Peace River Paynes Creek Historic State Park

January 4th 2014

We decided to take our first trip of the year on a section of the Peace River we haven't traveled yet.  The put-in at Paynes Creek Historic State Park is less than an hour from home for us.  We checked in at the ranger station, drove past the Visitor Center/museum and made our way to the dirt road that would take us to the river.  It was a bit of a drive down the dirt road until we reached a locked gate that we also had to lock behind us until we finally made it to the river.

It was overcast and in the upper 60's.  Not ideal weather for me but with pants and long sleeves I managed.  The river was flowing swiftly.  We ran into a couple other paddlers who were heading downstream but we only had one vehicle so we decided to go upstream.  The Peace was...peaceful.  Not much out there except a few Little Blue Herons, a glimpse of a hooded merganser and a Great Blue Heron or two.  We passed a couple fossil hunters standing in the water not even up to their knees sifting through the rocky riverbed looking for Megalodon teeth perhaps.  The River is a bit dry now and fossil hunting is excellent; a really fun activity with kids and no kayak or boat needed at the Gardner boat ramp.

Limestone formations are abundant on the river bottom and it is also present in certain areas as cliffs or shelves on the riverbanks.  We came upon what looked like a giant slab of concrete but turned out to be a natural giant slab of limestone.

We passed under a bridge, Lake Branch Rd in Bowling Green I believe.  We ran into some shoals that I was not able to cross in the water.  There was a small island  to the right with a very narrow rivulet of water running beside it; also not possible to cross as it was not deep nor wide enough.  The shoals were an intense swirl of rushing water down some limestone formations crashing into a jutting palm tree at the base of the shoals.  I was nervous already thinking about going down them on the way back.  My husband did try to cross over them in the water on the way up but didn't make it either.  I had tried to cut across them to get to the island on the other side of them and it was the first time I nearly tipped my kayak.  When I hit the rushing water jetting towards me I counterbalanced on the wrong side and my cockpit dipped rapidly into the water scooping up a bucket full or so.  I got my balance back but the water was cold and my seat was pretty wet the rest of the trip despite my constant sponging efforts.

Crossing the island.  I can't really carry my kayak by myself but I can drag it.  This is the view of the calm side of the shoals.

Not much wildlife on the River, at least not what we are used to seeing when we go out in the Real Florida.  It is still a nice trip with plenty to look at.  The twists and turns of the Peace are interesting as you wonder what lies around each bend.  Don't forget to bring a screen or shovel though as we paddled over some really shallow water that I wanted to grab and sift through to take some shark's teeth home to the boys.  The current was going a little too swiftly and the water was a little too cold for me to dip my hands further than my elbow from the cockpit though and I missed my chance a couple times just grazing the rocky bottom.

What's around the bend?

A waterfall in Florida?  This reminded me of Gatlinburg, TN and is across the shore from the second bridge we crossed under and stopped for lunch.  There was absolutely no pulling the kayaks over this and even if we managed to go in the woods and get them over we still had to deal with it coming back down.  There was a narrow creek winding off to the left of this shoal that my hubby went to explore.  He said it did connect back to the river but was so overgrown we could not get through.  We stopped on the bank and ate our packed lunch sitting on a large limestone shelf.  

The ranger gave us a map, you really don't need one but I did use my Garmin Dakota to track the distance we actually went.  One way was 2.3 miles which is really not much for us.  We turned back at the 'waterfall' and I didn't take any more pictures because I had secured the camera tightly in my dry bag for fear of the thrilling shoals ahead.  I got through that shoal so fast I didn't even have time to say 'wheeeee' like I normally do :)  I was too afraid of crashing the front of my kayak into the sharply angled palm tree with accompanying cyclone of water in the River.  Back at the Visitor Center we checked out the small 'museum' like interior about the Fort and Native Americans in the area in the past.  We also took a small walk out to the Fort site (just a site with Golden Asters experiment and an American flag, no fort) which was a nice, short walk.

Peace River Paddling Maps:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/designated_paddle/Peace_guide.pdf

Cumberland Island

     I should be writing some C++ code but decided to take a break to continue backlogging past adventures.  Also, I am sad that I didn't go kayaking this past weekend - combination of stomach viral bug in the family and too cold/windy anyway.  We did make it to the MOSI Festival of Chocolate which was a blast - but that is another story for another day.  My husband and I took a mini vacation in November to Fernandina Beach, Florida intent on paddling to Cumberland Island.

      Fernandina is a lovely little town full of quaint Bed and Breakfasts.  Many of our trips are planned spur of the moment, so I had spent a couple days ahead of time trying to pull up websites and call said B and B's but the Internet was down in Fernandina the day I tried to make my calls..so many of the B and B sites were not up.  Eventually I decided on a local Hampton Inn.  We were pleasantly surprised that the Hampton had unique touches that made it seem a little less 'hotel-ish'.  The entrance had a spiral staircase and was jubilantly decorated for the season.  The breakfast area on the second floor had a 'seaside' theme and view of the pool.  Our room had a fireplace and a giant whirlpool jet tub.

     We set out on the first morning with a snack lunch I had packed the night before on the shore near Fort Clinch State Park. It was a cold, foggy morning.  I am not a fan of cold weather.  I had a tough semester of school which wasn't even finished at the point we took this trip, so I had not been out paddling in some time. My arms tired quickly and my husband asked to pull me across the channel to the island.  For the first time since we have been together, I agreed.  He enjoyed the exercise and I enjoyed the free ride and the chance to get some bird pictures.

 

  He accidentally passed the opening he intended to paddle up and we approached a building known as the Ice House.  We pulled ashore and I realized I did not have proper attire for this outing.  I am still searching for women's quick dry pants to wear kayaking..turns out they are not so easy to find.  I had cotton capri type pants and my croc sandals.  Next time I visit the island, I will bring a change of shoes.  Cold weather and wet sand in between your toes while doing lots of walking around an island is not pleasant.  My whining aside, we went inside the Ice House to escape the chilly wind and read up on some history of the island and the ruins.  I remember that ruins on the island were previously established by part of the Carnegie family..but I don't remember much else of the history.  It is fascinating however and there is a lot of information to be found about the island.

     We walked to the ruins and several other groups of families were roaming about the island, presumably having come over on the ferry.  My husband really wanted to show me the horses so we kept our eyes peeled but never did see a single horse.  My husband has been to the island several times and never NOT seen a horse, so I guess I was just unlucky.  I definitely plan on going back one day.  We walked on a nice boardwalk trail and also to the beach, which was quite cold.  I did see several bird species on the island, including an Eastern Towhee which had not been marked off my sighting list.  It was making a ruckus with its mate in the underbrush and despite crawling on my belly and snapping a dozen pictures, not one came out as distinguishable.

     The water was like glass on the paddle back to Fernandina and the temperature had dropped as well.  We stopped on one of the shores of the island across an inlet to look for some shark's teeth to bring home for the boys.  We found a handful and several interesting shells.

     That evening we took a stroll through downtown Fernandina which was walking distance from our hotel.  I used TripAdvisor to determine our eating destination for the night and settled on Lulu's at Thompson House.  It was basically a large detached garage of an adjacent historical home.  There was a small indoor seating area and two enclose outdoor porch areas with heat lamps.  I decided on the outdoor seating with the heat turned all the way up.  The food was delicious.  We had calamari, shrimp with fried grit cake and tasso sauce and a creamy pasta and shrimp dish that I don't recall the name of.  Afterwards, we wandered about to the tiny boutiques that lined the streets and wandered into a unique shop called Lemongrass.  My hubby bought me a beautiful casual belted trench coat by a company called SuperDry.

     Overall, it was a great trip and break from the kids.  I loved the freedom to roam the island as we please and that is one of my favorite aspects of kayaking - the ability to get to places that often seem untouched by others.  For the less adventurous, you can take the ferry and I suppose there are probably tour guides for the  island as well.  I am not knocking tours or guides - but I like to do things my own way most of the time.

Peace River Fossil Hunting Part II

It has been way too long since I have posted anything and I have a resolution to become better about that.  I still have lots of adventures to share.  This one is from just a couple days ago.  It has been fairly dry around here and this is the best season to go to the Peace to look for shark's teeth and such.  We decided to take a friend and his son kayaking and fossil seeking with us.  We called an outfitter on the River in the area to try to rent a kayak for our friend.  They weren't equipped/flexible enough to help us with what we needed, which was basically a kayak at the Gardner boat ramp that we could use for a half a day.  Also, she told us the Peace was very dried up in that area..which we found hilarious when we actually got to our destination (and not true).  We finally found an outfitter to help us out.  Off the Wall Adventures in Lakeland rented us a kayak for the day that we picked up with our own trailer.  John and I have our own kayaks, and we put our two boys and their friend on our Ocean Duo tandem.

Our friend with his son at the launch point

It was cold when we got up - 40 something degrees in Lakeland.  Normally way too cold for me to venture out, but the forecast called for upper 60s and no wind, so I decided to layer up and make the best of it.  I spent the night before at Sports Authority looking for quick dry pants for women - not to be found.  Apparently all they carry is running/exercise gear.  I ended up borrowing a pair from my husband that I wore with my board shorts.  A combination of too many Christmas cookies on my part and my husband being trim and fit meant the pants almost fit me.  A quick dry, long sleeve turtle neck, quick dry long sleeve button down, hat and sunglasses covered me up sufficiently to keep my cold weather whining to a minimum.  The kids are pretty hardy.  My oldest is going through some tough guy phase or something and it can be fifty degrees out but he swears 'It is not cold'.  We made him wear a sweatshirt.  

It was our friends first time on a kayak so my husband provided a little bit of instruction.  We put my oldest in the back and my youngest in the middle and their friend at the front of the tandem so he could get his first paddling experience as well.  We launch from a boat ramp that we call the Gardner Boat Ramp but you can't find 'Gardner' in most GPS - officially it is located in Zolfo Springs, FL.  The road going down to the ramp is called River Road.  It's on South 17.  There is a field of ever changing crops - at least the few times I have been I have seen squash, dried up crops, and this time it looked just like an empty field.  There is a concrete boat ramp but also a big, sandy beach perfect for launching kayaks.  

Ready to go!

We paddle upstream a short distance to an inlet on the right called Charley's Creek.  The current was moving at a decent pace.  The water was a little higher than we expected, especially after the nearby outfitter told us it was dry.  My husband kept an eye on the kids and made adjustments a few times.  My oldest and youngest quibble often, even while paddling blaming one or the other if they go off course.  I heard and saw a Belted Kingfisher, but couldn't get a picture.  A beautiful hawk was perched atop a skeleton tree.  Warblers flitted about.  I was at the front of our party and I could see ahead in the distance a group of cows on the banks to the right, and a group of them standing in the water.  Every once in awhile, a cow would appear from the top of the bank and run down a hill, chasing off the other cows.  The location is so remote and beautiful.

We put my youngest in front in the middle of the way up the Creek.  He really gets into the paddling. 

The 'island' I like to stop and look for shark's teeth and fossils had a large cow residing on the banks.  He made me a little nervous so I asked my husband to go ahead of me.  We ended up paddling a bit past the cow to the next bank to get out.  Eventually the cow moved on..I didn't actually see where he went.  We spent  some time digging in the gravel with my husband's home made screening systems.  We are both fans of gold rush so we pretended like we were miners. 

I always pack a lunch for our kayaking day trips.  Since we had guests, I packed extra food.  Hard boiled eggs, peanut butter, apple slices, pretzel chips, cheddar cheese, clementines, oatmeal raisin cookies, goldfish crackers, and several different types of snack bars and Z bars for the kids.  We found a wonderful little picnic spot high up on the bank, a flat grassy area.  The presence of cows was obvious with all the cow patties around..other than that, it was a wonderful sunny spot to sit and eat.  We watched some white pelicans flying high overhead and warmed up in the heat, temps getting up to the 60s finally.

The trip back downstream to the beach is much easier since it goes with the flow of the current.  You can just float downstream if you want.  As we loaded the kayaks up to go back downstream we noticed one of the kids' paddles was missing.  We couldn't find it for anything..so I took the kid watch on the trek downstream while my husband kept his eyes peeled for the missing paddle.  He found it downstream stuck in some branches so we lectured our kids about responsibility.  My oldest paddled solo downstream because of the missing paddle.  All in all, it was a wonderful, clear day, hardly any wind and despite the cold start, warmed up nicely.  We found a decent amount of small shark's teeth and a very interesting looking tooth we guess to be a horse tooth.  Still on the hunt for the giant megalodon tooth!

Peace River Fossil Hunting

What a great trip with the kids!  We put-in at the Gardner boat ramp on the Peace River.  John and I took our singles and the boys took the tandem. 

The river is pretty wide and the current is not too swift for the half mile upstream paddle to Charley's Creek, the place to find all the fossils. 

The high banks are a good place to stop for lunch.  Watch out for fire ants and keep an eye out for other wildlife.  

John made us screens to filter through the gravel at the bottom of the creek bed with materials from Lowe's.   They worked perfectly.  We used the boy's beach shovels to scoop up the gravel and sift through the screens.  We found lots and lots of small shark's teeth.  We are still looking for a Megalodon tooth.  This trip was done in January based on the photograph dates..I do recall another trip we made to this exact location before when it was during rainy season and the creek was too flooded to do this.  We saw a huge cow in the water and a floating ant colony..also the water was moving much faster. 

The creek is shallow enough to let the boys wander and explore..they had so much fun looking for fossils.  We can't wait to go back when the water gets lower again.

Chipola River and Tallahassee Trip

This post is being pulled from my distant memory.  We made a trip to North Florida last November to explore some new waterways.  We stayed in Tallahassee at the Governor's Inn..interesting finding parking downtown with the kayaks on the roof of the truck..but the valet managed it.  On the day of our arrival we stopped at Maclay Gardens for a beautiful stroll, even if it was a bit cold.

  We set out early on the next morning seeking an area near Natural Bridge.  It was brisk and chilly so I wore long sleeves and a kayak shirt John gave me..it warmed up quickly though as I paddled.  The location was remote and it was a nice paddle.  

Day two on my agenda was to visit Marianna Caverns and paddle from the State Park on the Chipola River.  In the Summer, we had taken the boys to the Smoky Mountains and everyone had a blast looking for salamanders.  I was delighted to find one underground in Florida in the caverns.

The Chipola River was gorgeous and even showing Fall colors - a rarity in Florida, especially Central Florida where we live.  But, this was North Florida in November..a tad too cold for us honestly though you warm up while paddling.

I am an avid bird watcher and even though I have seen lots of pied billed grebes there was something fun about watching this little cutie swim in front of our kayaks. 

Another part of this trip included a visit to St. Marks.  It was a birder's paradise there.  I ran into more bird fans that knew more about birds and had bigger lenses for their cameras than I did.

I freaked out when I saw the Shovelers..was first time I have seen them in the wild.  Also, I was pretty sure the two small ones were Green Winged Teals but one of the other birding experts told me it was too early for them to be here.  I consulted my bird books when I got home and still believe I was correct. 

Admittedly, I took more bird pictures than anything else.  I am still learning to use my Canon Rebel EOS digital SLR and these were taken with a zoom lens.  I didn't use a tripod..I am too active and moving around constantly for that..so the images are more blurry than the ones I take with my short lens and image stabilizer.  I have to take a dozen photos to get one to come out the way I like it. 

There was an abundance of monarchs.  We saw some with sticker tags on their wings; they are part of some tracking program.  Looking back at this picture now and knowing more about butterflies than I did then, I also see some sort of skipper on the edge of this picture.

The last paddle of our trip was at Econfina River State Park on the way home from North Florida.  The water levels were low and we had to pass through several areas of exposed limerock in certain spots..nerve wracking in kayaks you don't want to scratch. 

We paddled past lots of houses on the water and several otters swimming about.  They weren't too shy but I have heard about otter attacks so I keep my distance.