Wekiva River

Happy Mother's Day, Mom, Monica, Anne, Eileen, Clare, and all moms. Too bad I don't have an animal mother and offspring picture from today's paddle on the Wekiva. I wanted a relatively easy paddle after Saturday's Weeki Wachee trip, so I did the upstream downstream Katie's Landing paddle.

Half a dozen kayakers were in, or getting in the River when I arrived at 9:20. They headed downstream. I got in the yak and pushed off, thinking, I should have asked them how they found out about Katie's. I am able to see what pages of Dave's Yak Tales folks are looking at, and how they got there. "Katie's Landing" is one of the more popular searches. If anyone who put in at Katie's on May 11, 2008 is reading this, I had a yellow yak on a blue Chevy.

I paddled against the current, and wind. Blowing hard, and got harder. 25 mph with 35 mph gusts in the afternoon. Not that hard in the morning, maybe 15-20. Still, in the open section of River, which was a hour of paddling, it was tough.

I paddled upstream for just under two hours. Saw a few anglers, rentals from Wekiva Falls, the Wekiva Falls tour pontoon. Three idiots in powerboats, going too fast as they entered the run into Wekiva Falls. One cut the line of a guy fishing from the bank. The angler took it better then I would have. But, justice was served. The boater lifted his engine out of the water, as it he hit something. Serves him right, jacka@@.

The bird variety was fantastic. Ibis, limpkin, swallowtail kite, moorhens, osprey, great egret, anhinga, hawk, wood ducks, mottled ducks, blue, great blue, green, tri colored and black crowned night herons. Too bad I only have pictures of the usual suspects, ibis above,

Great blue heron, blue heron, anhinga.









and mottled ducks.



I expected to see alligators on this hot day, but only saw two. No. 2 was even smaller.




I spent 4.5 hours on the Wekiva, then took a 20 minute walk in the nearby Lower Wekiva State Preserve, before coming home. When I got home, the yak was pushed over to the left side of the roof. The wind was nasty.