Paddling Blue Spring

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Hi Blog!

After visiting family in Okeechobee, we now find ourselves in Deland, Florida. We are camped along the St. Johns River, the longest river in Florida. The river starts in a marsh near Indian River and flows north for 310 miles through 12 counties. Because the drop in elevation from beginning to end is only 30 feet, the St. Johns has a very slow flow and is often described as lazy. The slow current makes for an easy paddle.

Camping in this area will give us access to a number of fresh water springs. High on Kathy's bucket list was a visit to Blue Spring State Park. We launched our kayaks from French Landing just north of the park.

Blue Spring State Park covers more than 2,600 acres, including the largest spring on the St. Johns River. Blue Spring is a designated Manatee Refuge and the winter home to a growing population of West Indian Manatees. The run from the river to the spring is closed to boats from November to March. However, the entire area has a No Wake Zone which makes for a stress free paddle on the river in the area of the spring.

We were able to paddle right up to the barrier and watch the manatees hanging out. Several manatees were wearing padded belts with satellite GPS trackers. A programmable breakaway release unit is incorporated into the belts as a means to automatically release all of the gear from the animal at a pre-programmed date and time; this permits staff to easily retrieve the tag and belt assembly without approaching the manatee.  It also makes it easier for us to spot the manatees.

In addition to the spring run, the park encompasses a large lagoon. As we made our way over to the lagoon, we passed a black vulture roost. A male vulture was putting on a show for a couple of females who seemed totally uninterested.

Spring must be in the air, because this heron was sporting his mating plumage.

While there were a few rental kayaks working their way around the lagoon, it was far from crowded. There was so much wildlife to observe, we hardly noticed the other boaters. 

An anhinga spreads its wings to dry after a deep dive for lunch.

This little blue heron watched us drift by.

We've never met a bird with as many names as the Great Egret/Common Egret/Large Egret/Great White Egret/Great White Heron.

In all our paddles, this is the first time we have ever encountered a rabbit! We learned that the marsh rabbit is a small cottontail rabbit who lives in marshes and swamps in Eastern and Southern US. It is a strong swimmer and found only near regions of water.

Seeing the bunny in such an unusual habitat brought back memories of one of the first video games we played, Full Throttle. There was a segment called March of the Bunnies. If you are curious, you can click this link.

We watched this little blue heron fish for his lunch while we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches:

We were not sure if this turtle was nesting or just looking for a dry spot to enjoy some afternoon sun.

Yes, there are alligators in the St. Johns River. We saw a couple of them swimming about. When you get too close, they just dive underwater. We leave them alone and they leave us alone. Every once in a while, you come across one just hanging out on the shoreline basking in the sun.  This one was too big for us to get very close.

This anhinga has a bird's eye view of the lagoon. Probably looking for some fishy action.

This snowy egret is sporting a pretty fancy headdress.

As we approached this pair of herons, we disturbed an alligator who splashed about causing the birds to leap up in the air. They settled back down and remained remarkably still as we passed by.

Here's a Great Blue Heron on a log.

Here is a Lesser Blue Heron on a log.

After circling the lagoon, we headed back out into the St. Johns River. Just a quarter mile south of the lagoon, the river winds it way through an oxbow where Snake Creek joins the river. To aid boat traffic, a channel known as the Snake Creek Cutoff was dug to straighten the channel for boats on the river, so the oxbow creates an island with the main channel.  Most motorboats stick to the new wide channel, leaving the original windy river for us to explore in peace and quiet.

As we reached the Cutoff, a fisherman with his trusty first-mate passed us with a wave and a woof.

This old section of the river was teeming with Ibis. We stopped counting when we reached 100.

We were hoping to make our way up Snake Creek. It was advertised as being part of a large 10 mile paddle loop from French Landing. After hauling ourselves through thick vegetation, we decided to turn around and head back. Slogging through greenery does not a fun paddle make.

We spent most of the day scaring the turtles off their logs. However, this time, we were able to get a photo before they dove in.

On our way back to our launch site, one of the tour boats passed us. We took a picture of them, while they took pictures of us. The tour guide was explaining all about erosion along the banks of the river.

It is always nice to finish a paddle and still have enough energy to haul the kayaks back up on the Jeep. 

Footnote: When we started out Wednesday morning, we discovered several nails in one of our Jeep tires. We had to put the spare tire on and drive over to Tire Choice so they could patch it. Unfortunately, one of the nails was in the sidewall and could not be plugged, so a new tire is on order. We dropped off the tire, ordered a replacement, and went for our paddle.  When we got home from the paddle, we realized we should check all of our tires for more nails, because we were pretty sure we had driven through a bunch of discarded nails on the Florida Turnpike (we passed two other drivers changing flat tires at the Spot of Suspicion).  After carefully checking, we found another nail in another Jeep tire, and it, too, was compromising the sidewall. We called Tire Choice and added a second new tire to our order. You know what they say: "Adventure happens when your plans go awry!"

If the weather holds and we get our two new tires, we hope to get out and visit a couple more springs. Stay tuned.