Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Florida Ridge: Day Two: Fisheating Creek

I spent last night using paper towels to mop up the water that kept blowing and leaking into my tent. I didn't sleep very well since the National Weather Service predicted damaging hail overnight. I didn't think a tent was the safest place to be if large hail started falling from the sky!

The day was cancelled early and 8 of us went canoeing on Fisheating Creek near the junction of Route 27 and Route 29. The Swedes got there first and signed us up for the long trip, which takes most people over 4 hours. We got dropped off about 8 miles upstream after passing through several locked gates on corporate ranch land. We immediately saw alligators swimming in the creek when we arrived at the put-in. Fish were jumping out of the water ahead of the alligators and birds were everywhere. It was a good thing the driver told us which direction was downstream because there wasn't any obvious flow. After paddling for awhile in the creek, which was maybe 50 yards wide, it simply disappeared in cypress trees. We found a reasonable channel that was about 2 yards wide and headed into the shadows. I seemed like we stumbled into a lost world. The rest of the trip was sections of wide open water and then small channels through the trees or sand banks. If you want to see native wildlife, I would recommend spending some time here. We probably saw 40 alligators, lots of birds, fish, some turtles, and a wide range of plant life.

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