Day #120 – St Mark’s NWR - Kayaking

Perry, FL

Today dawned cold and blustery.  Rain threatened and the forecast called for evening thunderstorms.  Nevertheless, we packed up our lunches and headed off for St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/saintmarks and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Marks_National_Wildlife_Refuge).

We wore Capilene, dry shirts, and skirts.  We put in at the first primitive boat launch and headed out onto the water.  It was my favorite kind of day – lots of wind and chop.  I was hoping my shoulder would permit a two-mile paddle.  We had barely left shore when we spotted our first alligator of the day.  Kelly was pretty nervous and I didn’t tell her when it splashed – big splash - into the water behind us.  We saw so many alligators that Kelly finally stopped being afraid of them.  We gave them lots of room and they didn’t bother us.

Let me just say that I feel a bit less positive about alligators than I do about snakes.  I actually like snakes and don’t mind touching them.  I’m not afraid of alligators, but I don’t trust them and don’t like turning my back on them.  Until today, Kelly wouldn’t get in the water if she saw one anywhere in that particular body of water.  I’ll get on the water with them, but I have no desire to touch one or paddle within 50 feet of one.

I was surprised at the strength of the current in these coastal pools.  Every time I stopped to take a picture, I found myself carried away by the wind and current.  It was a good lesson in inertia and the need for a shortened glide period.  We both found that feathering our paddles to 45 degrees seemed to help.

We found a quiet inlet, out of the wind, for lunch.  The red-winged blackbirds were everywhere.  I saw them doing something I’d never seen before and wished my mother had been there to see it, too.  A bird would land on a group of lily pads and roughly use its beak to flip the edge of a pad into the air.  It would then quickly dip its head under the “awning” then pull back before the pad fell back onto the water.  I’m guessing there were lots of bugs hanging out under those pads and the birds had figured out how to get an easy lunch.

After our paddle (Yes, I made it the whole two miles.), we drove along the same route we’d taken the previous week.  The rain had started in earnest and dusk was fast approaching.  We saw lots of alligators, Double-Crested Cormorants, Osprey, Pie-Billed Grebes, American Coots, a Belted Kingfisher, plus two deer in the woods.







That evening, I iced my shoulder and all was well with the world.

We’re working on a web site so you can see all our pictures, with captions, and some video.  Don’t hold your breath because we’re too busy having fun to work on code.