The canoe trip!

Family is all gone and boy did we have some fun! So I'm a little behind in putting up posts. I suppose I'll start with the last thing we did first.

 We went canoeing down Rock Springs Run. It's been rated number one in Central Florida for paddle runs and people from all over come here to canoe it. It was pretty torn up in the hurricane's of 2004-2005 and you can really see evidence of that. All the damage was too much for the previous owners to handle but thank goodness that the Loomis brothers bought it and decided to keep it as a natural preserve for kayakers and cannoers or it would have ended up as a housing development with access only to the rich. For a small fee they will rent you a canoe and let you paddle down the eight mile run and even pick you up and bring you back to your car when you get to the bottom. That's what we did.

We weren't quite sure what to expect. It had been a long time since me and Chris went canoeing here and my sister and her husband had never canoed together before. This is a tough run for a beginer we decided after we made it to the bottom. There is no rapids or any thing it's just a long time in the canoe before you get to a spot that is good to jump out and then a long time again with a lot of turns before you get to the end.



The beginning with the morning sun streaming through the trees.



 The beginning is scary because you've got to get your canoe legs. Everyone is scared they will tip the canoe and the bottom is black with muck so it makes it hard to see the bottom which makes it even scarier. You gently pass a few houses and think wow that would be great to live right on a river. One even had a dock with a slide on it. Soon the houses fad away as if your leaving all of civilization and you find yourself completely in nature. It's marked by a sign.

Sign that marks where the wilderness starts.

At the beginning of the run.

 We were doing great and making great time until we encountered a tree smack across the river blocking our way. Just before the two mile point. At first we thought let's take the canoes out and walk them on the side of the river around the tree. So my sister, who weighs about 90lbs, steps out of the canoe and puts all her weight on that leg and sinks up to her hip in the black muck. She had kept one foot in the canoe thank goodness or she'd be a goner. Or if she had weighed more she might have sank even deeper. She said that as far as she sank she still did not touch the bottom. So we were at a loss and Kay, my sister, had lost her flip flop. We called the park people and they didn't have the people or resources to come move the tree for us right then. And it was a big tree. Finally a group of young guys came by and they were old pros at getting around fallen trees. They had canoed the run right after the hurricanes. Thank goodness for those boys. They were such a help. The water right here had to be about twenty feet deep. And with the bottom being solid muck, who knows how much deeper after that. It was black and no way to see the bottom for sure. I'm assuming it was twenty feet though. We climbed out of the boats and stood on the fallen tree as they hoisted the canoe over it. Then we stood on this enormous trees branches to climb back in the canoe. It was all very hair raising and not the nice relaxing paddle we were expecting. But it did add to the excitement of the trip. Too bad I didn't get any pictures of it. We pulled off and took  break  at the next fallen tree we saw. Nerves were a little rattled. Luckily the one we stopped at had a place to pass chainsawed through it all ready.



Break spot. After climbing over the large tree in our way.



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Pretty soon we paddled up to the fist camp. Yes they have camping out there now. The bottom of the river was nice and sandy the muck was gone thank goodness. And everyone was ready to get out of the canoes and stretch our legs. We hiked back to and checked out the camp. It was basically a picnic table in a nice clearing. What more do you need. While there we found a large gopher turtle that didn't want anything to do with us. So we went back to the canoes and dipped our toes in the water. Little fish came up and nibbles our toes which tickled a lot. I've seen on TV where people pay lots of money to have fish do that. We got it done for free.  We were nibbling on crackers when we dropped one and larger fish showed up. It was like a feeding frenzy. Kay decided to try and hand feed the fish. And yep they came right up to her and took that cracker.

                                           Kay had the fish eating right out of her hand.



Right after this last video we had to climb over another tree. Lucky for us the bottom was all sand and very shallow water. Hauling canoes full of coolers over trees is not fun guys.

We went a little father and found the old swim spot where Chris and I used to stop. It looked exactly like it did all those years ago. And we even got a picture next to the old palm tree we used to play on.





Chris hanging out on the old palm back in 1987. When he took me canoeing on a date.




Here is that same palm tree now.

 We stopped for lunch at another camp were was suppose to be a Florida Native American mound found but we did not go searching for it as we were all getting worn out.
The back half of the canoe trip seemed to pass much quickerand at one point we were in a sea of lilly pads.

Sea of lilys.



Just when it seemed we would never get out of there and my brother in law was about to give out from  paddling around all the turns we reached the end. It was as if civilization came out of no where. Suddenly there were other canoers going in the opposite direction from us. And human voices. Then there was the old bridge and soon after we reached the pull out point. It used to be called Wekiva Marina but now it's all fancy and called wekiva island It looked like it would be a good spot to go party.

We waited under a  nice covered area for the hunky canoe boys to load our canoes and give us a ride back to the top of the run. We were the last ones back so the wait wasn't long.