Happy Easter. I kayaked the Econlockhatchee River this afternoon, Sunday, April 24, 2011. Down stream from the Seminole County Road 419 Bridge, eight miles to the Snowhill Road Bridge. Got a late start, in bed until almost 9. Had to fill the bike tires with air. When I got to the takeout, after dropping the kayak off at 419. the front was flat. Changed it. Would not center so the brakes would not rub. Took a while to fix that. Good news. The bike route has a little jog, Old Chuluota Road, that takes you off the busy roads for a short time. It has been in bad shape, loose, rocky, pavement. I was thinking of not taking it with no spare. But, the guy ahead of me on a road bike went that way. I followed. It has been freshly paved. Back at 419, a group was prearing to launch. I took a walk in the woods, communed with nature, natural fertilizer, came back and slowly prepared to get on the River. Launched about 11:45.
A second paddle with the Fuji XP20 did not change my opinion of it. Still sucks. Hopefully, the next Tale I'll have a different camera or will have ordered one.
Snowy egret, at max zoom. One reason I don't like the camera
One of two portages, below.
Three weeks ago, the Econ was so high, jet skis were going all the way to the Flagler Trail bridge, according to this
report on the Green Wave Forum. Today it was low. As mentioned, I had to portage twice.
No eagles in the nest, or anywhere that I saw.
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View finder in the upper left hand corner, another reason to return the XP20.
Took a break at the Flagler Trail Bridge.
I was taking the great blue heron photo, and I missed a nearby otter. My first thought, "small gator". Until it ran up the bank, not down. A big otter. I did see four of five alligatgors. All in the water. Birds, in addition to those shown, includig the tri colored heron below, wood ducks, and cardinals. People, the group who launched before me. Another group, who launched when I dropped the yak off, two guys fishing in a tandem kayak. Near the take out, people fishing and sunning on the banks. One reason I paddled the Econ on Easter is that is in a State Forest, not a State Park, and there are no rental concessions on the River. So it does not get the traffic of a place like the Wekiva River.
Approaching Snowhill Road, 3:46 PM.
8 comments:
This is one of my favorites rivers in Florida because of it's prehistoric feel.
I love that river too FB. It is only 5 minutes from home.
Master Dave, I now you do not like the new Fuji but that opening pic is very good.
I thought I would be out on the Econ river all the time with it only about a mile from my house. The fact that the Iron Bridge reclamation facility discharges up to 29 million gallons per day really spoiled it for me though.
Donald, you can either stop flushing your toilet, or learn about Orlando Wetlands Park. Cut and paste this link. http://www.cityoforlando.net/public_works/wetlands/index.htm
My toilet doesn't flush there. The Orlando wetlands park treats what is discharged by Iron Bridge in addition to what it is dumping into the Econ. Several mgpd of effluent still goes into the Econ. There is a third option I think I will choose....stay off the effluent highway.
Great blog BTW.
Dirk, Fertilizer? Compost? Doesn't any waste disposal method eventually get into the water? Some ways slower and less large than others.
You are correct, no waste disposal is perfect, but many are much slower and less monstrous than millions of gallons of effluent per day being directly dumped into a river. The concentrations of wastes will of course be much higher in the econ given what is happening there, I cringe when I see people fishing there.
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