Kayaking the Ichetucknee River

(Click on images to enlarge)

A few days ago, Ed and I decided we needed a Florida winter outdoor adventure so we headed up to Suwannee County for a trip down the Ichetucknee River.

This little river is created by several major springs and many smaller ones that contribute something like 230 million gallons of water daily to form the river. It is wonderfully clear and stays around 72 degrees year round.

We rented a two person kayak from a local outfitter named Vern who trucked us up to the narrow head of the river, got us in the water, wished us a happy journey and off we went.

Neither of us had been in a kayak before, but we managed not to get our paddles tangled and mostly floated with the current. The water was crystal clear with a bird’s eye view of a fishy world. Long, brilliantly green grassy plants trailed in the water.

Since we were the first people down the river on a drizzly Friday morning, we had the dubious honor of disturbing the local fauna! One hapless Great Blue Heron flew off whenever we got within 15 feet of photo snapping range. (This happened at least four times) I didn’t tell Ed (the photographer) but after the third attempt I was warning the heron telepathically to fly behind us so he could fish in peace. He didn’t.

(Here is a real photo of a Great Blue Heron)

Small groups of white tailed deer crashed noisily back into the forest. The river was pretty narrow and most of the time we could see far into the woods on either side.) We passed a couple of green turtles swimming upstream. A wood duck couple complained about us as they flew in a circle before landing again. Jittery clusters of little black coots scurried clumsily at our approach. We spotted two nattily feathered Kingfishers in black, white and grey darting through the pines.

Ed saw an owl fly over us (which I managed to miss) and neither of us could find the manatees which had been wintering in the river.

But we heard spring peepers trilling to their sweethearts, and saw a large Pileated Woodpecker fly by laughing crazily high and further into the trees.

(Ed missed that photo of the woodpecker, too, but here is one)

I melted into the morning rhythm of the river and felt grateful to be living on such a fascinatingly beautiful planet.

We disembarked a few hours later where Vern picked us up in his truck. On the trip back he suddenly slammed on his brakes and pointed out this clueless little fellow scurrying across the road- a Sherman’s fox squirrel. They are a rare ground squirrel much larger than your usual squirrel with a big bushy tail and a black mask . I’d never seen anything like this little guy- he reminded me more of a lemur than a squirrel. Vern told us there was a colony of them living near there and that their range actually extends to southern Missouri.

(The squirrel is really up there; Ed’s attempt at a photo is of dubious value.)

Here a real photo of a Sherman Fox Squirrel

Photo credit-Dr. Ken Hoover, Professor of Biology at Jacksonville University

See his research project on the Sherman Fox Squirrel at http://dept.ju.edu/biology/khoover/ShermansFoxSquirrel.htm

Before we left the area, we went to visit the places where two of the springs that feed the river originated. They each double as swimming holes and the larger of the two, Blue Hole, is over thirty feet deep and about 85’ by 125’ in size. Scuba diving in this “hole” is another notable benefit of Ichetucknee Springs State Park. The turquoise water made me want to jump right in!

Blue Hole

Head Spring

As we were leaving, I came upon a sweet little tree frog sitting on a wall. I gently picked him up and relocated him to the grass and he did his part by actually letting us take a photo.

We plan to explore the natural Florida environment more this year; but for now we feel refreshed and connected to the world outside our studio!