Getting There: March 3 – 6, 2009
I decided to drive to Florida this time. There were several reasons for this. My buddy, John Resch is from Rochester. I needed to go to Rochester to visit my son who was scheduled for surgery in a few days. John was already in Florida playing golf (a nasty habit!). Since I needed to make the trip to Rochester anyway, I offered to pick up his boat and gear, and haul it to Florida along with my stuff. This would also be the first long road trip with my new car.
Usually we don’t need our boats. Scott has boats that are typically part of the package when we sign on for a guided trip with him. And we could have used his boats this time too. This however, was a different kind of trip. It was an exploratory trip in which Scott would assess the commercial possibilities of the Suwannee River as a site for guided trips. Scott did the planning and we agreed to split all trip costs three ways. John and I were along as (a) companions, (b) guinea pigs, (c) charity cases; I’m not sure, but we were very glad to be included. So we decided to haul our boats to the Suwannee just because we had always wanted to paddle our own boats in Florida.
I was on the road early on March 4th after dropping two of my grand daughters at their Junior/Senior High School. I drove all day (I like to drive) and pulled into a Holiday Inn Express in Huntersville, North Carolina around 8 pm. After dinner and a good night’s sleep, I was on the road again by 8 am. A large cup of McDonald’s gourmet blend coffee rested in my cup holder, sending out wonderful wake-up aromas.
I was making great time. I didn’t need to be at the Suwannee River Valley Campground until early afternoon on March 6th, and it was only March 5th. This gave me some time to look at a few places that Lisa and I could consider if we decide to relocate to the south in the next few years.
My first stop was to be St Mary’s Georgia. St. Mary’s is just north of the Georgia-Florida border, about an hour’s drive from Jacksonville. I got to St. Mary’s about two o’clock and walked around for close to two hours. I checked out the paddling possibilities at the Cumberland Island National Sea Shore (marginal) and stopped by Up-The-Creek Outfitters to say hello. Up-the-Creek is listed on my links page and I wanted to see the operation for myself. I then drove on to Jacksonville, a big city. Making my way to the barrier islands, I followed them south through Jacksonville Beach and Punta Gorda, finally arriving in St. Augustine. I liked St. Augustine. So I grabbed a room at a Days Inn in town and went exploring.
After breakfast next morning I explored some more and bought some gifts for the folks back home. Then I got back on the road, heading north, this time toward Jacksonville where I would turn left for the rural heartland of Florida. The land here was flat, as is all of Florida, but pretty, and sparsely populated. I arrived at the Suwannee Valley Campground, a private KOA facility, at 1:30 pm to find John sitting on the porch of the main building, waiting.
The Suwannee Valley KOA Campground: March 6, 2009
John and I exchanged greetings while he checked to see that his boat had made the trip without mishap. We decided to register and start setting up camp while we waited for Scott, as we still had much to accomplish before dark. The registrar was very helpful. We were happy to find that there were “tent sites” in this campground that largely catered to large RV’s. Directions said, drive into the campground, take a left at the chapel and drive down the road to the tent camping area. John and I headed off in my car but found no chapel or road. On our second swing through the camp, we saw that the chapel was across the road from the main building (we hadn’t started looking for it soon enough) and the road was a barely discernable pathway down a rutted and bumpy hill. After bouncing our way to the bottom, we pulled up next to a pair of picnic tables under big Live Oak trees. This would be our home for the next twenty-four hours.
“Primitive” camping at the Suwannee Valley KOA.
The Wal-Mart was our first stop as we had agreed to shop for food when we arrived rather than bring stuff from home. Scott and I had discussed some meal possibilities before hand and we were soon locating the things needed to prepare several of our favorites. We also created two new meals on the spot from items we found there (I’ll share the menu with you at a later time). Neither Scott nor I use the prepackaged, freeze-dried camp food that is widely available. We prefer to prepare our own meals from things available in most supermarkets. This is a bit of a challenge as it is very difficult to bring fresh fruits and vegetables on a days-long self-contained kayak trip.
Restaurant possibilities in Live Oak were limited. There was a McDonalds, a Taco Bell and some other fast food places. The only place that began to offer a sit-down meal was a Chinese Buffet. We had a better than expected meal at the buffet and, as is usual with buffets, we all ate too much.
Back at camp, we set about repackaging our food. We save lots of space by removing things from their boxed packages and placing them in ziplock bags. These are then placed in dry bags by meal type – breakfast, lunch and dinner. By the time we finished, it was dark. The crickets were singing and a beautiful full moon in a cloudless sky shown through the leafless trees waiting for spring to nudge them into bloom. After absorbing this beautiful evening for a time, it was off to bed for what we expected would be a cold night.
Suwannee River Valley Campground to Woods Ferry River Camp: March 7, 2009
It was a cold night, with temperatures dipping into the forty’s. I had dressed for the cold, with long underwear, a light polartec sweater and a stocking cap, but still, by 3 am the cold had penetrated my sleeping bag and I was awake. Or half awake anyway. I knew that I had other things I could pull on if I was cold, but I wasn’t that cold, not so cold as to want to unzip my sleeping bag and climb out into the cold night to rummage through a dry bag for ice cold clothing. So I lay there, rolling from my left side to my back and then to my right side, attempting to warm whichever part seemed coldest at the time.
By 6:45 am I’d had enough. It was barely dawn, but I got up anyway and began packing up the gear in my tent. By 7:30, everyone was up. Soon the tents were down and we walked to the river to explore the put-in. It was not a pretty picture. We needed to drop our boats atop a high riverbank and hand carry them down a crude switchback trail to the water. The sand beach below was fairly steep to the water’s edge.
Returning to our cars, we decided to drop our boats and gear on the riverbank near the switchback trail, leaving them while we drove all three cars to Fanning Springs State Park, our end point and pullout. We would leave two cars there and come back in John’s car, which would be left at the KOA while we were on the river. It was a ninety-minute trip each way to drop off the cars. But first, McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin and a large coffee!
The trip to Fanning Springs was uneventful. No one was at the gatehouse when we arrived. It was unclear where we should park our cars or how much the parking fees would be. While exploring, I ran into the assistant park manager. He was off duty, but was very helpful, providing the correct materials for parking and showing us the canoe launch (which we had missed) and an appropriate parking area for our cars.
The carry to the beach at Suwannee Valley KOA.
The only pullouts at Woods Ferry were along a narrow sloping sand margin under the access ramp.
Ceiling fans and electric lights! Pretty plush!
We were greeted by the Camp Host and told that there was one paddler here using the handicapped unit, with a group of college students, scheduled to arrive any time, needing two units. She suggested we take the farthest unit because of its view and remoteness. We liked the unit and began to settle in as the students and their advisor from Valdosta State University in Georgia arrived.
The students appeared to be pretty new at paddling and camping. Their advisor was in charge of the school’s outdoor education program. His goal was to introduce as many students as possible to many different outdoor activities. The students seemed tired but game. They had paddled the same eleven miles we had, but in much heavier and slower plastic canoes. Soon after arrival they set about making their dinner, but needed to borrow a match to get their stove going.
Linda’s photo of Yackman at Woods Ferry landing.
Around five o’clock we made dinner. Dark would come early tonight, but tomorrow morning marked the beginning of Eastern Daylight Savings Time. Tonight we would “spring ahead”, pushing sunset back for the rest of the trip, but also delaying sunrise till after 7 am. John, who hadn’t paddled in months, was pooped. He crawled into his sleeping bag as dusk settled around us. Soon the quiet sound of his snoring signaled that he was asleep.
Yackman making notes of the day’s events before sleep.
As I lay there quietly reading, I felt a cool breeze on my face. Night sounds began to fill the space around our platform. The full moon rose in a clear sky to shine through the trees again. It would be another cold night. Soon my eyes were heavy. I turned off my headlamp and went to sleep.
Woods Ferry River Camp to Holton Creek River Camp: March 8, 2009
It was cold again last night. Not as cold as the night before, but cold enough. And since I didn’t have my tent to trap any body heat, I was rolling around again by three o’clock, trying to stay warm. The night started off pleasant enough. But about by early morning it started to cool down. By five, it was cold. Only the tip of my nose stuck out of my sleeping bag, and it was like ice. Northern Florida in early March is still cold on many nights.
Dawn arrived late, sometime after 7 am. I dragged myself out in the half-light and pulled on several layers of clothing to fight the chill till the sun came up. Then I set to work making coffee. Scott was grinding coffee beans in a small hand grinder. I’m not enough of a purest to want to go to that trouble, so I fired up the Jetboil and used my pre-ground coffee to brew a cup for both John and myself.
Early morning at Woods Ferry. That’s John at the table.
The crowded and difficult landing at Woods Ferry.
Limestone cliffs.....
...and snow white sandbars.
We saw a few animals today, mostly birds. There were the stubby winged Kingfishers, a hawk or two, Blue Heron, the ever present Turkey Vultures and Black Buzzards, fish jumping everywhere, including what Scott identified as a Sturgeon, and about a gazillion turtles of all sizes. Every tree that had come to rest in the water had several turtles on it soaking up the warmth, with their legs and neck sticking straight out for maximum sun exposure.
The easy landing at Holton Creek River Camp.
Scott starts dinner at Holton Creek Campground.
Holton Creek River Camp to River Camp III: March 9, 2009
Yackman preparing to launch from the Holton Creek River Camp landing.
John enjoying the morning on the Beautiful Suwannee.
Lunch break on a typical Suwannee River sandbar.
The camping area was comfortable at River Camp III.
Scott starts dinner at River Camp III.
The Suwannee from River Camp III.
Crumbling facilities at River Camp III.
I wasn’t tired, so I sat in my Crazy Creek chair, made notes in my journal about the day and read from my book. Tonight’s chapter is entitled “Dead Man Driving: Human Crash Test Dummies and the Ghastly, Necessary Science of Impact Tolerance”. Why am I reading this book?!