51) Silver Springs

Well, you can ignore the previous post, the canoe cart only made it a quarter of a mile before breaking. However it worked pretty well up until that point.
This is what it was supposed to look like.

The T-joint under the canoe was just too fragile and snapped with the weight of the boat bouncing on it. I will rebuild with a sturdier joint and try again - as always I'll report my findings here. Given that, I must say I am glad that one of my childhood heroes was MacGyver - I would have never made it to the canoe launch without the spirit of Richard Dean Anderson's character guiding me. I even considered canceling the outing, but with gas running around $3.30 per gallon, I would not drive back to Gainesville in shame. This is what I came up with, I simply duct taped the padding to the axle and jury rigged this to the canoe.


Once out on the water, there was a slight mist coming off of the river and I was immediately greeted by a river otter and a family of Rhesus monkeys hanging out at the waters edge, the river gods were smiling on me:) I made it up to the springs just as the theme park was opening (the land around the springs is a privately owned nature theme park, however the river and the springs are protected public property... as long as you stay in your boat you can hang out at the spring for as long as you like! = no admission) I saw tons of amazing wildlife including birds, gators, huge gar, alligator gar, and more, here are a few pics.


This shadowy gar was probably around 4 feet long, these torpedos can weigh up to 50 lbs!


Silver springs is the largest artesian spring formation in the world, and it is definitely worth fighting the current to get to the headwaters. I even got to see the sunken remains of an old native american dugout canoe, while I floated above in my modern day version...too cool. Here are some shots of some of the springs, the white around the opening is sand and shell fragments that are blown up from the depths by the strong flow.


This was a great day paddling, the canoe is a bit squirrelly heading upstream solo, a keel would help, but I want to do some more exploring before I decide to sacrifice the super shallow draft. On my way back to the launch, I paddled over a group of drift divers exploring the river from below, looks like fun.

50) Portage Cart

Some of the really good (and less traveled) canoe and kayak launches around north-central Florida require portages around a mile long. My back can take some of the shorter trips, but on the longer hikes, I can't imaging getting the canoe and gear in one trip by myself. I googled "canoe cart" and saw some cool commercial carts and some homemade varieties. Well, I made the canoe, so why not the cart. This was modeled after one I saw somewhere online (I did'nt bookmark the site). I cobbled it together with PVC pipe, a threaded rod, and some super-sized lawnmower wheels. All-in-all it cost nearly $60 from the local big box store.
Here is an overall look, note stand that will help single hand loading

This is a close-up of the wheel showing the wingnuts holding them on.

I set everything up so it could be disassembled for stashing in the canoe or in the bushes (maybe I will hit it with a camo paint job!)

49) Crystal River - Manatees!

I apologize, it has been way too long since my last update, but I figured most people would be surfing this site while daydreaming about/ doing research on building a cedar strip canoe or kayak. I don't think people really care about my paddling trips (except for family and friends), but if you are in the process of building or thinking about a similar project, here is some inspiration from the finish line. I can tell you everywhere I go, I get great comments and questions from people about the canoe... it's a real head turner.

Today it was sunny, but a brisk and windy 53 degrees F in central Florida... a perfect day for manatee sightseeing. Erin and I decided to head down to Crystal River, specifically Kings Bay. We put in at a nice little public park called Hunters Spring Park, a 30 min paddle from Three Sisters Spring (a favorite hangout of the manatee this time of year... and the tourists). If you want to get to Three Sisters Spring from Hunters Spring Park, just head towards Pete's Pier and follow the flotilla of pontoon boats (If you go in January, you can't miss them!).
You can see all of the manatees in the "safe zone" on the left, while snorkelers try to coax them out.

Here's Erin

Here I am

Now I am touching an endangered species (its legal, but one hand only)!

Not captured for posterity, a manatee "farted" next to Erin... she can now cross inhaling endangered species fart off her life list.