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.

Day #117 – Day Trip to the Forgotten Coast

Perry FL

We have modified our travel plan somewhat.  Instead of traveling west towards Pensacola, we’ve decided to head northward into Georgia, then west through Alabama and Mississippi, then south to New Orleans.  When I started this journey, I had hoped to do less planning – to start each day with, “Well, where do you want to go today?”  It was a romantic notion that didn’t last long.  A certain amount of planning is apparently necessary to make things happen.  Today, we planned to drive up along the Gulf coast as far as we wanted, in lieu of traveling all the way to Pensacola.

We packed some healthy munchies and headed out.  We soon saw a Brown Sign and turned into the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Marks_National_Wildlife_Refuge and http://www.fws.gov/saintmarks). 

This official wilderness area is a winter spot for the endangered Whooping Crane.  We didn’t see any cranes, but were told they were getting ready to migrate north for the summer.  The manager of the refuge has applied for a grant to install a web camera into the protected area where the cranes live, but she hasn’t received any monies yet.

We completed a very slow drive-through of this refuge, stopping many times to take photos.

We drove all the way to the St. Marks Lighthouse, where we parked and walked for a bit.  We walked along the beach where we saw cactus growing next to palms, as well as all types of birds.  After lunch, we headed back to the main road.

We saw some interesting signs along the way.  Worm grunting (http://www.wormgruntinfestival.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_grunting) was new to us, but is an annual event in this area.  By the way, “Sopchoppy” is pronounced “sap chappy”.  Who knew?!?

We were thinking fondly of our friend Linda when we photographed this sign for a kayak outfitter in Carabelle.  We later learned we were very near Tate’s Hell State Forest (http://www.fl-dof.com/state_forests/tates_hell.html) at the time.  Who knew?!?  In this small town, we found a great spot for a bite to eat – Carabelle Junction.  Kelly had a Ruben and I had a turkey/avocado sandwich.

Bears are becoming more common around here and this sign warned us to beware of moms with babies.

My favorite sign of the day went by too fast for a photograph – Jesus Died for MySpace.

Along the way, we kept our eyes open for a campground near the beach.  We drove through one that looked good on the web, but was too crowded for our comfort.  We happened upon another campground that looked promising.  After we drove into it, we realized nearly all the trailer roofs were covered with a thick blanket of pine needles, indicating nearly all were full-timers.  There was lots of junk in most of the trailer “yards” and we quickly decided this was not a campground for us.  We drove out the back of the property and turned onto a dirt road.  We were immediately greeted by a pre-adolescent boy carrying a loaded M16 rifle with scope.  As soon as we turned the truck around, we saw the sign – “Watch for Children”.  Kelly wished we’d seen the sign warning us to beware of children a bit earlier; I thought it was terrible to make such young children walk guard duty.

At the mouth of the Apalachicola River, we discovered the St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/saintvincent).  The visitor center was closed, but we got some good photos of the scallop boats that had returned to their docks.

Nearby, we found the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/apalachicola/info.htm).  They were getting ready to close, so all we saw inside were a honey bee hive, tanks of turtles, and tanks of fish.  We walked along their boardwalk, through their swamp, to an observation deck.  Using the scope, we spotted a capsized fishing boat, an osprey nest, and an eagle nest.

We drove all the way to St. George Island before turning north to drive through the Apalachicola National Forest, to the Interstate, and home.  The bridge to St. George Island was nearly three miles long.  Cold and windy with rain.   We bought some fresh local scallops at a trailer near the lighthouse and headed back for the mainland.