what it's all about. The main purpose of this site is to have fun getting wet! That goes for both you and I! If I can help you accomplish that safely then I consider this venture a success. If not? Well, I'll probably keep right on doing it even if everyone stops visiting.

Keep stopping by though and if you want to sign up for my weekly newsletter click here. I give updates on what I have been doing, where to find my latest photos and journal entries, a paddling forecast for the upcoming week and even a section where I get to rant or rave about something bugging me!

Happy Paddling! 
Kevin McCharen

5/9/2007

 

DISCLAIMER :  This web site is my own personal web site and does not express the opinions or views of any other person or organization. Use the information contained herein at your own risk. I do not attempt to represent myself as an expert in the matters of paddling or the outdoors. Note : There are many references to areas where I have noted as pleasant and inviting places to either picnic, camp or otherwise enjoy. Be aware that you do so at your own risk and any violation of trespass laws you do so at your own discretion. Please be respectful of both the environment and other people's property. Note : I find it really sad that I have to even include a statement like this!