Paddling the Blackwater River

Saturday-Monday February 21-23, 2015
Collier-Seminole State Park
Naples, Florida

 

 

SATURDAY February 21

Today we hung around the house. I collected 5000 steps walking over to and around the Royal Palm trail and the 3 campground loops. I intended to do it again later in the afternoon but didn’t. Seems like the more I lounge, the harder it is to get going again.

I thought I might do some laundry since the campground has two washers and two dryers.  So I walked over to take a look.  These machines are different than any I’ve seen in any state park. They take only credit cards. $2.25 to wash and $1.75 to dry with cold water. Credit cards-good.  Price-too high.  They also had several warning signs posted about a specific type of detergent you must use. I decided just to wait until there is a less expensive more detergent friendly option and maybe even warm water.

I sat outside in my antigravity chair to read 150 pages of Shanghai Girls which I’m enjoying. It’s the story of two sisters from 1937 until the late 1950’s. What happened in China and on the west coast of the U.S. to the Chinese at that time was unknown to me until now. This is very interesting historical fiction.   The setting and the situations are all true according to the author.  Only the main characters are fiction.

 

 

David does some of that routine maintenance that crops up every once in a while. He works on the bikes and replaces our water filters. It is just a regular day around the campground as we watch other people come and go.

This evening the campground has an ice cream social in the screen room just cattycornered from our site. We go over to take a look. They are serving $1.00 per scoop of 4 flavors of ice cream with an extra $1 for hot fudge or $3 for a root beer float. The guys seem to be getting 2 and 3 scoops. People are availing themselves of this treat in spite of the low temps. The gathering room in which it is held is screened in so they have a fire in the fireplace to encourage ice cream eating.

 

 

 

Since reading Colin Campbell’s books, The China Study a year or so ago and currently Whole aloud, we are persuaded of the connection between cancer and dairy. So if we are going to have ice cream, we do it seldom and we want it to be super duper like a chocolate malt, Bruster’s Jamaica Me Crazy or No Way Jose from Beaches and Cream at Disneyworld.

 

 

 

 

 

SUNDAY February 22

 

We made an exception today regarding leaving the park on week-ends. We have a couple of errands to run and decide not to use up our fewer people hiking and kayaking days during the week for these. So today we hit the grocery store to the tune of $70 and Lowe’s got $80 from us for a new bike cover and 5 floor register covers. The original ones are that brass plated stuff that look terrible after 10 years. Big improvement we think.

 

 

 

This Sunday like most I call my father in Denver to listen to him complain at 95 that he’s not still in Florida. He says it is too cold in Denver but since he never goes outside and it’s at least 80 inside his apartment I’m not sure why he’s worried about the weather. He’s in a very nice place and is well taken care of and that’s what matters.

As you know, we are not TV watchers but we do make exceptions for The Biggest Loser and for Downton Abby. How’s that for two very different choices. TBL is over for the season but Downton is not. Because of the unpredictable TV signal in the places we stay we sometimes are and often aren’t able to get either one of them. For TBL we’re out of luck if we’re out of range but we solved the Downton problem by just buying Season 5. At $26 for the complete DVD that turns out to be $3 every Sunday evening and includes popcorn. Best deal going for a movie.

 

 

MONDAY February 23

 

Today take the kayaks down and launch into the boat basin to follow the canal to the Blackwater River.  The winds had died down but the tides had become difficult.  That only matters because we wanted to go to mud bay which we were told you can only do at high tide.   Today high tide was at 4:43AM and at 4:40 PM.  One too early and one too late since is is over an hour paddle just to get there.   So instead we follow the Blackwater River Paddle Trail.

This may be somewhat confusing for folks who have visited Florida and stayed in the Blackwater River State Park and kayaked the Blackwater there which is a 56 mile river coming in from Alabama and flowing through the Florida Panhandle to the Gulf of Mexico.  

 

This Blackwater River originates in the Collier Seminole State Park and meanders several miles through the mangroves to Blackwater Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands.   Why does one state has two rivers on opposite ends with the same name?  I couldn’t find anyone to answer that question.  But this Blackwater is a mangrove river and the other one is not.   That becomes important in our day.

We put in at the boat basin and head down the canal built in the time of Collier to reach the Royal Palm Hammock.   You can tell as soon as you reach the river because  the canal is perfectly straight and the river turns and wanders.

 

 

We saw this Great Blue Heron in the mangrove roots along the canal and took that as an omen of a good birding day.

The first picture shows how far away I really was from the heron.  I love that I have a zoom lens so I can see him up close and get pictures without bothering him.   I use my camera as binoculars so I don’t have so many things around my neck.  The only draw back is the field of vision is so much more narrow but my zoom is much greater so it’s a trade off

 

 

 

The park’s marked trail leads down the river to and through some of the Ten thousand Islands.  To do it all is really an overnight paddle.  We are only going to be out for about 3 hours today.

 

 

The markers are easy to spot and we soon find that there are often two ways to go at a marker point.   This one says Turn left.  Since we aren’t in a hurry and are really going nowhere, we turn right to explore the wrong way.

 

At first this arm is just like the river going the other direction.

 

 

 

David spies the raccoon along the bank in the mangrove roots. 

 

The mangrove tree crabs are everywhere.  You don’t really notice them until the first time you do and then you spot them everywhere.  See how many you can spot in this picture.

 

 

I’m able to get these close ups first of the front of a crab and then the back of another one.  They look like something out of a science fiction movie.   I assume the knobby things on the front are his eyes.  His back and legs are quite decorative.  They are about the size of a quarter.

 

 

 

 

As we  expected, the waterway becomes narrower and narrower. The mangroves are lower. It gets darker.

 

 

 

 

 

The more we go the tighter the tunnels get until it is difficult to use the kayak paddles without taking them apart. In some places we are using the mangrove roots to pull ourselves along. All the while the tide is picking up its pace trying to move us along.

 

 

Finally we come to a little hidden mud bay all its own.  No way to paddle in there.  David is in the lead.  He’s gotten himself turned around already and waits on the left in the tannin colored water.

 

 

 

Way over on the far side I see one lone occupant who appears, as far as we can see, to have it all to himself.  Definitely a nice spot.   The quiet is almost deafening. My ears can’t believe it.  Not even a plane. 

 

 

 

 

For me now, the trick now is to get turned around.  In his 12’ kayak David has an easier time than I do in my 13.5’ especially with that tide going in toward the ibis.

 

After much forward  and back, muttering under my breath, and using roots to get unstuck from the roots, finally I’m on my way back to the trail marker.  Along the way I see what I assume are barnacles on many of the roots and some of the low branches of the mangroves.

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the river, we paddle on to the next marker.  

 

 

Because David got turned around more easily and didn’t stop to ponder barnacles, he arrives at the marker first and because he wants to go the opposite way again, he waits at the marker for me.

 

 

While he’s hanging around he notices eyes in the cracks of the marker pole.   He tells me to come look.

 

 

It’s a mangrove tree crab.  Now how did he get here and what will he eat or how will he get back?  All these questions cause me to learn a little more about these guys before posting this.  What I learn is  they are one of only two species of crabs that climb trees. By digging in with its sharp claws, the mangrove tree crab can cling to tree bark as well as to wooden docks and pilings. The crabs dine on leaves and insect larvae in the trees. When threatened, they flee to the water, where they select from a different menu of food.   So the answer may be that he swam here.  Amazing.

 

 

Again we go the opposite way from the trail arrow.  But instead of the pathway getting narrower and narrower it is an easy paddle which opens into a hidden lake.

 

 

We travel across the lake and find the exit and take it down another shorter path and then into a smaller lake from which there is no exit that you could go into and still sit up in your kayak.  LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By now we’re thinking of how far we have to go back and what time it will be when we get there.  Time to turn around.   We take that opportunity to do a sort of selfie.  Happy paddlers for sure!

 

 

 

It’s just wonderful, alone in the quiet on a mangrove river.   And it’s February.  What a life!

 

 

You can see from the two pictures which follow that the river and its dark mangrove covering is much different than the channel to the boat basin with its mangrove sides and open skies.

 

 

 

Because the tide is coming in now we can actually let it carry us along a bit of the way back.  We could have let it take us all the way back probably.   It isn’t as far as we thought when we see the boat basin come into view. 

 

 

 

 

Though the wildlife was scarce, We’ve had a great time on a beautiful day. We’re still planning to try to get out and paddle to mud lake, however, if it’s anything like today, we may not get that far.  <grin>  

But the fun is in the journey not just the destination!

 

 

THE END!

The Resident Red Shouldered and Panther Territory

Wednesday February 18-Thursday February 19, 2015
Collier Seminole State Park
Naples, Florida

 

Note:  I had written two posts about our days this past week.   I mistakenly posted the most recent before this one (dreams of getting caught up).  So now they are out of order. No biggie probably to anyone but me.  Anyway, if you read about the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, you read about Friday.  This post is about the two days  before that.  Confused yet? 

 

WEDNESDAY

 

It rained all night last night and this morning.

 

We stay inside where David cooks breakfast and does the clean up to encourage me to read aloud Colin Campbell’s latest book entitled Whole.  It’s an eye opening expose on our government and medical establishments as regards our health and what they’ve told us is “good for us”.

 

 

When the rain stops we take another hike around the Royal Palm Hammock trail.  If you missed the first one it was in yesterday’s post which you can find by clicking “older” at the bottom of this page.

I’m assuming that some of the palms with missing tops lost them in Hurricane Charley 2004 which did a great deal of damage nearly destroying the tall Royal Palms.  But clearly some woodpeckers have been putting these topless trees to good use.  Nature is a cradle to cradle system making use of absolutely everything.  We would do well to emulate.

 

 

 

Back at the slough overlook things are happening.  Lots of them are obviously on the ground but what I can see from this spot is primarily in the air.   Most of it is white great and snowy egrets as well as great and little blue herons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t resist adding more pictures of these gorgeous royal palms and their decorative trunks, home to epiphytes and lichens of all types and colors.  I want to be reminded of how much I enjoy them.

 

 

 

Now can you see the rings on the trunk as it gets near the royal green Judy?

 

Back at the ranch what has turned out to possibly be our resident red shouldered hawk flies in and lands on the site post opposite us.  Amazing that he isn’t bothered by all this activity and so many vehicles.   He’s so strikingly handsome.

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY

 

Today we drive over to hike the 3.5 mile hike.  It’s about a mile and a quarter walk over but the ranger recommends we not walk on Route 41 although after we’ve driven I think we could have.

Here in far southwest Florida we are in Panther territory.  I am thrilled to see this map which shows breeding and roaming territories in Florida although I know there are only 80 to 100 panthers remaining in the wild.  They are one of the most rare and endangered mammals on Earth.  Too many are hit on roads where people should be driving slower.  The speed on Route 41 here is 45 mph at night but I’m betting few people honor it.  It makes me sad to think of a world with no panthers as it does to think about a world with no Rhinoceros as I highlighted in a post read by the fewest of my readers ever two days ago. Very disappointing.

 

 

The trail today is simply called the 3.5 mile trail.  Catchy name isn’t it?   The most exciting thing of the walk happens less than a mile down the trail.

 

There lying in the sun is a diamond backed rattlesnake keeping his/her eyes on us but looking as though there might be digestion of dinner going on.   He’s about 4’ long and has simply gorgeous markings.   I’m taking these photos from a safe distance thanks to my camera zoom lens but look at that face and rattle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flowers aren’t too bothered by the cold nights in the 30’s we’ve been having as is evidenced by those we see along the rest of the trail.

 

 

 

Approaching the end of the 3.5 miles, we come to swamp ponds on both sides of the road.  At first glance it looks like a log there floating on top but a closer zoom shows the alligator.  Can you even see him in the non zoomed picture?   He’s on the right in the back facing away from us.

 

 

 

 

On the other side of the trail is a lovely spot with some beautiful bromeliads decorating a branch over the water.  You couldn’t create a landscape like this if you wanted to.

 

 

As most of you know on Friday we went a whole 3 miles away to the 10000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge.  If you missed the great birds in that post you can read it here.   So far this week the winds have been too strong for kayaking the water trail but winds or not it will be in the next post.