Van Buren, MO - On the River

Our initial plan was to only stay in Van Buren one night.  But after seeing that our RV park was right on the Current River (and it looked perfect for kayaking or tubing), we ended up staying for three nights.

Here's the pavilion which was our special place for happy hours and for working (WIFI was unreliable at our camp site) - not a bad office, though!

We were practically within the Ozark National Scenic Waterways NPS boundaries.  Down the street was Big Spring - the largest single source spring in the world.  I'm not used to seeing springs that create rapids.

The water was a beautiful, crystal-clear blue green.  But a bit chillier than our springs in Florida.  It was 55 degrees.

We were able to squeeze in a multi-sport adventure one day.   We had thunderstorms one day, and threats of them the second day, but a window in the weather allowed us time to play.

Our multi-sport adventure was so we could self-shuttle for a one-way kayak down the Current River.  We drove our car to the boat launch in Big Spring Park.  Then rode our mountain bikes the 4-miles back to camp.  We used our mountain bikes because the road surface isn't the smoothest.  The area is within the Mark Twain National Forest.  This ride has ranked 'tops' as the hardest 4-mile bike ride of our lives.  Killer hills.  Worse than we expected - even after driving the road twice.

After arriving back at camp on our bikes, we dragged our kayaks to the river's edge and dropped in.  I can't really say this was a "paddle", though.  It was more of a "float".  There was a good current on the Current and we reached the boat launch a little over an hour later (about 4-miles on the river, too, I'm guessing).  We saw one power boat our entire voyage.  Perfect!

Funny.  In our rush to get out and play we forgot about some of the basics of safety.  No maps, no idea what the boat launch looked like from the river, no real knowledge of distance or expected time on the river, and so on.  So when an hour passed and we weren't sure if we missed the launch or not, we started to discuss survival tips if we had to sleep on the shore - thunderstorms, chilly nights, huge horse flies, etc.  But we're here to laugh about it, so no worries now!

When we were driving out of the park after our kayak-float, we stopped to admire the mist that was settling on the stream near Big Spring...

Normally you could see straight through the water and see the grasses below the surface.

 

We only did a tiny, tiny part of this national park.  If we explored more, we could've found other springs, waterfalls, caves, hiking trails, and so on.  Worth a re-visit...

Kayaking in Warrior's Path

From 2009_June

We've seen this rock cliff from I-81's bridge over the Holston a number of times, and kept saying we'd paddle to it.  We finally got to do it today. 

Can you see me in the above photo?  That's a tall cliff!  Kids were cliff jumping from some other areas along the river, but not from this height.  We had a good chuckle after hearing the first splash - the kid yelled "freeeeezing!".  Yes, the water was colder than we expected. 

We paddled under I-81....

And just along the pretty shoreline....

The water was so flat and the current was mild, so doing an out-and-back from Warrior Path State Park's boat launch was an easy paddle.

Columbia, SC - Congaree National Park

Congaree just became a National Park in 2003.  Prior to that it was Congaree Swamp National Monument.  This park preserves some of the last remaining hardwood forest floodplains.  It looked a lot like home with the Bald Cypress trees and knees, the palmettos, and the raised boardwalk over a swamp.  But some things were different.  There was a visible current in the water and there were Dogwoods and other trees and plants that we didn't recognize.  Familiar, yet unsettling unfamiliar.  We had to keep reminding ourselves we weren't home.

After a visit at the Visitor's Center to gather our maps and recommendations, we walked the boardwalk trail, and then tacked on the Weston Lake Loop Trail.  Probably about 4.5 miles total.  Good thing we wore our hiking boots since Weston Lake Loop was pretty muddy in spots...and under water in others. Considering it's a 'floodplain', we should've presumed this. 

From 2009_02_SCNC

We don't know if we walked past any of the Park's Champion Trees, but we did 'ooh and aah' over some wide trunks and had to do half-backbends to try and see the tops of others.  The park has some record trees (Loblolly Pines, Cherrybark Oak) over 160 feet tall.  The largest bald cypress is over 27 feet in circumference. 

After the hike, we ate lunch in the park and then put our kayaks in at Cedar Creek Landing.  We paddled upstream, back towards the Visitor Center.  One paddler told us that he had to turn around 10 minutes upstream because of a fallen tree and he didn't want to portage.  We did have to become contortionists to bend under a couple of fallen trees, and shimmy over some logs, but we were able to make it without portaging over the muddy banks.  What worried me, though, was that shortly after our put-in I saw a snake in a tree.  At first I thought it was just part of the branch - but the pattern caught my eye for a second glance.  After that we kept yelling "snakes in trees" every time we had to cross under low branches.  I love snakes, but not in my lap.

The best sighting of the day was seeing a Barred Owl.  He was sitting on a low branch and was a full 21" tall.  A stout bird with large circular dark eyes.  His coloring makes it look like he has a hood over his head.  And when he flew it looked like his wingspan could've been four feet.  How can a bird this big be so silent?  Barely a 'whoosh' when he flew across the water to sit on a branch just above the water and only a couple of feet to my side.  Just before he took off to the other side I told Andy we were about to witness something tragic.  A duck (or water bird of some kind) and her multitude of ducklings were just frantically escaping down the river - half running on water, half swimming under water.  But two of the babies fell behind.  One of them was being intently watched and followed by the owl.  Our presence only deterred the inevitable, but I hope we gave the baby an edge in surviving.  Nature can seem cruel at times...and it's hard when you want both sides to win and survive.

It was a great paddle.  Quiet and serene.  The return trip was an easy coast, mostly requiring steering and an occasional paddle to make the turns and get past obstacles.  The water level on our trip was 4.60 feet - in the "perfect" category.  Too low and you'll have to portage frequently.  Too high, and you'll lose sight of the creek since the water will spread out over the floodplain and you won't know where the Canoe Trail is.  The small brown marker signs would be impossible to find once you're off the trail.  That would be interesting to see, though.

Click on any of the above photos to see more on WebAlbums.

Initially we weren't sure where to stay in order to see this National Park.  There is no camping in or just outside the park (except tenting and backcountry camping - but no place for RVs).  We didn't realize how small the scale was on the SC map.  It just took us 40 minutes or so to drive from Lexington, which is on the west side of Columbia.  The scale of miles for Florida's map is much different!  Just one of those things we have to remember to look at again now that we're on the road.

Lantana, FL - John Prince Park

Another last minute decision leads to a great weekend! We're trying to get the RV out on a more regular basis, and sometimes that means we don't decide to go away until the Thursday or Friday before we go. This is partly due to the fact that life seems to slip by rapidly and we can't believe a month has gone by and we haven't taken the RV out! Thankfully, we don't need to go far if we don't have to...

So, this past weekend we went to John Prince Park in Lantana, FL. It's a whopping 39 miles away. But we've never stayed there before and we've never even been to this park before. Perfect!

Friday night we enjoyed sitting out with the full moon over Lake Osborne. Several of the campsites are right on the lake. We were also fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the Space Shuttle Endeavor take off. We got to see the burning orange flames even at a distance of approximately 150 miles.
Saturday morning allowed us an opportunity to ride our road bikes along another section of A1A that we rarely get to ride. With Intercoastal Waterway and Ocean views like this, who could complain about riding home against the winds?Later on Saturday we went kayaking. We had an easy put-in right from our site.
We paddled around a wetland restoration area:We watched people active on their boats in Lake Osborne - tubing, waterskiing, and whatever-crazy-sport-this-is-called - "body dragging", perhaps?And we watched the sunset from the middle of Lake Osborne:
It's a great park for birdwatching, too:
Here's a Google Map showing access points to the wetland areas, and an island that had lots of birds to watch...(click on the pushpins to read details)

View Larger Map
The park is also close to Lake Worth Avenue if you're looking for some nightlife action. We had a few beers at an outdoor cafe and just people-watched (another of our favorite activities). And, boy, was it an interesting night - I'll just leave it at that!

Florida Saltwater Trail

I was just surfing the internet and saw that our Florida Department of Greenways & Trails is almost finished mapping out a saltwater paddling trail circumnavigating Florida...pretty cool!
Click here to go to their website and read about the different segments - they highlight interesting sights along the way and give route details. You could use this if you ever want to paddle different areas of the state.

Kayak Wilton Manors/Island City Loop

Andy took me out for a paddle today. We did the 7-mile Wilton Manors/Island City Loop for the first time.
View Larger Map It's a nice urban paddle - you get to look at homes and boats along the way. But we thought it was a little nicer then the New River because there weren't nearly as many boats out on the water. Actually, we saw only one motoring. This made for a peaceful paddle. Wilton Manors is a town just north of us and is surrounded by either the North Fork of the Middle River or the South Fork of the Middle River, which is how it got it's nickname "Island City".

We also got to watch fish jumping, ducks and birds, and the big green iguanas.

If you are interested in paddling this route, you can click on the map above. I made notes of boat ramps on the blue pushpins, and the pink ones have route notes. My only cautions would be: 1) there is no midday shade, so bring plenty of drinks, sunscreen, and a hat; 2) during high tide you will have several low bridge crossings to scoot under; and, 3) there are lots of inlets and the like - so bring a map if you don't want to add miles to the loop!

Baby Muscovy Ducks are so cute - so what happens to them when they get bigger?
A local resident repainted their boat lift to look like 2 giraffes - very creative!
This was probably the highest bridge we had to paddle underneath. The tide today was extremely high, even flooding a lawn or two.
Andy checks out the biggest iguana we saw on our paddle...look in the tree for the orange reptile:

Fort Myers, FL - Kayaking

We finally left Fort Myers on Saturday morning. We're glad we stayed so we could take advantage of some of the toys I brought with us. Our kayaks were able to get wet two days this past week. Both times at the end of John Morris Road. It's called Bunche Beach.

The one evening we put in, we instantly sighted three dolphins who came into the shallows for some feeding. It was wonderful. Since it was so shallow where they were, they created their own waves as they spun around and zipped back and forth in search of fish.

I'm also trying to upload a video I took from our kayaks. The video shows us under attack by Black Skimmers. We must've gotten too close to their beach for their comfort. Quite frequently two to three of these long-billed birds would fly at us, low over the water, squawking loudly. Hopefully I'll get the video loaded...

But our kayaking was cut short when we turned around and saw this cloud behind us...

Besides kayaking Bunche Beach, some of the locals recommended kayaking on Sanibel and Captiva. I'll keep these in mind for our next trip...(you can click on the pushpins or the line to get more info)
View Larger Map

Fort Myers, FL - To Go or Not to Go

We’re sandwiched between two storms. Gustav’s presence is diminishing as he moves northerly, but Hanna is now on the radar. We decided not to leave on Monday as we planned because we wanted to finish some maintenance projects on the RV and to also enjoy the area. So, we’ve now accomplished washing the RV and Andy has repaired the awnings. He bought some special sail-repair tape from West Marine and clear duct tape to use on the tears and cracks that are progressively getting worse on all three awnings. Hopefully this will buy us some more time before we have to replace them.

We also got to go for a nice paddle in the waves along the beach north of John Morris Road, which is part of the Calusa Blueway (Trail Marker 48). And, of course, I am adding to my already overflowing collection of sea shells. We’ve found some good ones, too…Pear Whelk, King’s Crown, and starfish…
The beaches were littered with sponges from the storm. Now, if I can only figure out how to add some of these colorful and ornate beauties to my collection...
We’ve decided to stay the week here in Fort Myers. We’re hoping to avoid Hanna by doing so. We have our laptops with us and the RV park has internet, so we we’ll work from here. This will be fun!

Hemingway and The Keys

I didn't know our running group was so talented and competitive! We usually just do the Thursday night fun runs with the club, so everyone is usually more relaxed. We also feel like we're just beginning to meet more members, too. Out of the 14 or so of the group who ran the race Saturday night, seven took home awards! Hopefully some of their drive and speed will start to rub off on me.

On Sunday, we all walked Duval Street for a couple of hours before leaving Key West.
Our day started with a drink at Sloppy Joe's....
Then Andy and I stopped in Islamorada for Sunday night, while the rest of the group continued home.

When I looked at a map to decide where to go kayaking I saw this island called Shell Key that had water in the middle of it. I did some quick research and learned that there was a mangrove tunnel in the northwestern corner of the island that would allow access into the middle. We had paddled nearby Lignumvitae Key and Indian Key in previous years, so I thought it would be fun to try something new.
I created an interactive Google Map to show you where we paddled - you can zoom in and move around the map.

View Larger Map
We headed to the west side of the island and circled it clockwise. Our primary goal was to find this cut-through to the middle. But after inspecting several alleys and alcoves, we realized that in the last nine years that the Sea Kayaking book was written :), that we believed the island had self-sealed the tunnel. We just came across dead-end after dead-end.
In one alcove, we learned another thing - the Key is now a State Preserve. Who knew?But this makes sense since a lot of juvenile fish use the mangrove roots for protection, including this young jellyfish that was attempting to hide from me. The seagrasses that surround these keys are also vital for marine life, including manatees. Andy saw a spotted ray as we circled Shell Key.
See how the roots of this young mangrove spread out? This is how these keys grow and change constantly. We passed many future keys that, as of now, are just a single leaf poking above the waterline.
On the way back, we stopped at a Key just south of Shell Key (see the second pushpin on the Google Map above). This must've been a Double-breasted Cormorant rookery. We could see several cormorants flying to the tree tops with nesting material in their beaks. But there were also blue herons, great white egrets, and white-crowned pigeons on the island as well. The cacophony of sounds was silencing. We quietly paddled down a trail leading through the key listening to all of the different bird calls. Deep-throated rattles, gutteral barks, squeaks, and what Andy referred to as "burping" sounds. It was really fascinating.

Overall, the paddle was about 5 miles and took us 2 hours. Kayaking in The Keys is always wonderful. But remember to watch your tides and your wind. If either is against you, your trip could be more work then fun! There are lots and lots of low-lying areas around these keys.

Going to Hemingway Days

We're heading south tomorrow...to the Southernmost Point. Key West. We haven't been down to the Keys in several years so we're looking forward to it. Our running club, GFLRRC, has a group heading down for a 5k Race - Hemingway Days Sunset Run - which starts at the Southernmost Point tomorrow night at 7:30pm. It'll be fun. This weekend wraps up the 5-day long Hemingway Days celebration which includes their own form of the Running with the Bulls (which, unfortunately we'll miss due to our 4-hour drive) and Papa look-alike contests, and more.

Sunday, we'll begin our drive home, but stop in Islamorada for a night there. We'd like to get our kayaks in the water and just relax for a little bit. If you're not familiar with The Keys, you can check out this Map to get an idea of the area.

Who Said New Smyrna Beach was Laid Back?

New Smyrna Beach is an Old Florida, laid back town. Unless your with our family. It was another wild weekend visiting the Thomases. Andy's dad taught this family how to be competitive at anything. I've joked that even Croquet and Bocci have become contact sports when they play. But this competitive spirit makes it fun when the family (and their friends) gets together. Injuries are something to expect, but I was surprised that almost everyone (10-12) walked off the football field with blood this past weekend. They played 2 games on two separate days. Both on the hard packed beach. Hitting the sand with knees, elbows, and backs, they all suffered from "road rash" burns. And this was an 'innocent' game of two-hand touch! Boys.

We did get some normal exercise into our routine. A couple runs, a bike ride, and an ocean swim. Our beach is so different from the beach up in NSB. First, the sand is hard and cars drive on the beach. This does make for an easier run on the sand since it is packed versus our soft, slanted beach. The other differences were obvious during our ocean swim. For one, the water is about 10 degrees colder! Yikes, I've gotten so used to the ocean being almost air-temperature it was a shock to walk into 72 degree water again (that's our temperature in Mar-Apr, not July!). I'm also used to being able to see the sand ripples, stingrays, and fish during my swim, but not in Smyrna - I could barely see my hand outstretched in front of me. This got me thinking...hhhmmmm, Smyrna is the shark-capitol of Florida, should I really be out here? I stopped periodically to make sure Andy and I didn't get too far apart. It was a rare swim for me to be that uncomfortable out in the ocean.

We also got some of the group out for a kayak. Or, should I say an attempt to paddle? This is pretty much what our group looked like during our kayak tour....bunched together, no paddling, more splashing than forward-motion, you know what I'm saying, right? There is a kayak trail in Cape Canaveral called Shipyard Island Canoe Trail. This site has a map of the canoe trail. I had hoped to find the northern entrance to the trail from JBs Fish Camp (which is where we rented kayaks and put in), but we never made it half the distance. Oh well, I'll just have to try to do the trail on another visit. But because we did goof around in the main waterways, we did get to see a number of dolphins.

We Be Diving

After two years, we finally 'got wet' again. Scuba diving, that is. We met several of our friends from Kayuba down at the Ft Lauderdale beach. There's a dive spot just due east of the NE 14th Street area that we lovingly refer to as "Kayuba Reef". It's an easy put-in for our kayaks and a short paddle out to the second reef.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for remembering how to put all my scuba gear together and in the kayak. That was until I saw the weights still sitting in the trunk of the car! Dang. We have integrated BCs (Buoyancy Control Device) with weight pockets that are hard to access once the tank is on...let alone, when everything is already on the kayak and strapped down. But, it would make it awfully difficult to dive without those weights, so I fussed around with my equipment and thought I got the weights in the pockets and secured.

After getting our gear together, the group of us paddled out, across our clear, flat ocean. Our friend Chris has a funny saying: she refers to it as "my ocean" when the chop is less than 1-2...INCHES. Yeah, we're spoiled down here! I almost forgot how beautiful it is out on our reef. As soon as we jumped in, there were schools of fish, big corals and sponges, several large angelfish, pufferfish, eels, and so much more to rediscover. And, of course, we did see our usual share of tires from the artificial reef debacle of the 1970's. Perhaps someday, and hopefully sooner than 14 years from now, we'll be able to dive without seeing these tires strewn about.

About half way thru the dive, I found myself listing to one side. I kept fidgeting with my gear until I had a "duh" moment. I checked for my weights, and yep, one fell out. Andy and I backtracked some, but decided to forget about the weight and just enjoy the rest of our dive. Since we're planning on hanging around Ft Lauderdale this summer, we should be able to get some more dives in without waiting another two years!

UPDATE: Chris posted some pictures of our kayak dive on her webalbums. I didn't take my camera that day since I figured I had enough to try and remember! Just click on the link and arrow to the right for more photos...

Ocean Fest

Another annual event that we tend to volunteer for is called Ocean Fest. Ocean Fest promotes scuba diving. There's usually several of us from our kayak-scuba club, Kayuba, that helps out during this event. This year we helped out during the Treasure Hunt, which we haven't done in prior years. The organizers throw out large metal washers (painted hot pink) into the ocean for divers to hunt for. Divers who find a 'treasure' get a prize.

Andy and I, along with three other club members, were the Kayak-Safety team. Not a hard job - we're just out in the water in case anyone needs us, and we had to try to keep divers from leaving the "treasure zone". The only 'issue' that occurred was that some of the divers didn't have dive flags (making them harder for us to see, too) and they went out past the swim buoys. This put them at risk from jet skiers and boaters, so we would just paddle alongside their bubbles to protect them in case they surfaced.

Here the divers are just entering the water:

And here are all of their dive flags bobbing in the water.

It was easy and fun - who could complain about being out on the flat ocean on such a beautiful day?!

Waterway Cleanup

Saturday was the Waterway Cleanup - one of my favorite events to participate in. Our kayak-scuba club, Kayuba, works the Bonnet House. We've had this same location for several years now. The section of the property that borders the Intercoastal Waterway is all mangroves, and all sorts of trash gets collected in the tangle of roots and branches. This is not a casual 'walk the beach' cleanup. This is hard work...

A picture of my kayak with my first load including a bar chair


Andy and Tammy unloading construction debris


One of the biggest items we found, but my camera was buried at the time, was a traffic barrier. Our common finds generally include boat cushions, construction materials, plastic bags, plastic and glass bottles, styrofoam, shoes, and the such. We only had about 10 or so volunteers this morning (at our site) which is a lot less than normal - but considering the morning started out with a thunderstorm, we can't blame people for bailing. Today we only filled up one 20-cubic yard dumpster, where last year we filled up two.

To add humor to our morning we had to maneuver our kayaks around these two mating horseshoe crabs who were using our small beach area for their rendezvous point.


I have a few more pictures at my WebAlbums.

Green Iguanas

I mentioned the other day that one of the things I missed were the wild green iguanas that we have down here in South Florida. Well, on Sunday we took our kayaks out for a little paddle down the New River and saw some. Now, the little ones are a vibrant green and they can almost disappear into the grass. The big ones that you see here are usually more orange with a black banded tail. These two were probably 3 feet long (or more!).They are really quite beautiful reptiles. A little frightening as well since they can run vertically up a concrete seawall.
Unfortunately they are feral (previous pets released into the wild) and have rapidly reproduced without any natural predators. So I can understand why same property owners don't appreciate them chowing down on their landscaping or undermining their seawalls.

If you want to read more about these critters, check out this site. I had to laugh when I recognized some of the body language we saw during our kayaking - head bobbing, hatchet mode,...yeah, I'm just happy they didn't jump on my head while I snapped a few pictures.

Besides big iguanas, we got to see the Jazz Fest from our kayaks. It was our lucky day putting our kayaks into the river on the first Sunday of the month - we didn't even plan it!

Klamath Falls, OR - Wildlife Refuge

On Saturday we took a canoe out to explore the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. We could leave directly from the dock at our campground and get right onto the canoe trail. It was nice to be on the water. If we had our own kayaks with us we would probably have gone out a couple of times. It was relaxing and reminded us of home. Well, with some slight differences...

First there were mountains on the horizon...one even still had snow...

And the pelicans were white, not brown. The white pelicans are huge - with a wingspan of almost 10 feet. Very impressive.

And, there were beaver dams...and NO alligators! We kept looking and looking, it's funny how you still look for something eventhough you know it's not there.
There are several wildlife refuges in the area, so if you like to fish, kayak, birdwatch, this is a great area to visit.

Bonita Springs, FL

We wanted to end our trip on the Gulf Coast. So on Sunday, we finally peeled ourselves away from our friends in Zolfo (we were supposed to leave Saturday) and headed southwest. Bonita Springs is just south of Ft Myers. It's about 6 miles inland, but was as close to the sand as we could get. The prices of the Florida RV parks are outrageous in the wintertime and it's a good thing we are heading home soon. We were joking that if we do get back out on the road in January, we are going to have to drive straight through the state. We're still earnestly trying to stay around $20/night, but it was harder on this trip. Partly because of our need for WIFI reduced our options.

Bonita Lake RV Park has WIFI, but it wasn't working well. They've been waiting for weeks for the repairman. Not an unfamiliar story. But at least we were able to get WIFI most of the time if we sat outside at the pool deck. Not a bad arrangement at all, actually. It was covered and had electric and there were large picnic tables to use. One night we could get WIFI in our rig by placing our Linksys Travel Router on the roof of Spirit in line-of-sight with the antennae. That was cool, too.

We went road-biking one day up Hickory Rd which runs north-south close to the beach. We rode from Bonita Beach up to Ft Myers and back. Twenty-two miles. It was pretty, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Bike lanes were only on a portion of the road, and several drivers were not very courteous when sharing the road. A dump truck that passed within inches of us shattered my already frayed nerves. In Florida they just passed a "three-foot rule" which states that drivers are required to allow three feet of space when passing bicyclists. Even three feet doesn't feel like much allowance if the car is going 50 mph. So, a "thank you" to each of you who moves out of the lane when passing a bicyclist, slows down when passing, or waits til its safe to pass for all parties involved. I know it might not mean much to some people, but it is my life. And, as Jon Bon Jovi sings, "I want to live my life while I'm alive!". So thanks again to those who share the road, and brickbats to the dump truck driver who thought the law was a "three-inch rule".

Besides the views of the waterways on our bike ride, I also enjoyed the amusing mailboxes along Hickory Road. Here's just two of the many creative ones I saw.










We went shelling at sunset...

















We went shelling via our kayaks...I can't really say we went "kayaking" because we only paddled about 3/4 of a mile before getting sidetracked with the shells. You could see them at low-tide along the shores of deserted beaches or on the sandbars.