In Search of Manatees in Florida’s Spring-fed Rivers (Marion, Hernando, and Citrus Counties, Florida)

 This weekend, I'm joining the Atlanta Outdoor Club on several paddle trips along the clear spring-fed rivers of northern Florida in search of Manatees and adventure, of course. I arrived last night at the AirBnB the organizers rented for us in Astor, FL. While I only new a couple of the other attendees, everyone made me feel extremely welcomed. The mansion they rented is gigantic and the interior is constructed of various types of cypress, with a gigantic living room, several bedrooms, a magnificent kitchen and dining room, as well as a nice fire pit area outside overlooking the canal and river. After some introductions, a terrific dinner, and some discussion of the plan for the weekend, we all head to our respective bedrooms for a good night's sleep in preparation for a long paddle tomorrow.

Day 1 - Juniper Creek Run

I slept well and awoke early. After taking a quick shower and getting a little breakfast in my belly, I join the others as we make last minute preparations. Before long, we caravan away from the house and head to our first destination, the Juniper Creek Run. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to us, this area does not allow inflatable kayaks. All but one of our paddlers are in hard-shell kayaks, but the one remaining gentlemen has an inflatable. One of our organizers who has paddled this run several times, volunteers to lend the gentlemen his hard-shell boat and he will just skip today's paddle. This works out. 

As this is the first time I've put my new boat in the water, I'm curious to see how it performs. From the launching pad, I gentle ease my way in and in doing so almost manage to flip myself in this shallow water, but I catch myself with my left hand, jamming my thumb a little bit in the process. The others enter their boats and soon, we are off on first paddle.

The water here is crystal clear and very shallow in most places (only a few inches deep), but our lightweight craft pass easily across the surface in most areas, though I do find myself scrapping a few submerged logs here and there. We see abundant wildlife as we make our way, including a couple of alligators (one of them roughly twelve feet long), turtles, and abundant avian species.

The channels and current of this creek do require some small level of technical paddling and while I'm a little overwhelmed at first, I quickly remember my skills. After all, it's been a few months since I've been in a boat and that last time was on a wide-open reservoir. The gentlemen in the borrowed kayak doesn't fair quite as well though as he rolls his boat and goes into the water several times. We all do our best to assist him and give him some advice, but I think his nerves were getting the better of him by the end. You could see in his paddle strokes. When he realized he need to correct his track, he would first go to steer one direction and then immediately remember that he needed to go the other way to prevent the current from pushing him into the brush and trees growing along the banks.

Eventually, we reach the end of the run. It was a long, but terrific paddle. The twists and turns made for quite an adventure and being so near alligators in the wild always adds a sense of danger, though gators of this size would rarely attack a human (the twelve-footer may have been big enough). After exiting our boats and reloading them on our respective cars, we return to the house for a bit to cleanup. 

For dinner, we hit a local bar and grill. I order a beer and a mahi-mahi sandwich, which is fantastic. After dinner, we return to the house and enjoy a fire on the patio, while discussing the days events and many other topics. It was a great day and we managed to get in about 7.2 miles on today's run. I'm looking forward to what tomorrow brings. Perhaps we'll see some manatees.

Day 2 - Chassahowitzka River and Homossassa Springs Wildlife Refuge

Similar to yesterday's start, I rise early, showering and eating some breakfast before most of our crew has stirred. Once the masses have awoken, they do the same. Today, we have a healthy drive to our destinations and we try to get an early start. It's nearly a two hour drive to our first destination on the Chassahowitzka River. This location was not in the original plan, but the organizers were unable to get launch permits at the planned spot, Weeki Watchee Springs, and settled on this as an alternative. As I've never been to any of these places, one seems just as good as the other to me.

Today's paddle will be in a much wider channel for the most part, and as we put our boats in the water, we note that the water is not nearly as clear here as yesterday's paddle. No matter, it will still be a great time. 

We first paddle out to an area where one of our organizers and lead paddler believes we will be able to see some manatees and sure enough, there are three or four of the rotund water cows feeding on the underwater flora. These animals are huge; most as long as my 11.5 foot long kayak. They lumber around below us occasionally surfacing for a breath of air. With nearly a dozen boats floating above them, you would think they would be timid and move away, but perhaps because of their great bulk, they go about their business as if we weren't even there. 

As we wait, we listen for their breaths when they surface to locate them in the waters below us. This is the first time I've ever seen manatees and to see them in the wild like this is quite an experience. They pass within inches of my boat as they move to and fro in search of the rich plant life growing on the river's floor. After thirty minutes or so gawking at them, It's probably time for us to move on and let these guys eat in peace.

We continue downriver and head for one of the springs feeding it, known as the Crack. It gets a little tight on some areas, but still not quite as bad as yesterday. On one shallow sandy section, three of our group end up beaching themselves. While two are able to scoot themselves free of the sands, the one remaining paddler has to exit his boat and tow it by foot back to the deeper waters. Luckily, I managed to avoid the sand all together. 

More wildlife is present here and we see numerous bird species and a large amount of fish swimming below our boats in the water, which has become more clear as we move toward the spring. Eventually, the water gets too shallow to paddle in and we pull our boats partially onto shore to prevent them from floating away, while we make our way the rest of the way to the Crack on foot. It's only a hundred yards or so. 

When we arrive, we are greeted by numerous other visitors, some of whom are playing on a rope swing that carries them out over the actual vent of the spring. It looks fun. The water here is a sort of hazy blue as it rises from the depths, but quickly becomes crystal clear as it fans out away from the Crack. I'm not much of a swimmer and so, I decide not to take a plunge from the swing, though several of my companions do. The water just above the vent is much deeper than the shallow creek we walked up to get here. 

We decide that his would be a great place to have lunch and all return to our boats to get our food. I manage to get my feet stuck in the bog beneath my boat and have quite a time freeing my feet without loosing my water shoes in the mud, but finally free myself and join the rest of the group for a short break at the spring.

After a short break and more horseplay on the swing, we agree that it is time to head back. We get in our boats and start paddling back the way we came. Passing the launch point, we attempt to paddle up to another spring, but it is so packed with kayaks from other visitors, we decide to turn back and call it a day, at least on the water. We only paddled about 3.5 miles today.

We load our boats and then head for another location, the Homossassa Springs Wildlife Refuge, which we had passed on our way here. This place is home to numerous rescued animals of all varieties. Regrouping, we take a short shuttle ride, which is nothing more than a truck pulling a couple of trailers with bench seats, to the main starting area. From there we agree on a meeting time and then head off on our own to explore the animal enclosures.

This place is essentially a zoo, but the animals within are all rescues of one sort or another that likely wouldn't survive long in the wilds. I'm really against traditional zoos, but something like this makes sense to me. As I wander along the boardwalks and paved paths through the animals, I'm amazed by the number of black vultures that call this home. One of the signs indicates that while these vultures are not technically part of the refuge and come and go as they please, they act as natural housekeepers and help keep the facility free of disease by consuming uneaten food.

There is a huge variety of animals here from alligators to the oldest hippopotamus in captivity, to the whooping cranes, to bald eagles, to a black bear, to mountain lions, to manatees. It's a cornucopia of wildlife. It seems the keepers do their best to give these rescued creatures a good life, which is quite commendable.

Additionally, the facility contains an underwater observation area. Steps lead down below the surface of the spring-fed waters right beside the vent. From down here, one can see schools of large fish swimming about. I spend a couple of minutes down there, but soon return to the surface.

Meeting the group back at the start we start the long journey back to our temporary housing, though we do stop for some delicious ice cream along the way. Some of us also stop for a quick dinner at a New Orleans-inspired restaurant. Desert before dinner, it's the way to roll while you're on vacation.

Getting back to the house, we get a fire going and then have an all our concert on the patio. One of the other participants has been teaching herself to play guitar and brought a small "backpacking" guitar with her. As I've been playing guitar and singing most of my life (in bands during high school and college), I give her a few pointers and we all join in and some singalongs (mostly rock ballads of the 70's, 80's and 90's) as we enjoy some adult beverages and the crackling flames. It was a lot of fun and I remember how much fun it used to be performing in front of an audience, though it's been many years since I've done so.

Finally the light from the fire pit dimming and our beverage containers becoming empty, we all decide to turn in for our last night on this great trip. I had originally planned on heading home first thing in the morning, but the group talks me into do one more paddle on the way home, which they claim may be the best one. I agree and as a thank you, I tell them I will make breakfast for all of us.

Day 3 - Silver Springs and River

I'm among the earliest risers in the group and get my shower and pack before most are awake. As promised, I get a breakfast scramble going for the group. It's nothing special, just eggs, ham, and cheese, but everyone seems to like it and thanks me for preparing it. After breakfast, we do the necessary clean-up of the house and pack our gear for our long drives home.

Our paddle for this day is at Silver Springs, which is only about forty-five minutes from the house and on our way back to the interstate we will all take home. We put our boats in and set up the shuttle at the other end at Ray Wayside Park. Once all of us have returned to our boats, we start our paddle. 

First we head out to the gigantic Silver Spring, the largest artesian spring in the world. I admit that I had to look up what "artesian" actually means. It simply means that it's a free-flowing spring, where the water rises without the need of any kind of man-made pumping mechanism. The water here is deep, clear, and very blue. It reminds me of the water in Lake Tahoe a bit. Large fish swim in abundant numbers and pass beneath our kayaks. It's pretty surreal.

After spending a little time here, we head back a short distance the way we came and then take a sharp turn into the Fort King Paddling Trail, this short but narrow water passageway runs parallel to the river, but offers better wildlife viewing options. We see more alligators and abundance of bird life. In addition, we can see the ruins of what was once a wooden fort-based summer camp and a number of supporting structures. I'm unsure as to when this was open, but it has all fallen into disrepair over the decades. 

After about a mile, we exit the paddle trail and rejoin the Silver River. We paddle slightly upstream to a little cover, where we once again see a number of giant manatees going about their daily routine. The waters are more clear here though than yesterday and we have a better view of the behemoths. One passes right beside my boat. We linger a little while observing these magnificent but docile beasts before continuing our trek downriver.

The channel here is wide and the waters are much deeper, though the water is still crystal clear. We see huge numbers of turtles. In fact, I accidentally bop one on the head as he surfaces near where my paddle was going in the water. Hopefully, it didn't injure him. I was paddling pretty gently and so, I don't think he was hurt. We see large fish, alligators, and waterfowl of numerous different species as we continue down river.

We also pass above several manatee hastily making their way to their favored feeding grounds upstream. It's kind of strange to see animals this large pass below your boat through this clear blue-tinted water, maybe even a little unnerving. 

In a few sections, I can really test the speed of my boat. No twists and turns or shallow bottoms to worry about here. It's nice to really work out my shoulders like this a bit, and to see what this new boat is capable of in terms of speed. Though there are twists and turns here, there are not the super tight ones like we experienced on Juniper Creek. With the river ranging from thirty to eighty feet wide in most places, maneuvering is very easy.

And then, just as we make our way around one of these big turns, I finally see something that I had been told to be on the lookout for; something that you would not expect to see in the trees of Florida . . . monkeys! Specifically, these are rhesus macaque monkeys. I was told they were brought here by an eccentric land owner in the mid-1930's in the hopes of opening some sort of jungle adventure park, which never came to fruition. Since then, they have set up shop and built quite a large colony, numbering in the hundreds, on the shores of this river. 

*Enhanced to zoom in on a monkey

It's wild to see creatures like this playing and fighting in the trees above us. There many, many of them in the trees. Some of them, including some very young ones, climb out onto the branches overhanging the river. I would think that they would be easy prey for the alligators should they fall in, but they don't seem to worry about this grim prospect and go about their playful day. Even on the forest floor, we see several of them sitting on logs and just lounging around. Wondrous!!!

As we near the end of our paddle, spot more alligators, manatees, and turtles along the way. Turning into the canal for the Ray Wayside Park, we drag our boats ashore and I shuttle the other two drivers back to their at the other end. When we return, we help each other load our boats and say our goodbyes. In total, we got about 6 miles in today on the river. It's truly been a fantastic weekend and I've made several new friends (not the monkeys). Now it's time for the long drive home.