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Courtesy of the University of North Florida
and Jack Woodward
Nice weekend, wasn't it? We took another 'newbie' back up to Thompkins Landing on the St. Mary's River. She is Stephanie Peters and she works in Auxiliary Services. More on Stephanie and the trip later.
This first photo was taken down in Switzerland near where Dot [Dorothy Brasher] lives. We had passed this sign many times and I asked Dot if she knew what it was about. She thought is was about a guy named Bartram who did a lot of surveying in that area a century or so ago. My curiosity got the better of me one day so I stopped and read it and took these pictures. See Dot, and everyone else? You gotta stop and read these things. Like . . surprise surprise!
I know Dot has seen this hundreds if not thousands of times.
Yup, the St. Mary's river and one of my favorite photo spots. There's just something about this view that gets to me every time I see it.
A bit further upstream.
As I've mentioned before, when we just have the one vehicle, we always paddle upstream first so we can kick back and take it easy on the downstream run. That's the plan. We are going to have to modify the way we do that to some small extent. We have gotten into the 'habit' of putting the newbie into the single kayak halfway through the trip, around lunch time, for the trip back downstream. But more than once now, and this trip was no exception, the newbie having acquired a general working knowledge of paddling a kayak takes off leaving us in their wake. From now on we are going to put them in the single BEFORE we get to the halfway point. They know how to paddle, but really don't know how to steer. But they seem to pick up on that skill going downstream. The current is a really big help in 'helping' them go forward giving them more time to figure out the steering part. But like I said, as soon as we put them in the single they take off and we lose sight of them. So I guess we are going to have to start playing 'parents' again and give them an activity that is going to wear them out and slow them down before we head back downstream. In this case, paddling on your own INTO the current. That oughta slow them down and tucker them out a bit.
Stephanie, like some of our other 'newbies', is pretty much a non-swimmer. Like Dot, Stephanie's best stroke is the doggy paddle. But because my kayaks are so stable in the water, these 'non-swimmers' get a big boost in their confidence about being on the water, which does get deep in places. I guess these kayaking excursions are real confidence boosters. Which is a good thing. But because of that extra boost in confidence, these 'newbie almost swimmers' tend to forget that if they do get into trouble, and if they are far ahead of Dot and I, and if they get in REAL trouble, help is not close at hand. So on that note, I am going to make this page REQUIRED reading for all newbies. And there WILL be a test. Take note newbies! Out there you and your life are MY responsibility. I take that responsibility very seriously. Water can be a very unforgiving teacher.
Believe me, this is nothing against Stephanie or others who fall into this class. Dot and I truly enjoy taking y'all out there, and to show you what has been missing in your life. But we have enough gray hairs. So you newbies take it easy on us 'old folks' will ya? Seriously, we really love taking newbies out with us, we really, really do. Seeing these pictures is one thing, actually being there is a whole other experience. Just ask Stephanie, or Sabrina, or Oupa, or Kathy, or Beth . . .
As I've mentioned before, why do the trees ALWAYS fall into the deep part where we could paddle through . . . but no-o-o-o, we have to get out and walk.
I think this picture says it all.
And this one.
The water is really low again. I lost track of the number of places where I (we) had to get out and drag the kayak through the shallows. After the first few times, Stephanie volunteered to get out and pull the boat and me through a shallow spot. Ah-h-h ! THIS is the life !
Kayaking is pretty physical, if not for the paddling but for pulling through shallows like this. Which means getting into and out of the boat. So there is a fair amount of physical activity.
There's Dot getting ahead of Steph and I. Dot has gotten to be a pretty darned good kayaker. As you can see, she can hold her own even going upstream into the current. Now and then, the current whups her butt and drives her into the bank or a downed tree. My advantage is, I am a man and have a fair amount of upper body strength so I can 'muscle' my way through those spots.
This was almost the picture of the day.
Another shallow spot and Stephanie volunteered to pull Dot through it.
Dang! Every time I prepare this website and look back on the pictures of where we were, it makes me want to go back out there again. Beauty . . serenity . . freedom.
These are fish nests. Some fish use their tail fins and make these circles in the sand, which can be 3 or 4 feet across, and lay their eggs in the middle of them. Pretty neat, huh?
Lunch time !
We walked around here quite a bit on our lunch break. These are tadpoles . . we saw THOUSANDS of them.
Stephanie and I walked across the river and this is looking back at Dot chowing down.
Looking upstream.
Looking downstream as Dot and Steph get ready to walk across the river.
Almost near the 'deep' part.
Wading though the 'deep' part.
On the other side.
Walking along the banks looking for tracks. We saw deer tracks [including a very, very small fawn], raccoon tracks, and great blue heron tracks.
Sand patterns!
This is one of those 'artsy' photos. Tree limbs casting a shadow on the water and sand.
The water has warmed up a lot. Darned good for swimming right now.
Heading back to the boats. We decided to head upstream some more from here. Stephanie's response . . . YES !!!
One final group portrait before we take off.
We saw some pretty neat cypress roots along the way.
And here is the picture of the day.
High Resolution photo of the day:
Click on this link to go to a high-resolution photo of the previous picture for use as a desktop background picture.
BEWARE!! For those of you on modem, low speed dial-up, this is a HUGE file.
Here's Stephanie in the single kayak on her own.
Now and then we would catch up to her. Mostly because she slowed down to wait for us I think.
Women. You get two women together and what do they do . . . TALK.
Dang! There she goes again.
Nice picture. No Stephanie . . . but nice picture.
These shallows allowed us to catch up again.
After getting out of the boat to pull the boat and Dot through a shallow spot, I decided to go for a walk while they paddled. When the tandem has two people in it, it draws a lot more water [is deeper in the water] than the single does.
And another fun outing was had by all. Stephanie was a pleasure to have out there with us. Needless to say, she enjoyed her first kayaking experience immensely. Like all the others who have gone out kayaking with us she wants to go out again, insisting she will take one of the single kayaks solo upstream as well as downstream. Ah-h-h, the confidence of youth. Oh yeah, we figured this outing was about an 8 mile roundtrip.
Enjoy !!
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