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It's outage time! Trips this month: 8
3/11/06
Our short 10 day outage ended for me last night at 10 pm after 18 straight nights and after a week and a half off the water I was ready to get wet. The early change to daylights savings coupled with my changing from nights to days made me slow in getting up and I briefly considered staying home but a quick check of Weather Bug told me that there was a fog warning out and I confirmed this by actually looking outside the window. I can't resist paddling in the fog so I loaded up as quickly as possible and headed toward Pumpkin Hill Creek. I was a little surprised to find that I wasn't the first one there as usual but they were apparently well down the creek by the time I got in the water and began paddling toward the point. Although the fog was beautiful and I enjoyed the serenity that it brought I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of wildlife I encountered on the way out. It was low tide and the winds were calm so I expected the banks to be lined with birds feeding in the shallows but I saw very little. Perhaps they forgot to set their clocks ahead and were still snoozing away in bed. I reached the point and not seeing much I got out to walk around the area in hopes of finding some dewy spider webs or plants. While sitting at the point eating my breakfast and drinking coffee the "Park Manager" came walking up and we chatted for a time. I hadn't seen him in a while but he remembered me from last spring. After a while I set out again heading for the big bend east of the Edwards Flats. As soon as I rounded the bend across from the point I could see a mass of white on the far side of the cove which I could tell immediately was a group of about a dozen White Pelicans who were snoozing away in the morning sun. I headed toward them, shooting a group of Oyster Catchers on the way. There was a beautiful male Red Breasted Merganser sitting in the water not far from the Pelicans but he flew off before I could get close enough for a shot. I tried to work my way around the oyster beds that lay in the shallows in front of where the Pelicans were sitting but they soon became aware of my presence and quickly began to fly off. As they did, I noticed that several of them were males that were just beginning to show signs of their breeding humps on the tops of their huge yellow beaks. One Pelican remained where he was as the rest of the group headed over the flats toward their pool. He looked at them as if to say - "hey - where you guys going? It's only that weird, harmless guy!" He finally flew off but instead of following his buddies he merely flew out into the middle of the cove where he spent the rest of the time calmly swimming around. I headed back with the incoming tide and was surprised how busy the water was. I passed several other kayakers as well as the group from the UNF Biology Department that I have seen out here a lot lately. When I got back to the put-in I found that the parking area was full and there were a couple of kayak fishermen launching as I loaded up. Good to be off and I am looking forward to enjoying March for the first time in 20 years. See the pictures from this trip
3/12/06
With no one home for dinner tonight I decided to grab some Wendy's and head for the water to enjoy the extra daylight. I bypassed all the usual places along Heckscher and ultimately settled on a cruise up the FGR to Simpsons Creek. There wasn't much to see along the way but it was pleasant with a gentle breeze and temperatures in the upper 70's. I reached the landing on the Little Talbot side of Simpsons and set my hammock up and ate my dinner and enjoyed a beer. The gnats were getting kind of thick so I didn't hang around too much before setting out for home. I continued my circumnavigation of the big grass island and then decided to make a circuit of the yacht basin where I shot some Night Herons and the oddly colored Osprey who likes to hang out there before I let the current carry me quickly back to the ramp. See the pictures from this trip
3/14/06 Another quick after work trip - this time in Browns Creek. The tide was still coming in so I floated in toward the big island and finding nothing perching I continued on toward the runoff pond. I was disappointed to find little there although I could see some Night Herons flushing as I approached. The Ospreys were flying about and it looked like the female was staying in the nest which probably means she is sitting on some eggs. A Red Tailed Hawk flushed near the entrance to the pond but as it would happen throughout the afternoon I was never able to get close enough for a shot. I cut back between two of the islands and could have had some good shots of an Osprey and a Great Blue but although I could hear the Osprey quite close to me I never saw him until he flew away and the shots of the Heron weren't worth keeping. That pretty much summed up the evening. A pleasant trip on the water but nothing to shoot. That's the way it is sometimes.
3/16/06
My plans for today were to head south to Guana to paddle there in March for the first time as a part of my goal this year to concentrate on quality paddles rather than quantity. When I got up, however, it was stormy and the weather forecast called for a 70% chance of thunderstorms all day long. A quick check of the radar showed that a huge mass of rain was coming from the SW and seemed destined to pass directly over Jacksonville and the Guana area looked even more likely to see rain all day. I hesitated for a couple of hours and almost called the day a wash but finally I decided that the weather would all be staying south and east of the St. Mary's River basin and the Okefenokee Swamp. Since those were also both areas I want to spend time in this spring I finally got going around 9:00. Of course, any trip to that region is at least an hour before you can get in the water so it was close to 10:30 before I had checked in and was heading out the canal toward the prairies. I wasn't surprised to find the parking lot crowded when I arrived and I noticed that a group from "Up the Creek" had signed in just ahead of me and as I was putting in a group of young men were loading up canoes for an overnighter so I knew I would have plenty of company in the swamp.
As soon as I cleared the entrance to the boat basin I began seeing the first what would turn out to be the most gators I have ever seen in one day. All tolled I counted 65 alligators of all sizes from one whose head was no bigger than my thumb to some that were in excess of 10 feet. At least 48 of those were different gators as I headed out - the last 17 were on the path I had traveled on my way out so some of those may have been the same ones. Most of them were doing the same thing they were doing when we were here in January - sunning themselves - but on the whole they seemed to be much more active now that it has warmed up and on several occasions they would react to my presence by standing up and running or leaping into the water.
I had the noisy canoe campers behind me and the slow moving kayak tour group ahead of me for the first couple of miles but I finally got past them and thinking that they would be taking the branch that leads to the prairies I turned up the run to Cedar Hammock hoping that the additional water would allow me to paddle the entire distance to the platform. As soon as I entered the run I heard the distinct call of the Sandhill Cranes but it seemed to be coming from the direction of Grand Prairie where I had seem them on my last trip. There were some Ibis and a Little Blue Heron feeding ahead of me and occasionally I would see a Great Blue fly up. The going was slow in spite of the higher water since it is very silty and clogged with vegetation. The channel through the prairie is no more than 10 feet wide at most and on several occasions I encountered some large gators who scooted into the water ahead of me and then disappeared. Paddling over dark water that I know is only a couple of feet deep and only 7 or 8 feet wide when I just saw a 12 foot behemoth disappear with only his bubbles to show where he is, is a bit unnerving to say the least. I made sure that my paddles didn't grab too much water as I passed over these areas lest I anger someone I have a lot of respect for.
As I slowly made my way up the run I became aware that the tour group had indeed made the same turn as I did and were now just a few yards behind me. As narrow as the channel was I decided to head on up to the platform and turn around there. Once we arrived it was apparent that they intended to take a break there so I headed back. As I got close to the entrance to the run I saw a large gator swimming ahead of me. Instead of disappearing beneath the dark water as soon as I got close he did something I had never seen a gator do before. He calmly swam in front of me with his head cocked to one side so that he could keep an eye on me. He never panicked but just kept a slow steady pace about 10 yards in front me until he reached the main channel where he slowly disappeared beneath the surface. I continued on up to where the channel splits and took the southern branch. I soon found the entrance to Grand Prairie and Cooter Lake and hoping to find the Sandhills I took it. The banks were lined, as usual, with large gators sunning themselves who for the most part barely acknowledged my passing. Not far after taking the run that branches off to the west I spotted the unmistakable shape of an otter looping across the flooded flats toward an island of cypress. When I reached the place where I saw him coming from I was surprised to find two large gators hanging out on the banks. I was reminded that the otters are active in the colder weather months because the gators can't feed during that period but I wondered about this transitional period. At any rate - the gators didn't seem to be in any hurry to chase an otter but they might nab an unsuspecting one who wandered too close.
I reached the place where the run branches off again and I took the one that I knew headed back to the main channel. As I cruised along I suddenly noticed a hulking gray shape to my left and paused to shoot a lone Sandhill Crane grazing in the flats in front of a stand of cypress. There may have been others hidden behind the tall grass but I never saw them but I thought it unusual to see one all by himself - something I had never seen before. As I got closer to the main channel, a large gator slid into the water ahead of me and began doing the same thing as the one back in Cedar Hammock - swimming very slowly a few yards in front of me as he kept a watchful eye on me. This went on for at least five minutes and I began to wonder if he was leading me into a trap where a dozen of his big buddies were waiting for me. When he reached a wide spot in the channel he stopped and sure enough there was one of his friends on the opposite side of the pool but instead of attacking me they both slid under the surface of the water and I carefully proceeded on.
Once back in the main channel I decided that since I had gotten such a late start that I would not take the long way around and headed straight back. Not long after passing the entrance to the area I had just left I spotted a Crane through one of the breaks in the trees and since a day use trail was just beyond that I turned in. I shot the lone crane for a few minutes and I could see that there were at least two more grazing behind a stand of grass beyond him. I decided to see if there was enough water in this run to paddle all the way back to it's origin at the boat basin but after just a few minutes I realized that it was going to be too much work so I turned around.
By the time I got back to where the Cranes had been feeding the first one had moved much closer to the channel so I pulled over and decided to see just how close he would come to me. I was amazed as I sat there shooting away that he kept working his way closer and closer to my location. The other pair would pop out from behind the stand of grass occasionally, but seeing me they would return to their hiding place. After a while, however, they ventured forth and one of them seemed to pair up with the one who was now less than 20 feet from my boat. The two of them methodically worked their way toward me and even when I was forced to change batteries they seemed unperturbed by my presence. Finally, the three of them began grazing away from me so I took the opportunity to eat my sandwich and drink a beer before heading back out to the main channel. While I was in that area shooting the Cranes I could hear the channel heating up with activity and once back out on it I found it to be as crowded as I had ever seen it with a non-stop string of tour boats and canoes. It didn't matter to me since I had nearly filled up both of my 1 gig memory cards so I cruised back shooting a couple of dozen gators along the way. See the pictures from this trip
3/18/06
I decided to not go camping this weekend so instead I headed to my original Friday destination of Guana Lake. I got a nice early start in the hopes of getting there as the sun rose but when I was not quite to Beach Blvd I remembered that my paddles were not in their usual place and therefore an extra 30 minutes of travel time was added to my start. I still managed to get in the water by 8 and I could see clouds of birds rising and falling from several different locations throughout the area. I could tell that most of the birds were Ibis and Egrets but I could also see several White Pelicans coming and going from the various locations. After shooting a Mottled Duck near the ramp I headed over to the nearest congregation of birds and tried unsuccessfully to shoot through the dead cat tails. The cacophony of croaks and groans coming from the other side of the grass was incredible - unlike anything I had heard before even in the evening roosting areas along the ICW.
The forecast called for calm winds but I found the area along the coast to be far from that with a cold, brisk wind of at least 15 mph roaring down the lake from the north as winter gave one last blast before giving way to spring. It made the going slow at times especially since they are starting to lower the water levels in the lake as they do each spring to control the cat tails. The cat tails themselves are still dead and brown but at the base of each I could see new, green sprouts. I made my over to the channel that runs along the western shoreline shooting a Wood Stork and a Rail. I saw a Bald Eagle flying above the tree line and a few minutes later I saw either he, or another one perched in a pine tree. As he flew off I could see that the undersides of his wings were still splotched with white so he's not quite mature.
I came back to main channel and spotted a pair of ducks I had never seen before. They let me get quite close before they flushed and I later identified them as Lesser Scaups. I came upon another raucous congregation of birds that was more open than the previous one and I was able to drift in and get some good shots of the noisy group. As I sat there where my boat came to rest I began noticing that some of the Ibis were the all dark Glossy ones that I have only seen in this area of Guana. When part of the group flushed I could see that for every 20 or so White Ibis there was at least one Glossy.
As I got close to the area where houses begin to appear on the eastern shoreline of the lake I was attracted to another congregation that was far larger than any of the others and actually consisted of several large clumps of cat tails - each one containing dozens of all types of birds. What was different about this area, aside from the size, was the presence of what seemed to be hundreds of Swallows who were flying low overhead, swooping down to the water on occasion. The overall experience - the site of hundreds of mostly white birds rising occasionally as a cloud and then settling back - the almost unbearable sound of agitated herons along with the exotic calls of the Coots - the constant buzzing a few feet above my head of the swallows - was almost like a scene out of Hitchcock's "The Birds".
I paddled around this group trying to get some shots. At one point, as I was about to get some good shots one group flushed and I saw a Bald Eagle flying low overhead so I am pretty sure they were reacting to him rather than me. I tried to paddle further north along the eastern bank and I began to see large flocks of small ducks that were reddish brown and appeared to have eye patches. My first thought was that they were Wood Ducks but I never heard their distinctive squeak as they flushed and I never saw any males. I could never get very close to them before they flushed and ultimately had to give up due to the shallow water but I saw hundreds of them on the day. I tried to push on north from the main channel but the wind was really picking up and so I gave up and headed back to western channel. I got pretty lost and had to backtrack before finding my way back to the main channel. While working my way back to the channel I saw the only three Gators I saw on the day. One was sunning himself and was in no mood to leave his perch. The second one I only got a brief glimpse of as he was deep in the midst of some cat tails and when I came by he thrashed loudly as he tried to get in the water near my boat. The third was sunning himself but spotted me and quickly entered the water as I came by. Once back in the main channel I let the wind push me back to the ramp and I loaded up. See the pictures from this trip
3/19/06
I completed my trifecta of "quality" trips by heading this morning to the St. Mary's River. I thought briefly about trying the Stokes Bridge put-in so that I could explore Brandy Branch again but since I had already paddled that stretch before it didn't exactly fall under the "new" heading although it certainly qualifies for interesting. I then remembered that on my last trip from St. George that I had ended my trip at a new put-in called Emmaus Church Rd. so I figured that I could lop off a good bit of the run to Stokes Bridge from there. I reached the end of the rough unpaved road (which fortunately they had just graded) around 10 and since the last little bit of it was quite soft sand I parked up on the bluff and carried down to the water. I was surprised to find the water a couple of feet lower than I had seen it six weeks earlier since according the river gauge it actually should have been higher. I had noticed that the gauge was offline for a while I am pretty sure that it has been recalibrated and is now showing about three feet higher for the same level.
At any rate, I set out upstream against a moderate current. As is usual along the St. Marys, wildlife is usually sparse but the scenery is outstanding and today that pretty well held true. For most of the way it seemed that I was chasing the same Great Blue Heron and same pair of Wood Ducks about every half mile or so. I was never able to get close enough to either to get any good shots although I would often not see them until I was almost upon them and by then it was too late. Several Red Shouldered Hawks kept me company as I passed through their territories but usually I would hear their call and then see them flying overhead or perching in the tops of the pines. I encountered a few snags and logjams but I was always able to pick my way through without portaging. There was one section where the river bottom was a bed of limestone and the shallow water made it difficult to paddle against the current since my paddle would "bounce" off the hard rock. As I was approaching one of the logjams I saw something bobbing in the water moving in an irregular fashion. When I got close I discovered a small catfish whose back end had been chewed off. He was still alive and trying desperately to swim but the best he could do was bob along with the current. I assume one of the many turtles I had seen had started to munch on him but for some reason didn't finish the job.
I saw another odd sight as I got close to my time limit for paddling. Someone has placed a pair of fence posts running across the river from the Georgia side to a sandbar about two thirds of the way across the river. The posts are made of PVC conduit and I couldn't tell if they were anchored in the sand but they had the fittings to attach cables to. I can't imagine why anyone would do this or think they could get away with doing it so I have to believe that there is an innocent explanation - just one that I cannot fathom. I brought along a couple of Terraserver printouts but as usual I lost track of the many bends of the river as I headed south. Finally, I reached a large loop that doubled back to the north before returning to the south and I was able to positively identify where I was - about half way to the Stokes Bridge which means that I could possibly do a long trip downstream and then back up from that direction. I ate my lunch and took a break in my hammock. I found it very hard to not spend a few hours snoozing there but I finally packed up and headed back downstream. Since I had chased the Heron and Ducks ahead of me I saw nothing on the way back and covered the distance in about half the time. See the pictures from this trip
3/25/06
I was pretty sore after doing some yard work on Saturday but as the sky brightened and I saw the fog I limped my way out to Pumpkin Hill Creek and began unloading as the sun came up over Black Hammock. As I got out of my truck I was greeted by a very friendly young Beagle-mix pup who wanted to play with me. He was content to have his head rubbed and chin scratched and he was busy chewing on some clam shells as I pushed off from shore.
The fog near the put-in was starting to lift but as I rounded the first couple of bends near the trails it got thicker and thicker. I heard a loud honking sound coming from the west and a few seconds later 6-8 Canada Geese came flying overhead disappearing into the fog over Black Hammock. For most of the rest of the morning I could hear an almost constant honking coming from the east. There was a large boat anchored at the point so I bypassed it and headed to the area east of Edwards Flats where I spent some time shooting some Willets and Oyster Catchers. The honking coming from the direction of Black Hammock continued and at one point got a lot louder as a pair of Geese flew directly over my head. I decided to continue on around the bend where Pumpkin Hill runs up along the houses on Black Hammock to see if the Geese were hanging out there but I saw nothing when I cleared the grass.
I headed back on a slack tide and didn't see much of interest on the way back. When I arrived at the put-in I was surprised to find my new friend waiting for me under the shade of a tree. In the four hours since I had left he had obviously been busy as his once clean fur was now caked with mud. He was as friendly and playful as before and he escorted back to my truck where he rolled in the dirt. He looked pretty thirsty and I'm sure he had been lapping up the brackish water so I gave him the rest of my water before I left him to make friends with the rest of the kayakers and fishermen. See the pictures from this trip
3/30/06
So much for March going out like a lamb! After a very frustrating week at work in which I had to cancel a couple of after work paddles on glorious afternoons I was determined to get out on the first of four days off. I hoped that the wind that I had heard howling during the night didn't mean that the forecast of relatively calm winds was in error. So much for that thought! It was gray and windy when I awoke and I was surprised to find that what the internet weather sites said was a 12 mph NE breeze was at least 20 mph as I stood at the A1A bridge across Simpsons Creek. In fact, the marsh on either side of the creek was flooded and the current was rushing past the put-in in the opposite direction it should have been a good hour after high tide. As soon as I put-in, the wind pushed me quickly through the pilings under the bridge and I briefly thought about doing a Long Island Circumnavigation like I did back in January. I thought better of it and after laboring to get back on the east side of the bridge I decided to take advantage of the high water and explore the streams that run along the eastern bank of the creek. As I paddled along the shore I was still affected by the wind, but at least the current was non-existent and I had a relatively easy time. My attention was diverted by the sight of an ancient metal folding chair sitting on the bank. I pulled over and got out and realized that there was a trail through the woods that led back to A1A. After walking toward the sound of traffic for a few minutes I realized that this was Big Pine Trail whose beginning is about a mile past the bridge.
I returned to my boat and continued on until I was just shy of Half Moon Bluff where I was forced back into the main channel of Simpsons. It was slow going against the waves rolling in from the sound but I finally made my way past the bluffs where I knew there was a shortcut through the marsh out to the sound. I couldn't find the path, however, and had to return to the main channel where I found enough shelter from the wind to make my way out to where Simpsons and Myrtle dump into the sound. The other end of the shortcut I had tried to find earlier was there so I took it to where it joined another stream that entered the sound but after attempting to paddle in the open water over to Long Island I had to turn back due to rough water that threatened to swamp me against the oyster beds. I followed the stream back to Simpsons Creek and entered Myrtle Creek following it until I reached the place where I could beach my boat near the camp site under the trees at the end of the island. I got out and strung my hammock and ate my lunch and then explored the area a bit before packing up and heading back. The tide was not quite all the way out but the wind was now at my back which for the first few hundred yards made for an interesting ride as I rode the waves in. After I passed the bluffs the going was a lot easier and I made the rest of the trip without much trouble. I loaded up and was about to call it a day when I reached in my pocket and found that my keys were no where to be found!
I was hoping that I had simply done something stupid and set them down inside the cab when I was changing my shoes but with Hope in Gainesville for the day with my spare keys I had to call my son Andrew to rescue me and then wait by the side of the road until he was able to break away from school and pick me and my boat up and take me home. Apparently, as I found out from the many kayakers who put in while I was waiting there, a lot of people have a done the same thing which for some reason didn't really make me feel any better. I felt even worse several hours later when Hope got back home and we went to retrieve my truck. I opened the passenger side door hoping that my keys would reveal themselves to me but they weren't there. My only thought was that they had fallen out either when I was in my hammock on Long Island or else when I was leaving there when I pulled my paddling gloves out of my pockets. I found it hard to believe that I didn't hear them hit the side of my boat or the ground or the water but that was the only possible place that they could have escaped.
I got up before dawn the next morning and decided to walk the trail along the mudflat on the eastern bank that leads down to the campsite where I thought my keys could be. I used to walk this trail all the time but it had probably been 10 years since I had done it last. It was a pleasant walk and I got some good photos of an Osprey and a Tri-Color on the way down. When I arrived at the campsite the keys were nowhere to be found which means that they are in the water somewhere. I hiked back to my truck and decided to walk Big Pine Trail down to the place where I had gotten out of my boat but once again I came up empty. Well - that's the way it goes sometimes. I think that is the first time I have ever lost a whole set of keys but fortunately none of them were irreplaceable so I decided to not let it bother me. See the pictures from this trip
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