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Courtesy of the University of North Florida
and Jack Woodward
Here is the link for the University of North Florida.
Hey Y'all.
This past Saturday Tom Mason, the campus phone guy, and I went out on the St. Mary's River at Stokes Bridge. That's the bridge in the background.
The water flow was 151 cu. ft. per minute and the gauge height was at 3.1 feet. The gauge is located around Macclenny. But it is a good indicator of the overall water depth on the river. Less than 3 feet and you can plan on walking in the low spots. Three feet or above it's all good. This time of year walking in cold water is really out of the question. This was Tom's second 'official' outing in his new canoe.
I went out in one of my single kayaks, a 12 footer. This is my 'older' one and it probably has around 1,000 miles on it . . literally. Of course, that's over the past 4 or 5 years or so. But the miles do add up. On this particular outing, Tom and I put in 9 1/2 miles. 4 3/4 miles upstream and then a very pleasant and well deserved 4 3/4 miles taking it easy downstream run.
The morning was pretty chilly, probably in the low to mid 40's. But it did warm up nicely later in the day.
.
As you can see there was a bit of mist coming off the water. It got denser a bit further upstream as you will see.
Here, you can barely see Tom through the mist.
This is a new addition to the character of the river. This fallen tree wasn't there the last time I was up here.
Wow, I'm a bit dumbfounded. I went to see when was the last time I was up here, and it was way back in August with Dot. When we did it then, the water level was at 10 feet and rising, pretty much flood stage. I didn't post those pictures or photos to this webpage . . my bad. So between then and now, this tree has fallen over across the river.
There are a few cypress trees on the St. Mary's River, but nothing close to what we see on the Suwannee River.
But the St. Mary's is still the most scenic river. When Dot and I were last here, all it was, was water and woods. No white sand 'beaches' like there are now. And the sand is snow white.
It is hard to beat the St. Mary's for picturesque beauty. There is very, very little wildlife on this river. The occasional deer, the occasional otter, the occasional kingfisher, wood duck, great blue heron or egret. But the breathtaking scenery more than makes up for the lack of wildlife. That and the peaceful quiet. The St. Mary's River in this area is Heaven on Earth.
Another new addition to the rivers' character. We saw a total of three recently downed trees. Fortunately, none of them were 'stoppers' forcing us to portage around them. But as the water level goes up, these will become serious obstacles to deal with.
This was our first 'get out and stretch' stop. We were fortunate enough to see a very big otter swim by. Tom got a much better look than I did. But since he didn't stick around I couldn't get a picture of him. Darn !!
We think these are otter tracks. H'mm. I just did a web search on otter tracks . . and these aren't an otter. Well . . this has been very interesting, I just did a search for animal tracks. Found plenty and the closest 'match' I came up with, is a bobcat. Jeezel, who woulda thought ! I know I have some hunters out there who could maybe clarify this for us all.
This was where we stopped for lunch. 4 3/4 miles upstream. As Tom will tell you, the wind was getting pretty stiff by this time. It was of course, in our face. Along with the current. So the last mile was pretty tough. Especially after having battled the current up to this point.
The boat ramp at Steel Bridge Road.
In the distance, coming around the turn are a couple new kayakers. Literally. Meet David and Bonnie. They had bought their kayaks the Christmas before last, but this was the first time they had put them in the water. Now they know what they have been missing. I got their email address so now they can really see what is in store for them.
Zoomed in. Bonnie is the orange kayak and David is the green one. We will have to get together with them and have them start out at Stokes bridge. The part they 'did' is 'populated' as you can see. The part 'we' did, Tom and I, is pure scenery. As they will see from this web page.
Here's David and Bonnie heading home.
As you can see the sky was gorgeous.
This is getting it together for the downstream paddle/float after our lunch break.
The majority of these clouds you see are way up there where only the highest flying jet liners fly. The wispy looking clouds are actually made of ice crystals.
This was on one of the pieces of property with a house on it. Obviously, they turned the knots in the tree to the advantage of making a face of them. Pretty artistic if you ask me.
Heading downstream. Some people think that since we do a round trip, heading upstream first and then going over the same territory on the way back downstream that we are seeing the same thing twice. Absolutely not true. The same terrain . . . yes. The same scenery . . no. Going back the same way we came looks totally different. Ask Dot. Ask Tom.
This was interesting. We followed a very small side stream off the main river. At this point was the stopper. But the stream did wend its way off to the left. Since we couldn't turn the boats around for the small trip back to the main river, we just turned our bodies around in the boats and paddled them out 'backwards'.
This is at the juncture with the main river.
To the right is the small stream we went up.
After we had gotten out of the boats after paddling back down the little stream, Tom walked up a small hill toward the woods we had just come out of. He asked me if 'this' is what we had missed. Since I was still near the boats, I didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about. So I walked up the little hill to meet him. Wow ! This small pond was what he was looking at. I told him , no. The stream we were on ahead of me had veered off to the left. Not to the right which is where this small pond was in relation to the stream we were on. Surprise surprise !
One of the recently fallen trees.
This is heading back toward the pond Dot and I had found. Again, totally unseen from the river.
And here it is. This is a fairly big pond. It goes straight back in this view for a hundred yards and then turns off to the left. The last time we [Dot and I] were here was when the river was 7 feet higher, and we had paddled right up to the downed tree you see. Only about 3 or 4 inches of the downed tree was above the water's surface at that time. Testament to the ever changing conditions on the St. Mary's River.
I had told Tom about the really tall cypress knees that lined this one area of the pond. These knees, some of them anyway, are every bit as tall as I am . . I am 6 ft. 3 inches. Of course, that's Tom off in the distance.
Continuing downstream.
Floating on the water are a pair of wood ducks. We had 'snuck up' to this pair. Usually one can't get within picture taking distance of these guys. Usually all you see is them flying off. And even this shot is zoomed in to the max.
This is what you usually see, but not this close.
Heading for the take - out.
Tom spotted this piece of animal fur/hide in the trees. An odd sight to see to say the least.
Back at Stokes bridge and loading up for the trip home. As you have seen, we had an absolutely wonderful day on the water. And with the aid of these photos, we can relive the day again.
And as an added bonus, y'all can see where we've been. And see some of what we saw.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But these pictures do not do justice to nor convey the real beauty that we experienced firsthand. But they do come a close second. Well . . OK . . not that close . . but something is better than nothing.
As always
Enjoy !!!
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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 Page Link to Elena Lev
Link to Page St. Mary's Charlie & Jimmy 7/22/06 with Charlie and Jimmy
Link to Page Simpson's Creek 7/26/06 Simpson's Creek with Dot
Link to Page St. Mary's C.R.2 9/2/06 C.R. 2 with Dot
Link to Page Stokes w/ Dot 9/9/06 Stokes Bridge with Dot
Link to Page St Marys Dot Charlie 9/16/06 St. Mary's 121 to Stokes
Link to Page Jacksonville Zoo 9/23/06 Jacksonville Zoo with Dot
Link to Page Circus at U.N.F. 9/30/06 Circus
Link to Page Talbot Black Rock and Trees 10/06/06 Talbot Black Rock
Link to Page Sunday 15th 10/15/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Monday 16th 10/16/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Tuesday 17th 10/17/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Wednesday 18th 10/18/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Thursday 19th 10/19/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Friday 20th 10/20/06 Cloudland Canyon vacation
Link to Page Oklawaha 10/28/06 Jacksonville Canoe & Kayak Club
Link to Page Oklawaha 11/04/06 with Dot and Charlie Bear and gang
Link to Page Oklawaha River 11/11/06 Oklawaha
Link to Page Oklawaha with Dot 12/02/06 Oklawaha with Dot
Link to Page Juniper Springs Juniper Springs with Dot
Link to Page Okeefenokee Jan 14 2007 Okeefenokee Swamp
Link to Page St. Mary's Stokes 2/25/07 St. Mary's Stokes
Link to Page St. Marys at Stokes 3/17/07 St. Mary's River at Stokes Bridge
Link to Truck Stuff http:///www.truckchamp.com Truck Stuff
Link to Silver River Silver River 3/24/07 Silver Springs/Silver River
Link to Some Past Videos Some Videos Videos
Link to St. Mary's River St. Mary's 4/21 St. Mary's River at Stokes Bridge
Link to Okefenokee Swamp Okefenokee 4/28 Okefenokee
Link to Oklawaha Oklawaha 5/6/07
Link to Suwannee River Suwannee River 9/7/07
Link to Suwannee River Suwannee Dot and Tom 9/15/07
Link to Suwannee River Suwannee 10/02/07 Myself 10/2/07
Link to Okeefenokee Okeefenokee 10/13/07 All by Myself
Link to Suwannee Sill Suwannee Sill Videos 11/10/07
Link to Suwannee Sill Suwannee Sill Dot and Tom 2/08/08
Link to Return to MainPage Welcome to my website
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