Shell Point, Florida (south of Tallahassee on the Gulf Coast)
March 14 - 21
Lois & I met up with a group of friends in Shell Point: Henry and Bonnie Eckhardt who have a second home in the T.C. area, Harold Lassers from the Chicago area (and TAPC member), Leigh Baker from Texas (we met her on a previous paddle trip in Florida), and Jocelyn Trepte, our usual travelling companion. The houses we rented were spacious modular homes which were a little run down.
All the rivers in Florida were high because of the cool wet winter, so we got a chance to run the upper sections of some interesting rivers that normally would not be available. Most of the streams in this part of Florida are blackwater rivers, so named because their waters are stained brown by the swamps they drain.
The Econfina River, the upper Aucilla, and the upper Sopchoppy had current that was running at about 4 mph. This would normally be great except the water was flowing through a dense forest, and you often couldn’t tell where the river ended and the forest began. It tested everyone’s skills and we had a couple of capsizes. The temperature was in the mid 60’s to low 70’s, so it wasn’t a big deal. Because the weather had been so cool, we did not see as much wildlife as on previous trips. Just the same, the people who capsized in the swamp were happy they hadn’t just seen an alligator. We did manage to spot a couple, but they were few and far between.
We also paddled the Wakulla River which is spring fed and very clear. We saw a few birds and caught a glimpse of a couple of manatees.
On one rainy day we toured the Tallahassee Natural History Museum and Leon Sinks Natural Area. We also biked the St. Marks Bike Trail which runs from Tallahassee to St. Marks on the coast. Biking in Florida in the spring is great. There are lots of wonderful paved bike trails which are meticulously maintained, and they are flat which is great if you haven’t been on a bike in four months. The one problem we all had was that we rode for a couple of hours, worked up an appetite, ate too much for lunch, and then had trouble riding back to the starting point.
Written by John Heiam