Hocking Hills with Family

May 21, 2016

We had the pleasure of my step-mom coming down for a visit.  Originally, we had planned for us to go to a Clipper's game on Friday and a kayaking the Darby on Saturday.  The best laid plans.  I mis-read the Clipper's schedule so they were actually away.  Mother nature didn't help for Saturday's plans either, all day light rain and high 50's would not have been a pleasurable float.

We decided to put on the rain coats and boots and head down to the Hocking Hills.  Usually, hitting up Old Man's Cave, Cedar Falls and Ash Cave on a Saturday is a mistake in my book.  Waaaaaay too many people.  But, we didn't have much choice and I figured the rain would keep most people away.  I wasn't too surprised though, to see the lots pretty full even with the rain.

The benefit of the rain we have had over the recent days was the waterfalls were flowing really nice.  Sometimes later in the summer, the falls are reduced to a trickle, if flowing at all.  This was spectacular for photos.  The trick was getting photos without people in them, except of course, for photos of the family.

  

No matter how many times I am visit the Hocking Hills, it never gets old.  It is always worth the drive, the time, and energy.  It was great to see it through family's eyes for the first time.

  

Matanzas River Paddle

May 1, 2016

We had one more day in Florida before we went home.  Time to get out on the kayaks.  We decided to head out to the Matanzas inlet, a place she used to paddle and explore years ago.  The inlet can be an amazing location for all sorts of marine life.  I was excited to see an area of the world that is near and dear to her heart.  A place full of great memories before I met her, a chance to glimpse a portion of her past.

We decided that we would put in at the State Route 206 bridge, then paddle down the Matanzas River, 3 miles to the inlet.  West from A1A onto 206, take the first left, this is an immediate left, and the only road before the bridge.  Turn right onto Coastal, which ends at a sand parking area at the river.  We parked in the shade under the bridge with several other cars.  This area is popular with shore fishermen.  You can also park on the west end of the bridge in similar fashion, and would actually be launching into some salt flats which were fun to explore and you wouldn't have to cross the Matanzas river to get to them.



Tide was coming in, and coming in strong.  We were also faced with a strong head wind.  Needless to say it was slow going.  If you plan to do this paddle, take note of the tides and plan accordingly.  The Matanzas River is part of the Intercoastal  Waterway System.  It was 2 in the afternoon on a perfect, sunny, not too hot Sunday.  The Intercoastal might as well been I 95 interstate highway.  Boat traffic was high, Big boats with big wakes, little boats, heck even jet skis towing tubers.  We quickly realized we were not going to make the inlet.  In reality that was okay, because when we passed the inlet on A1A, it was packed.  I mean every parking lot was full and the both sides of the road for a half mile of the inlet was parked with cars.  People everywhere on the inlet.  She was actually amazed, when she was hanging out there 15 years ago, she always had the place pretty much to herself.  Seems like the secret has been leaked.

Knowing the inlet was out of reach, we crossed the river and entered the salt flats/salt marsh on the west side of the river.  There were birds galore, but I unfortunately forgot my binoculars, so I could not identify the small white, swallow-esque bird that was swooping and diving in to the water. Egrets and herons abound.  The tide was low (but rising) and the numerous oyster beds were exposed.   Highlight of the paddle was a quick glimpse of a sea turtle sticking its head ever so briefly above the water.





 

After we were done and the kayaks were loaded back on the jeep, we were going to drive to the inlet and check out the beach.  It was still super crowded so we opted for Washington Oaks beach instead, On the short trail to the beach we encountered a small gopher tortoise munching on some grass.  Brought back a ton of memories from my time at the Joesph Jones Ecological Research Center during the gopher tortoise study.  I showed her how you can get an estimate on the tortoises age by counting the rings on the scutes of the palasteron.    The beach and ocean never disappoint.  We walked down the beach, my flip flops in one hand and hers in the other.  Ruddy turnstones in full breeding plumage were walking along with us, foraging the beach along the way.  They were accompanied by the ever present dunlin.

 

 

We headed back to the house to pick up her mother and headed back out.  This time in search of birds.  We drove the loop through the salt marshes and didn't see much.  We went through Gamble Rodgers State Park  and North Peninsula Park.  Still nothing, at least bird wise.  But I did get some photos of a crab climbing up a tree.  We called a night with a seafood dinner at The Anchor in Flagler Beach.  A little pricey for what you get, but good none the less.

Another Florida trip in the books.  Head back north, with my head still in the sand.

Peillicer Creek Paddle

A view of the Pellicer Creek estuary from the kayaks

4/26/16

We are back in Florida for a few days.  This time we hauled the kayaks down on the Jeep in hopes of getting on the water at least twice.  So, day one we decide to float the Pellicer Creek.  Originally we planned to put in at Faver-Dykes State Park and paddle down the creek to Princess Place Preserve.  According to everything we found on the internet, it would be a 3 mile paddle.  Checking further we discovered Princess Place closes at 6 p.m., which was not going to work since we got a late start.  So, we decided to switch it around, put in a Princess Place and paddle upstream to the Faver Dykes.  We had family help drop the kayaks and ferry a car to the take out.

Paddling out the launch inlet at Princess Place Preserve 

 The put in at Princess Place is in the back of the park, at a little inlet, and it is for hand launching boats only.  We got in the water about 4:30p.m.  The tide was coming in, going against the current.  We also had the wind at our back.  Both of which, helped us on our paddle upstream.  It wasn't extremely hard but it wasn't easy either.  Then again, we don't usually paddle upstream, and it was our first paddle if the season.

It felt great to be out on the water.  Different than the clear waters of our last float, the Weeki Watchee, with visibility today of about a half foot.  We started out in the wide mouth of the estuary, salt marsh along the banks.  A pair of eagles nest at Princess Place, and you can see the nest off in the distance from river.  Nest is huge and we were lucky enough to see a eagle sitting on the edge of the nest.  When we came to the point where the river begins to narrow, an alligator splashed into the water from the bank of the salt marsh.  We were only about 20 yards from it, startling us a bit.  and it quickly and silently disappeared under the water.

It wasn't long after that we caught site of a roof of a gazebo and Kerry thought it was the take out.  It couldn't have been.  We had only gone about a mile!  As we rounded the bend it became clear it was indeed the take out.  Turned out, from the launch to the take out was only about 1.5 miles and we had been on the water for less than an hour.  Now that we knew we had plenty of time to make it to the take out, we pulled out the fishing rods.  Kerry's first cast and she catches a catfish on a crank bait.  A crank bait!  It was the only fish we caught, then again, we have never fished this area or habitat before.  I tried to get some help form the locals, they weren't much help.  They said use shrimp.  As for artificials, they didn't give much info.  I saw one guy using a white paddle tail, and he said he had caught an 18 inch red fish.

 We paddled past the Faver-Dykes boat ramp and fished a little bit.  It was interesting to float in the middle of the creek, having the current going one direction and the tide and wind going the opposite direction, with a result of the kayak floating stationary.  It was a bit surreal.  This area is mostly salt marsh, with some trees along the boat ramp area.  We saw some osprey and a little green heron, and found a bunch of hermit crabs and fiddler crabs at the boat ramp.



So total paddle was 2 miles.  If we would do it again, we would have put in at the US 1 bridge over Pellicer Creek.  I wouldn't leave a care there, as it is not an official put in, but there is plenty of shoulder on the road at the end of the guard rail, and kept free of brush.  The bank isn't steep either.  Pellicer Creek Camp Ground is northwest of the bridge, and have a private launch, but we were told it is for campers only. This would give you about 5-6 miles