47) Splashed - Ichetucknee River

I have lived in Gainesville for a few years now, but I have never made it up to the Ichetucknee river before. Wow, what a perfect place to launch the canoe. The launch was pretty unceremonious we just put the canoe in the water and took off upstream. This river is a very popular attraction, during the summer thousands of people rent inner tubes and float lazily down the river. The river is crystal clear and lined with all sorts of beautiful Florida vegetation. The canoe paddles perfectly. I have read that this design was stable and could carry a decent load, my main concern was the seat placement, I wanted to make sure the canoe was balanced with the difference between Erin's weight and my own. I also wanted to make sure that the seats were not too high, which would make it feel too tippy. Fortunately, all of my calculations were perfect, the canoe was perfectly balanced with both of us, and was not tippy at all, I was even able to stand up in the canoe! The seat design is perfect, both of us were very comfortable. The current in the river is strong, so it was sometimes difficult to dodge all of the floating people when we were headed up river, the current made tracking a bit squirrely. A small keel would help the boat track better, but I did'nt want to sacrifice turning ability on some of the more challenging runs (i.e. Juniper Springs). Overall, I am very pleased with this design and would readily recommend it to anyone.
Here is the canoe on my Jeep.

Erin proves that there are no leaks.


The beautiful Ichetucknee - the haze in the air is not fog, it is from one of the two hundred wildfires currently burning in the state.