48) Silver River

It has been a long time since I have updated, and of course life has gotten in the way of paddling. Baby showers, birthdays, work, and marathon training have been taking a lot of time (marathon training knocks out one day every weekend - Sunday is my long run day). This past weekend Erin and I went out to the silver river. We put in at Ray Wayside park and paddled upstream to the silver river state park where we had lunch at their canoe launch. It was a 3 mile journey upstream with beautiful views and amazing river scenes. There is no fishing allowed on silver river, and the water is crystal clear, we saw gators, lots of gar and other fish, ducks, turtles, and lots of turtle grass (and a few too many prop scars). Silver springs has an extremely high flow rate, providing a healthy flow in the river. This makes the river about 20 feet deep, and you can see all the way to the bottom. The river just swallows up whole cypress trees when they fall.
Getting out on the river early is key because there is a lot of motorboat traffic as the day creeps on. We decided to turn around at the silver river state park, because it was getting very busy and we still had 2 miles to go to the spring. In fact, launching at the silver river state park would be perfect, you could get up to the spring and relax relatively quickly. Unfortunately there is a 1.5 mile portage from the parking lot to the launch, carrying a canoe, paddles, life vests, recreational stuff, and water is out of the question. That gives me an idea... I need to make a canoe cart, Hmm that would make a good project, stay tuned.
Here are some pics.
A tree in the river.

Cormorants in a tree.

Little gator.

Ducks.

Here is my birthday gift from Erin, a Eagles Nest Outfitters hammock... thanks sweetie.