Upstream Reflections

Wednesday April 12, 2017                                                                       Most Recent Posts:
Faver-Dykes State Park                                                       Pellicer Creek, the Heart of Faver-Dykes
St. Augustine Florida                                                                    Nice Surprise at Faver-Dykes

 

 

I’m going back in time a week or so to post about our last day at Faver-Dykes and in Florida.  David joined me on Pellicer Creek this time heading up stream to see how far we could go.

 

The water was calm and the reflections outstanding.  The tide was low unlike my previous post about paddling down stream when the tide was way up and coming in fast.

 

We’d hardly set out when we paddled by the park’s fishing dock at the picnic area and found only one fisherman checking things out. 

 

 

Sometimes it’s hard to take it all in while paddling.  There are things to see on the shoreline, things to see in the water including the fabulous reflections today.  But I have to remember to look up as well.

There are non wading, non swimming birds in the trees like this Osprey. It is just so amazing that he can see the fish he’s looking for from the tip top of this snag.   Wish I had his eyesight.  Even my 50X zoom can’t match him.

 

 

 

Further along I caught another kingfisher in a similar snag.  Their chatter when they fly often alerts me to them and I can follow and see where they land.

 

 

Not sure this is the pelican from yesterday but it could be since he was hanging around the only cluster of houses we paddled by.

 

 

 

I was really lucky to have looked up and seen the bald eagle only a minute or so before he flew away.  Talk about eyes, he has them.  He was on top of the massive electric tower we always call Ready Kilowatt.

 

I didn’t want to paddle so the best I could do is float underneath him and zoom in.  Wish I could have gotten rid of the wires.  But he’s still pretty majestic. 

 

Taken just before he flew off.  I’ve got some very blurry shots of him winging away.

 

These are some of my favorite pictures of the day and their beauty belies the fact that they were taken not far from the I 95 interstate bridge we went under.  The noise was a serious contrast to the visual beauty.

 

With my paddle

And without. 
Your choice.

 

This will be us tomorrow as we cross this I-95 bridge heading north.

 

 

At the last minute, this cormorant decided he didn’t want to share space under the bridge with me.

 

On the western side of the bridge the eco system changes from Salt Marsh to Maritime Forest.  Palms overhang the water.

 

 

Not much further on it begins to narrow.

 

The reflections give the creek an even more jungle like appearance. 

 

 

Around a corner we come to the only other campground I’ve seen on the Creek.  This one is private and called Pellicer Campground.  It has a boat dock and appears to be off of Route 1.

 

We head on past the campground as the creek gets narrower and narrower.  This is the part I really like but by this point we are running out of time.   Darn!  

 

 

I starting thinking about how I can get back up here without having to paddle so far from the park.  Where to put the kayaks in is the question closer to this upper part of the creek.  Not only did I not see any other campgrounds along the creek but no other put ins than the ones at the two campgrounds.

I hope Pellicer Campground will allow us to launch from there for a fee.  That would be great.

We turn around and head back.  David in the lead this time.

 

 

Once we get out into the open, we pull off for a break before the long stretch back to Faver-Dykes.

 

 

It’s a great spot which I noticed on the way up but further investigation shows that it would be a fine put in and has a dirt road leading to it.  Now if we could just discover how to get to the dirt road.   Might be someone’s private property of course.

Wish we’d done this paddle earlier in our stay so we would have had time to investigate but we were only here for a week and we leave tomorrow.   Something to return for.

 

 

Paddling back by the small group of houses after going under I95, there is that pelican again or one of his relatives.  He takes off right into my camera just as I’m trying to get a close up of him.

 

 

Wow is his wing span huge.  He must have amazing muscles to flap those things.

 

We arrive back in the salt marsh to end our last paddle in Florida for this year.  Tomorrow we’re back on the road.