Hey y'all, Welcome to my Website
Courtesy of the University of North Florida
and Jack Woodward
On Saturday, 7/22/06, Charlie Bear, Jimmy Carson and I made a downstream run on the St. Mary's River from Stokes Bridge up to Rte. 2. A total of 15 miles that took us a total of 8 hours. The water was extremely low as you will see. There were numerous places where we could have walked across the river. More often than not the bottom was visible, even through the water is darkly stained with tannin. There was no counting the number of obstacles we had to deal with . . shallow spots, downed trees and logs. From this outing you will see why we like to go with Charlie. He is fun to watch. Personally I wouldn't treat my body the way he does his. But then I think that is the difference between a Type A personality (him) and a Type B personality (me).
As you will see, on numerous occasions when we got to low spots, I would get out of the kayak and walk it through. Charlie would 'pole' and muscle his way through. I got out of my kayak dozens of time, to pull the boat through shallows or just to get out and take some pictures. I think Charlie got out of his kayak three times . . maybe. Once for an impassable shallow spot, once for lunch and finally at the end of the run. As they say, to each his own.
For those of you with modem (dial-up) internet access, at some point the pictures will probably stop loading and all you'll see is a box with a red 'x' in the top left-hand corner. If that happens, just hit the 'Refresh' icon on the upper toolbar and the rest of the pictures will download.
This is putting-in at Stokes Bridge. We met at the take-out point off of Rte. 2 and left Charlie's truck there and loaded us and the kayaks onto my truck and drove back down here. It's nice to have two vehicles for a one-way, downstream run.
We got started around 9:30am. It was indeed a pretty morning and it felt good to get on the water.
The first of hundreds of obstacles. As you can see we easily passed under this one. Most of the obstacles we could paddle under or around or through.
A log that we had to 'ram' to get up onto and then 'pole' and push our way off.
Where the river looks 'muddy' is actually the white sand bottom. The water is darkly stained but very clear.
The truly amazing part of this particular part of the river is the number of times the river changes character. From broad and deep like this to narrow and shallow. From open and clear to clogged with downed trees. It seemed like around every bend in the river a new 'face' appeared.
Here we could have easily walked across the river. We learned that water of a certain color indicated whether or not we could float and paddle though it, so I think we all learned to look for the darker colored water. Many, many times we were floating in water with only inches under the keel.
I think this is where I took the picture of Beth Westberry in the 'wall of green'. The water level has decreased substantially as is apparent by the visible river bottom.
I had gotten to this point first and determined it shallow enough to get out and walk. Not Charlie.
See Charlie in the upper right?
I had time to walk all the way around him to get pictures from this different angle.
Still muscling it.
Giving up? Heck no, dream on.
Same spot? Nope.
Just another shallow spot. Of course I was standing near him taking these pictures. Needless to say I can't resist taking verbal jabs at him regarding this behavior.
Ahh . . vanquished. Even the mighty must succumb now and then.
'Nuff said about that, eh?
At least 3/4 of the river was shallow like this.
Charlie and Jimmy coming at me. For much of the way, they let me lead the way simply because I take lots of pictures and the pictures tend to look better without people in them. .
Like this.
On this log, I got out of my kayak and straddled the log Charlie is on and pulled my kayak over it. Jimmy got out of his boat on the far left side, got over the log and back into his kayak on the other side of the log.
Not Charlie. Jimmy, who has been Charlie's friend for longer than I have, told me that if you tell Charlie something can't be done, he'll do it just to prove that it can be done.
As you can see, I have repositioned myself from a different perspective. In the meantime, Charlie has 're-attacked' the log from a different angle.
Going . . .
. . . going . . .
. . made it !! Like I said, he does things I wouldn't dream of doing. Like, what's the point? 'Type A' versus 'Type B', I am sure. I always look for the easy way of doing things.
Really shallow.
And then back to broader and deeper.
Then back to narrow.
Always changing around every bend it seems.
Darned scenic !!
The roots of this pine tree are almost totally exposed. The power of water. One day, it too will fall into the river.
A perfect reflection.
Now this was a big surprise. LIMESTONE bedrock!!
Just before this area, Charlie saw some gravel on the river bottom and reached in to scoop some up. So what are the chances of reaching into the water to grab some gravel and having a piece of broken glass right at that spot? He got a pretty good slice on his finger over that one.
It's not often one gets to walk on rock in Florida.
Pretty jagged stuff to say the least.
Luckily we went over this in the center and avoided most of the jagged stuff.
Every on the right side is limestone.
I finally caught up to Charlie and Jimmy. They had stopped in this nice shady spot for lunch. Unbeknownst to us, this was only halfway thru the 8 hours. The shallow water and many obstacles cut down our overall speed tremendously.
Yeah, Charlie found a way through that mess.
Like I said, the character of the river changes again and again.
But it sure is pretty. Charlie agrees it is much prettier at low water than near flood stage.
The shallows really took their toll on us.
Nearing the end of the trip.
We know when we see this train trestle, the end of the trip is around the next couple bends. Personally speaking I was pretty wiped out from the paddle. This isn't something I would want to do every weekend. I like it when Dot goes with me, because she likes to stop a lot too.
But it was a darned good day on the river.
Enjoy !!
P.S.
If you want me to ADD your name/email address to my emaillist when I add new photos to this website, email me at the address below and I will gladly add your name and address. If your name is already on the list, no problem.
Email to Jack Woodward mailto: jackwoodward66@hotmail.com
Link to Page St. Marys 1 St. Marys River Moniac to St. Rte. 121
Link to Page August 25, 2003 Little Talbot Island Beach Starfish
Link to Page Sand Patterns 1 Sand Patterns 1
Link to Page Sand patterns 2 Sand Patterns 2
Link to Page Flower1 Flowers for the Ladies 1
Link to Page St. Marys 2 St. Mary's River Stokes Bridge with Dorothy
Link to Page Irenes' Animals Cute Animal Pictures
Link to Page St. Mary's 3 St. Mary's River Stokes Bridge myself
Link to Page Jacksonville Zoo Jacksonville Zoo
Link to Page Guana 10 15 05 Guana Lake
Link to Page Guana 10 22 05 Guana Lake
Link to Page Dot
Link to Page An outing with Anne St. Mary's river with Anne Hopkins
Link to Page 12_04_05 stokes St. Mary's River Stokes Bridge
Link to Page Trout Creek Trout Creek (new)
Link to Page Suwannee River Jan. 14,2006 Suwannee Jan. 14, 2006
Link to Page St. Marys Solo St. Mary's Solo Trip
Link to Page Olustee Battlefield Olustee Battlefield State/National Park
Link to Page Stokes to SR 2 St. Marys' River Stokes Bridge to SR 2 NEW
Link to Page March 11, 2006 St Mary's St. Mary's River
Link to Page Okeefenokee to Moniac St. Mary's River Okeefenokee to Moniac
Link to Page Black Creek Black Creek
Link to Page St Marys with Amber St. Mary's with Dots' Granddaughter
Link to Page Guana Solo 04/15/06 Solo at Guana
Link To Page Oupas' Outing 04/22/06 St. Mary's with Oupa Seane
Link to Page Guana with Dot 04/29/06 Guana State Park
Link to Page Guana Charlie Donna Jimmy 05/06/06 Guana State Park
Link to Page St. Mary's River Westberry's 05/13/06
Link to Page Okeefenokee 5/20/06 Okeefenokee Swamp
Link to Page Thompkins Landing with Dot 5/27/06
Link to Page Thompkins Sabrina 6/10/06
Link to Page Thompkins Landing with Stephanie 6/24/06
Link to Page St. Mary's River with Pete 7/8/06
Link to Page Suwannee 7/15/06 7/15/06 with Dot
Link to HomePage Welcome to my website
Visitors to this page