Wekiva River

I worked to 1:00 PM today, Wed. April, 16, 2008, then went to Wekiwa Springs State Park.

Great egret in flight, afternoon delight. This picture is from Rock Springs Run, towards the end of the day. My paddling day began at ten after two. I had not paddled the Wekiva from the State Park, except the short portion to Rock Springs Run, since January. With the wind blowing hard out of the north, it was a good day for a short drive to rediscover the upper Wekiva.

I saw several limpkins. Perhaps even more than people, most of whom I saw in the first twenty minutes on the River. I paddled downriver for two hours.

There was not a cloud in the sky but cool, 68-72 I'd guess, and windy. Lots of turtles sunning. Surely I'd soon see alligators. I did, but it took almost the entire two hours of the downstream trip before I did.

As I always say, if its going to take two hours to see a gator, get a good picture. I saw two more gators, babies, shortly after I turned around for the upstream trip. Upstream is south, so now the wind was at my back.

I took a break at the Buffalo Tram Campsite, about a third of the way back to the Park.

It was 6:15 when I returned to the confluence of the Wekiva and Rock Springs Run. Wekiwa Springs State Park closes at 8:00 this time of year, so I had time for a brief paddle up my favorite waterway. I spent about 30 minutes on the Run, then made the short, 15 minute, paddle to the Park.

Bird list, in addition to those mentioned and/or pictured includes; blue heron, green heron , osprey, vulture, ibis and swallowtail kites. Just before landing, I paddled over a large snapping turtle, 2 feet long, easy. I landed a bit past 7, an almost 5 hour paddle. By the time I dragged the yak up the hill and got in on the car it was past 7:30. Too late to swim, so I took a brief walk to look for deer. No luck. Oh well, I'll just have to return.

Another version, with additional pictures of this Tale can be found at

http://www.clubkayak.com/greenwave/trips.asp?op=showtrip&trip=194