Tuesday April 2, 2013
Site 28, O’Leno State Park
High Springs, Florida
Ichetucknee River is a definite MKP
Today was one of the highlights of our time here. Kayaking the Ichetucknee was the second of the things I particularly wanted to do while at O’Leno State Park. The first was see the River Sink and River Rise which we did. On Thursday, we came over to Ichtucknee to see what was the tubing/kayaking situation. If you didn’t see that introduction to this park, perhaps you’d like to. If so, click here.
We drive over to the south side of the park and put in at the foot of the park’s portion of the river. We’re going to paddle up stream to the Northern end, stop at the top and float back down. I know this is going to be a fantastic paddle when I see a manatee in the grasses just beyond where we are putting in. I had no idea there were manatee in the Ichetucknee. Now this is even more My Kind of Place (An MKP).
More amazing trees.
We aren’t very far up the river when we pass by one of the largest cypress we’ve ever seen. We wonder if this one is even older than the one whose section we saw in the CCC museum. 700+ years?? The paddle upstream is not difficult and one of the most beautiful I have ever seen,
Kudos to the park service.
As we pass by Dampiers landing we notice that the park service boat has a cage around the propeller just like we had talked about wishing was a law in Florida on all their rivers to protect the manatee.
This dock is one the tubers can use to get back in the water and float down. What a beautiful spot
More enormous trees. It is just amazing to me. So many.
On up the river we approach Mid Point landing, the half way point from top to bottom on the river. Another lovely spot for launching into the river.
David disappears from in front of me
Soon I see he has turned into a side stream. I turn to follow him and discover he has located one of the other 7 springs that feed the Ichetucknee. In fact there are 2 or 3 little springs here. One flows laughingly down the bank and the other two bubble up from the small circular spring head. The current put out by these little boils is amazingly strong.
This paddle continues to be outstanding.
Very fine Lunch spot.
We reach the dock at the top of the park’s portion of the river where some kayakers and all tubers put in. We really haven’t seen another soul all morning. We decide to have lunch here. We can sit on the steps and enjoy the quiet.
David’s apple jumps out of his lunch box and he has to go hunting for it so it doesn’t fall in the river.
Just as we are taking this picture of our nice lunch spot, down the steps come the first people of the day. But it is about 1:00 so I’m not surprised even though it is a Thursday. This is still Spring Break month. We’ve already had a wonderful quiet and awe inspiring trip up the river.
We begin our float back down. This is just marvelous. Look at the grasses in the water. Where are the manatee?? They would love this.
Today is definitely a turtle day. They have been everywhere.
And then a great day becomes fantastic!!
And then as we come around the corner David spots him.
It’s a manatee feeding. A BIG manatee eating that grass that you see falling down in front of him. I have to work very hard to stay to his side as the current (remember we are now floating down the river) keeps pushing me too near him and nearly over him.
He comes up out of the water to munch that grass. See his front flipper? He’s on his side.
Up for a breath of air and I’m frantically trying not to float over top of him.
As you can imagine I spend A LONG time just watching the manatee. But the afternoon is wearing on and there is more river to enjoy.
Spring breakers change the serenity.
My reverie is short lived unfortunately for as we approach Mid Way we can hear them hooping and hollering and jumping and splashing into the water. The spring breakers are there making an incredible amount of noise and ignoring all the signs which say no jumping and no diving from the floating docks at Mid Point and Dampiers.
From there on the noise especially the screaming is pretty constant. More SBers at Dampiers. And tubers in the water from Dampiers to the take out.
I am sorry to have lost the magnificence of that bottom section of a marvelous float. I wonder why those folks don’t just use a theme park for their sort of fun rather than such a beautiful natural environment. But it’s been a superb day in any case.
I’ve kayaked the river, time to swim in the springs.
We close it out by driving up to the North entrance so I can swim in both of the large springs.
The main spring is a grand place to swim and I’m lucky enough to have it all to myself. The reflections in the water make me feel like I am swimming in the trees. David declines to swim and takes pictures instead.
I could float here forever but poor David is waiting and I want to at least spend a little time in Blue Hole before we leave
The edges of the springs are not deep so unless you want to walk into them, your only choice is to do a sort of racing dive.
Now that I’ve gotten to do what I most wanted, it’s David’s turn.
He wants to go to the Springs Diner. It’s a really authentic diner with a fabulous Wurlitzer juke box that plays CDs of the great music of the 50’s.
The building, its decor and the juke box are the highlights here.
Oh and they make a fabulous peanut butter milk shake but the food is disappointingly ordinary and a tad on the pricey side given the quality. David is quite disappointed but does say he’d like to return and try their breakfast. They make biscuits.
This has been a very very full day with its ups and downs. But my memories of this river will last a long long time and I would come back again any number of times to do it again. Probably not during spring break month. If you are a kayaker, and anywhere near Ichetucknee River State Park, don’t miss it.
THE END
