Wekiva River and Blackwater Creek

15 months after closing for "improvements", the Katie's Landing launch site on the Wekvia River, north of State Highway 46, has reopened. 15 months to build a restroom.

Which is not even open. Entire subdivisions and strip malls have gone up just down the road in the time it took to do this. Unfubleeping believable. To be fair, there are picnic tables, grills, pavement and a fancy new sign.
I bet the sign alone took eight months. The "improvements" end well before the River. Once past the new paved parking lot, then a rock surface lot, the same old bumpy dirt trail leads to the River. The old concrete retaining wall has been removed. Parking is not allowed in the old parking area, so, after dropping the kayak off at water's edge, it is a longer walk back to the River. Time to pee on the side of the trail. Because the geniuses who did these unneeded "improvements" took away the port-0-let. What a waste of my tax and fee dollars. At a formerly free launch site. Now $300.00
I hope they don't close the site for a month to paint a dot between the 3 and the first 0. All the "improvement" photos were taken at the end of the day. When I arrived, the payment sign was not covered by a garbage bag. I removed it for the photo. Perhaps a State employee was embarrassed to be charging money, so it was covered up. There is not an entry booth, or even a honor box, yet.

Ok, enough ranting. Walking from the car to the River bank, I saw four sandhill cranes. I was in the water at 8:15. A kayak angler had just put in before me. I began to paddle north, downstream.

Private residences line the east bank of the Wekiva, the Seminole State Forest is on the west bank. The private land ends at the old Wekiva Haven 10-15 minutes downstream, where a flock of turkeys pecked the ground.







From here to the St Johns River, about 4 miles downstream, both banks, and the River are within Lower Wekiva Preserve State Park. I felt as if I reserved the Preserve. No one was on the water.

I had only paddled the Wekiva, upstream of Katie's, once since last July. And not far, as it is over a mile, maybe two, from my backup launch site, Wilson's Landing, to Katie's. It was nice to be back.
I paddled past the confluence with Blackwater Creek, and began to look for manatees. Paid more attention when I got to the official "Manatee Zone" where I saw my first people since the angler at Katie's. A family fishing from a pontoon boat. A short time later, a power boat, operating slowly, as it should, came up River. Arriving at the second manatee sign, and area where I've seen them before, I looked, listened , heard an exhale. Saw plants moving on my right. Two manatees feeding. This one went under as I snapped a pic, leaving a bubbly trail.
I've missed seeing manatees on the Wekiva while Katie's was closed. I got this one before it completely submerged.
I watched the pair for a while. They went below when they heard the engine on the pontoon boat as the family I had seen earlier passed by. Came up, and began to swim up River. I followed. No reason for me to continue downstream the last quarter or half mile to the St Johns River. Now the other boat I saw earlier came by. This time, I did not see the manatees resurface. I dug the paddle into the River,and began the return, upstream paddle. I had been on the River just over two hours.

In addition to seeing manatee, another thingk I've missed doing since the State closed Katie's is paddling up Blackwater Creek, a narrow, scenic, alligator full waterway. I heard voices as I approached the mouth, hurried to get to it before they saw me. I'm selfish, didn't want to give them any ideas. The entrance to Blackwater is a bit confusing, it has two mouths, twists and turns before I found the main channel. The voices turned out to be three kayakers, I saw them through the trees. I don''t think they saw me, but they did not know to look, as in contrast to their chatter, I was quiet.

Somebody or somebodies has been busy on Blackwater Creek. Lots of fresh saw marks to clear the way. Thank you. I saw several alligators, but all entered the water before I could photograph them.

I thought I'd paddle up creek for an hour An hour came and went, the scenery changed from cypress swamp to palm hammock, so I kept going. Until I couldn't go any further.
Reviewing the Yak Tales archive, I had to turn back at a similar blockage, in January, 2008, the last time I made a long paddle up Blackwater Creek.

The lead off photo on this Tale is from the down Creek paddle. I took a lunch break on the bank on the way down creek.

This alligator is big.

I saw two that were bigger. At least twelve feet long. Both slid into the Creek before I got a photo. That's why they are big. Predator avoidance.

The cypress swamp was full of ibis, and and occasional great egret. Back on the Wekiva. Saw one power boat, and two canoes, on the bank. That made 9 boats, only 7 on the water. On a Saturday. Another reason to like this part of the Wekiva. It used to have more boats, rentals from Wekiva Haven. But that place has been closed, the boats sold. Some are still berhted at Wekiva Haven, unsold, or perhaps owned by folks in the neighborhood.

I landed at 3:40, 7.5 hours on the Wekiva River and Blackwater Creek.