South Creek Paddle

Wednesday May 2, 2012
Oscar Scherer State Park site #95

 

One of the best pictures on this paddle is the one I didn’t take.

 

Those who have been following us for some time know that we have two hard sided kayaks, a wilderness Cape Lookout 135 and a Necky 1200.   We also have a Sea Eagle 370 which is an inflatable boat.

 

 

 

We mostly use the hard sided ones especially in places with low water, oyster beds or coral.  We use the Sea Eagle two seater kayak when either I want to lounge and let David do the paddling, which unfortunately can’t happen much anymore, or when there are 3 or 4 folks who want to paddle.  Usually then we take the Sea Eagle and give them our hard sided boats.  Folks who don’t paddle a lot seem to feel more secure in them.

 

 

 

 

 

Like her dad, Carrie likes to paddle into and under things.

 

 

In Florida this year it has been too dry to use the Sea Eagle in the low rivers or Carrie and I might well have taken it out.  Today while David naps after another night of poor sleep, Carrie and I take the other two boats out onto South creek which flows right by our campsite.    We intend to launch  right off the site which is what David and I did the last time we were here.    But David is sleeping laid all the way back in his anti gravity chair which is right next to the picnic table and leaves us no room to move the kayaks from the car to the river without stepping over him.   Neither of us is THAT tall.

Wish I’d gotten a picture of our logistical dilemma there.
But we solve it by carrying each kayak down 6 sites to an open one and launching from there.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
J

 

The creek runs a long way through the park.

 

 

It gets narrower and narrower as it goes east.  We go West and at first the creek is slow, dark and narrow.  Then it gets wider and wider as it moves toward its mouth and empties into Blackburn Bay on the back side of Casey Key.

 

 

 

 

The dark creek opens into blue sky wider river looking water.

 

 

 

We leave the park and paddle toward the bridge taking folks down the Tamiami Trail to the Everglades.

 

 

After crossing under the Trail we paddle around through some water front neighborhoods but this is a tidal river;  high tide was a few hours ago and the river is picking up speed, so is the  wind and we have to paddle back.  So we skip going all the way to the Bay and turn ourselves around.

 

 

 

 

 

The trip back through the open water requires pretty strong paddling. 

When we reach the Park sign, we are happy to see the creek and anticipate the narrower quieter waters.

 

 

 

 

Carrie catches this Green Heron perched over her head.

 

 

This time we paddle up to the river side of site 95 and find David is up and not in his chair so we take out right there and don’t have to carry the kayaks back down the road.  Thumbs up to that.

 

We’re back in time for lunch and to gather up our beach things and head to Nokomis Beach for the afternoon.
Tonight is the Wednesday Drumming down the sun.
This is going to be a very full day for us.