Hey Y'all . . . Welcome to my Website
Courtesy of the University of North Florida
and Jack Woodward
Here is the link for the University of North Florida.
Hey Y'all.
I know . . . it has been a VERY long time since I have posted any photos or videos on this website.
Between cold weather, rainy weather and family stuff, it has indeed been a very long time. Dot and I did have an outing with my brother and his girlfriend over the Christmas holidays down at my Dad's place in Lakeland, Florida. It was my brothers second time in a kayak and his girlfriends' first time. I know they both enjoyed that outing very much.
So here it is, February of 2008 and Dot and I along with a personal and work friend, Tom Mason, finally got to go out for a real paddle over this past weekend. Tom has recently bought a brand new 15 1/2 foot canoe. A very special canoe. It is made of Kevlar and an epoxy coating and weighs a mere 34 pounds. My 13 foot plastic tandem kayak weighs in at 70 pounds.
Other than weight . . the two big differences are cost and extra space for carrying stuff. I won't go into the details here but suffice it to say I could buy a small fleet of tandem kayaks for the price of Toms' Kevlar canoe. However, Tom's single canoe could carry all the camp-out stuff of all three of the tandems I could buy plus some. It's a big trade-off. Canoes can carry more . . a LOT more.
The final tally comes down to this. I am happy with what I have . . and Tom is happy with what he has. Bottom line . . we are all happy campers. And that's all that matters.
This was Tom's first 'real' outing with his new canoe. And Dot and I were there to see that his first outing was probably one of the most grueling he will ever have. hehehehe Don't get me wrong. Tom is a very experienced, well seasoned canoeist. But most of his trips have been one way, downstream trips. He practically NEVER paddles upstream. So when I say 'his first outing', I mean with his new canoe and upstream to boot. Simply put, I would not want to be in Tom's shoes on Sunday. Undoubtedly, he was in a world of hurt. hehehehe
It wasn't intentional or 'planned' since this was the first time any of us had been to where we went.
None of us had any idea what was in store for us . . we all experienced it together . . . but without a doubt, Tom got 'it' the worst. hehehehe
Also for this webpage, we used my new camera. I know . . I need another camera like I need another hole in my head. The camera is a Canon Powershot G9. 12.1 Megapixels and all kinds of little goodies. So far I love it. And it does take good photos. For these photos and videos I used the vivid color enhancement. All the colors are more 'intense' than they normally would be . . blue skies are bluer . . green grass is greener, etc. And it does look good, as you will see.
Here are some maps and satellite overhead views of where we went.
This is the 'track' from my GPS. The total length is 5 miles which made for a 10 mile round trip. For reference, we were near Fargo, Georgia on the road going to Stephen Foster State Park. That is the red line at the bottom of the map, Rte. 177. We put in at Griffis Fish Camp. Dot and I have been there before and have met Mr. Griffis, a very likeable old fellow. There is a dirt road leading down to the river from Rte. 177. Mr. Griffis charges a $2 launch fee per boat, but that is a small price to pay for the convenience of a good put-in and he does check out the put-in now and then, so our trucks are pretty secure. When our trip was over, we saw that there were probably 5 other trucks besides our own that had put in boats. All of them had trailers so they were all power boats of one kind or another, john-boats being the most predominant. But where we went, so power boat could follow.
Here is the same 'view' using Google Earth.
And here is 'that' same view without the overlaying GPS 'track'. We were definitely back in the 'boonies'.
We sure do live in a wonderful time to be able to do stuff like this. Go out and trek through the wilderness, then using a handheld GPS unit be able to overlay the track one took onto a satellite photograph. Talk about magic !
Cypress trees and blue sky.
It is quite obviously winter time . . not much green at all . . grays and browns. I took these on our lunch break. This is looking across the canal where we stopped for lunch. I must apologize for not taking more pictures along the way. I left most of the picture taking to Dot. For most of the trip she was taking videos, it wasn't until on the way back I told her to take more 'stills'. My fault.
This is the one of the two spillways on the Suwannee Sill. The spillways are used to control the water level in the swamp.
This is looking downstream where we came from.
Lunch is over and we are pushing upstream with Tom in the lead.
I guess this is what one would call desolate beauty. And it was beautiful.
This was pretty much the way it looked up past the sill, although it did narrow down even more . . a LOT more.
Heading back downstream. Stark beauty. Come spring and summer, we all agreed this would become a very beautiful paddle.
We were all fascinated by the reflections on the still water.
There were times when it became difficult to see the 'path' ahead. Once, Dot said "Uh-oh, no way to go". But another 30 feet and the path became clear.
We would all do this trip again in a heartbeat.
I will be adding videos during the coming week, so if you want to 'see' the whole trip, bookmark this page and check back later in the week. It will be worth it.
Enjoy !!
As Always, when you get to the blue circles with the triangles in the middle . . click twice . . on the white triangle. That will open up the video