Florida Trip 01-09 Galleries

St. George Island 01-11-09 : The weather in the Panhandle was cold and mostly cloudy with wind and occasional rain the first few days of our trip. We opted to drive from our camp at St. Andrews State Park to St. George Island and take a look at the State Park and the beach there. It was very pretty, but almost completely deserted.

St. George Island 01-11-09

The weather in the Panhandle was cold and mostly cloudy with wind and ...

Updated: Jan 26, 2009 4:13pm PST

Myakka River 01-14-09 & 01-16-09 : The Myakka River is known for its alligator and bird populations. We weren't disappointed. We stopped counting after the first 30 alligators. Dawn & I put on the river Wednesday morning early. The weather was great, but the river was very low. Because of the low level, we put in at the bridge in the park and paddled down to Lower Myakka Lake and back up. Around the first bend below the bridge we came upon two roseate spoonbills and a great egret on the river left beach. By the time I got the camera out they were taking off, but I took a wild shot (point & shoot and hope for the best) and to my surprise, two of the birda are actually in the photo, but a bit out of focus. I was still pretty happy with it, since I had never even seen a roseate spoonbill before. At the lower lake the water was only inches deep and the wind had picked up. The boat was barely afloat and we could only get about half a paddle blade in the water, so we stayed fairly close to the river mouth. We had lunch when we got back to the bridge, and then we tried to paddle upstream to Upper Myakka Lake and float back down. We only got about a half mile before the water became too shallow. We would have had to carry the boat over virtually every sand bar. Consequently we gave up and came back down to the bridge and took off early. The last few pictures were taken Friday morning early as we were leaving for Juniper Springs. The weather was much colder that morning.

Myakka River 01-14-09 & 01-16-09

The Myakka River is known for its alligator and bird populations. We ...

Updated: Jan 26, 2009 6:22pm PST

Peace River 01-15-09 : Our intent was to paddle Fisheating Creek on Thursday, but when we called the outfitter about shuttle on the way there we found out it was way too low. We were right at the Peace River, so it became our plan B. The weather was mostly cloudy and the water was about as low as I'd want to paddle it, but we had a good day. The river bottom was mostly limestone, and the canoe was Kevlar -- limestone is harder than Kevlar when the water's low -- and we got by without any new scratches.

Peace River 01-15-09

Our intent was to paddle Fisheating Creek on Thursday, but when we cal ...

Updated: Jan 26, 2009 7:46pm PST

Juniper Springs 01-16-09 & 01-17-09 : We arrived at Juniper Springs Friday afternoon in time to settle in and take a look around the park. Saturday we paddled Juniper Creek with about 30 other Georgia Canoeing Association people and lots of other folks that were not part of our group but were enjoying the MLK weekend there. Saturday evening there was a really nice sunset. Since digital cameras don't use expensive film, it's really hard not to take a LOT of pictures. As you'll see, I got carried away with the sunset pictures. And I only posted the better ones....

Juniper Springs 01-16-09 & 01-17-09

We arrived at Juniper Springs Friday afternoon in time to settle in an ...

Updated: Jan 27, 2009 4:18pm PST

Silver River 01-18-09 : Dawn & I paddled the Silver River with a group of Georgia Canoeing Association paddlers. We put on at the Silver River State Park access and paddled up to the Springs and then down to the take-out at Ray's Landing. Other paddlers were Lamar Phillips, Katie O'Neill, Andy Dandenberg, Peggy Roberts, & Priscilla Dixey.

Silver River 01-18-09

Dawn & I paddled the Silver River with a group of Georgia Canoeing Ass ...

Updated: Jan 27, 2009 7:56am PST

Ichetucknee Springs 01-20-09 : Dawn & I put on the Ichetucknee with the temperature at 38 degrees and a strong wind blowing. We paddled about half way down and back up. We only saw one other paddler -- a park employee who was putting on as we were taking off. I got an oportunity to try taking pictures of underwater objects from above the surface -- fish, a small turtle and some plants.

Ichetucknee Springs 01-20-09

Dawn & I put on the Ichetucknee with the temperature at 38 degrees and ...

Updated: Jan 27, 2009 8:27am PST