Anclote Key

I had not been in a kayak since early last Saturday. An entire week!  Back in the saddle, or seat, today, Saturday, August 13, 2011.  A place I have not paddled before.  Anclote Key, off Tarpon Springs. I got an early start, but did not arrive as early as I hoped. Two bridges are under going repairs in Tarpon Springs, so I had to take a detour to get to Fred Howard Park.  It took a while to ignore my GPS and follow the detour signs.

I had been to Fred Howard once before. Years ago.  I have a vague memory of having a key problem. Either locking them in the car or losing them on the beach.  No such problem today.  Fred Howard has two sections.  A mainland unit, then a 1.1 miles causeway takes you to the beach section. Plenty of parking available at 7:30.  I grabbed what looked to be the best spot, at the northwest corner of the beach.  Walked about 20 yards to the water, as a dolphin surfaced.  Yeah, its a good spot.  I carried the kayak, this time prepared, with camera, and two dolphins surfaced.  Unfortunately, they did not come back up, or I did not see them as they went past the corner of the beach I was on.

I had read the crossing to Anclote Key is 2.5 miles, and can be rough.  So I brought a spray skirt.  Also an anchor and snorkel gear,  should I want to get in the water.  I set out at 7:55.

 Or, should I say "took off"

It took just under an hour to make the crossing.  Smooth water, except for the occasional boat wake.

The darker bird is a black skimmer.  Sorry for the poor photos.  I need to wipe the lens more often in the summer humidity.

The lighthouse is on what was probably the southern end of Anclote Key.  I say "was" as since the beacon was erected in 1887, the island haw grown.   A long sandbar, perhaps 1/2  a mile, stretches south.  Lots of birds,  I'm guessing the PVC pipes seen in some of the above photos mark nests.  I paddled to the end of the sandbar and into the Gulf.

Not for long. I'd rather be in the protected water behind the barrier island. Not to mention, I wanted to see the lighthouse up close.

 Closer than this.

So I landed.  Next to a pier where the State Park boat docks. Anclote Key is a State Preserve

A boardwalk goes from dock to light.

 Saw a juvenile black crowned night heron, and this ibis.  Seeing the ibis, I thought, could be spoonbill territory.

I bet the Anclote Key Lighthouse was designed by the same person or persons who designed the Sanibel Island Lighthouse, built a couple years before, 1884.   The Anclote light tower is more red than the brown Sanibel light.  Even the keeper's quarters look the same.  The Anclote buildings no longer exist, but you can see a photo historic residences

A short trail, along a waterway inside the Key, leads to a picnic area.

Two guys were fishing, from a boat near the dock, when I landed.  Still there when I got back to the yak, but one was now wading, on the south side of the dock.  I suggested he try the north side.

This snook had come almost to shore, under a ramp from dock to shore, where a hole held a school of bait fish.  I was glad I had pulled the kayak as high on shore as possible.   The tide had come in during the island tour.

 Back to paddling, the power plant was my landmark for the return paddle.  Fred Howard Park is somewhere to the right.

I did not head back to the launch site, but paddled north along Anclote Key.

Nice bird variety, including rosette spoonbills.

I went into a small bay.

 And into a mangrove tunnel.  Would have tried to go farther, but the mosquitoes had other ideas.

Reddish egret.

I think all the spoonbills are the same three. Taken at different spots as they flew about.

I continued paddling near the mangrove lined shore.  Great bird habitat.

I thought of going all the way to the north tip of the Key, to try and find the primitive campsites that are located on the north end.   Which was still a long way off. And I was not if this was a bay

or not,. And was this corner looking more to the right, east, than the above photo, the tip?

Still a far way off, and with cloud's building on the horizon, I did not want to be caught on the open water in a thunder storm, so I turned around. Now, thanks to this map on page 2 of the pdf, I  see the photo above is an island an I still had a long way to go. It was 11:25

I photo the landmarks,

I set a diagonal course northwest to southeast across the Ancolote Anchorage.

By this time, noon, lots of boats were out.  All the wakes made it choppy. Not sure if this is a shrimper or a sponger.

I saw the boat traffic was coming out of the Anclote River, well north of Fred Howard Park.  A gap in traffic let me paddle across the channel and in the relative calm behind a chain of islands.

Where I saw the third dolphin of the day.  To bad you can't see it, no photo.
I returned to an umbrella filled Fred Howard Park at 12:50.

 A shorter walk to the car, as the tide had come in.  Had a brief snorkel to cool off. High in Tarpon Springs was 91.

Beach shower, change, and drove across the causeway.

To a kayak launch on the mainland.

I saw a couple securing their kayak and canoe.  I had seen them in the open water.  I asked them about the trail.   They said it was short, put them in the Gulf quickly.  Here's a Map  

Now that I've finally made it to Fred Howard Park and Anclote Key, I think I'll be back. Not only for paddling, but Tarpon Springs is a neat town.

 The nice folks even named a place after me.  To my nephew, Derek C.  "I saw it first"

Tarpon Springs has a storing Greek heritage, so I walked around downtown looking for a gyro.  Saw a few places but the place I went into was the Railroad Depot Museum, above.

Key West still uses street signs like the one above.  A nice museum.  Opened in 2005, it was not there the last time I biked the Pinellas Trail, a Rail Trail, through Tarpon Springs.
The building was there, not the Museum.

I had a personal tour guide, Henry, whose father worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.  The Museum is free, I dropped a dollar in the donation box, and another for the informative tour. 

This being a historic depot in the Deep South, it had separate waiting area, and ticket windows, for white and black.  The white side had two restrooms, the black, one. One cash register.  Money trumps racism.
I walked back to the car

 Public library

Inspired design, palm trees as pillars.  I saw a couple restaurants, but none really intrigued me, so I headed down to the Sponge Docks.

I saw Hellas Restaurant, a spot Ed, of the Green Wave Forum, has written about.  I parked in the lot, walked through the bakery side, and thorough the restaurant.  Too fancy for me.  I had passed a couple places on the short drive from downtown to the docks, and headed back that way.

When I return to Tarpon Springs, I'll return to Mama Maria's. $6.95 for a huge gyro. Almost sinful