Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

 

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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.

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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.

South Creek Kayak & Casey Key Beach 007

 

 

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.

 

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

 

South Creek Kayak & Casey Key Beach 013 

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.

 

 

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Carrie catches this Green Heron perched over her head.

2 - mystery birdA

 

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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.

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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.

11 comments:

  1. SO very nice to have Carrie visiting. It's so much better to have someone to share your paddling fun with while David gets on with the business of getting better. :c)

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  2. This was a great paddle - so glad my green heron made the post :) And, there are 7 pictures of me in this blog - I'm famous!!!

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  3. Nice paddle. Love seeing you and Carrie out doing things you love. Hope David gets his rest and can join you soon. But in the meantime, keep having fun:o)))

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  4. We did walk a longer way this afternoon and it was a bit long for old Carl, he almost hurled & breathing was labored. Have to really watch him and not go too late when it is warmer out, early morn is best, will alternate the shorter and longer until he gets used to it again. He is such a wuss!
    I want to learn to kayak. Have looked at those eagle ones, i think from a site you sent to me :)

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  5. Looks like it was a very very nice paddle!

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  6. I'm sure you're enjoying Carrie's company on these peaceful paddles while David rests; I'm sorry to hear that his back pain continues to bother him.

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  7. Looks like a fabulous paddle. How nice to be able to spend some quality mother-daughter time too.

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  8. Looks peaceful! I hope Uncle Dave can get some good sleep soon :(

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  9. I'm very happy that my nap allowed you two a special paddle experience together. I was just not up to getting out the Sea Eagle and putting it away on top of a paddle outing. The nap did get me ready for the afternoon beach trip and evening of drumming down the sun over the Gulf, which I was also very happy about! ;)

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  10. Love the pics - looks like Carrie's visit was good! Love the pic of you two on the beach. :)

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  11. Lately I've been reading some bloggers who are posting about blogging, how to do it well etc. Some sort of make fun that bloggers claim they don't care if anyone reads their posts since it's just really for them and family and friends. But then they say none of their family or friends actually read or they don't comment. And that most comments are made by people they've never met.

    This blog enables me to say that almost half of my commenters ARE my family and the others are my friends both they I have met them kind and the I haven't met them YET. Thanks to those Boyds out there and all the non Boyds who follow along. I admit to caring that you are there and about what you have to say.

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