“That appears like a child gator. Did you hear it?” We stopped paddling and listened. Leaves rustled, there was the splash of a turtle sliding into water, after which “pew, pew,” the dainty name of a child alligator sounding like a online game laser. We noticed the hatchling’s mom hauled out on muddy floor. She watched us move. Giving due deference we moved away, quietly thrilled by the encounter.
We had been standup paddle boarding on Silver Glen Run, in Central Florida, an hour and quarter-hour’ drive north of Orlando. Right here, water from the underlying aquifer, flowing to the floor by means of caves and rock tunnels, creates “spring runs,” quick, clear creeks and rivers that stream into a bigger river or lake.
In Florida, navigable waterways are held in public belief, even when the encircling land is privately owned. Clear water and navigation rights are invites to discover these riparian pathways, and paddle boards, which mix portability and a quiet strategy, are the proper vessels for sluggish journey on them, a option to get pleasure from wildlife — otters, cormorants, garfish and snapping turtles.
Whereas the waterways are public, entry to them is through boat launches on non-public or state-owned land. Some state parks, comparable to Weeki Wachee Springs, have restricted launching slots, with a purpose to management the variety of guests and shield the habitat, that should be booked in advance online. Others, like Silver Glen Spring, are standard and have restricted parking, which ought to be booked in advance to ensure entry. Staying in waterfront lodging is one other approach to make sure entry. Paddling upstream and drifting again to your parking spot removes the necessity for a shuttle journey again to your automobile.
Myles, my boyfriend, and I’ve explored Florida’s springs over a few years. This 12 months his 19-year-old daughter, Lili, had free time between research and internships, so we introduced her to our favorites. We had our inflatable boards, that are light-weight, simple to launch and pack all the way down to check-in measurement for flights. In a round route, beginning and ending at Orlando, over the course of every week we stayed in three locations and paddled on six spring runs. Our journey happened within the spring, however peak paddle-boarding season runs by means of October, although it’s attainable to do year-round.
Braving a tunnel
We began our week with two nights within the city of Homosassa, on the Chassahowitzka Hotel, a bed-and-breakfast with shared loos that fits households or buddies staying as a gaggle. It offered the comfort of providing breakfast, whereas letting us cook dinner dinner on the grill open air, and being shut sufficient to the Chassahowitzka River that we may carry our boards to and from the launch. At a close-by campground you may lease kayaks and paddle boards. Simply upstream , on the north aspect of the Chassahowitzka River, is Seven Sisters Spring.
We quickly joined a gaggle of people that had tethered their kayaks and boards to timber whereas they splashed and dived. One man swam by means of a tunnel within the rock with my GoPro. On the video you may see air pockets like liquid mercury pressed towards the tunnel roof, and forest framed by the opening as he reaches the floor.
Swimming by means of submerged tunnels carries the chance of getting trapped underwater, and I used to be too timid to strive. After getting suggestions and an indication from a neighborhood swimmer, Lili swam into a brief tunnel. She disappeared beneath the rock for 4 seconds, after which emerged a couple of yards away to a excessive 5 from her impromptu coach.
To paddle on the Weeki Wachee River, we drove half an hour south to Rogers Park, the place we may park and launch our boards with out advance reserving. Right here we noticed our first manatee, its tail frayed by an encounter with a ship propeller. But it had survived, with wounds healed into scar tissue. We watched it grazing, steering to keep away from drifting above it. Kim Kulch, our host on the Chassahowitzka Lodge, instructed us, “if manatees get spooked, they’ll flip their tails, and they’re highly effective. As soon as, somebody who had been out paddling instructed me they’d been tipped over by a manatee, nevertheless it was great.”
Avoiding the tubers
Heading north the subsequent day, we stopped to spend a day on the Rainbow River, which begins at Rainbow Springs and flows for five.7 miles till it merges with the Withlacoochee River on the metropolis of Dunnellon. We parked at KP Hole Park, 1.5 miles downstream from Rainbow Springs the place, in case you have your individual paddle craft, you may launch within the afternoon and return within the night, avoiding flotillas of tubers.
This river is closely carpeted with strap-leaf sagittaria, its linear leaf blades interspersed with white flowers that open underwater. Wanting down from our boards the view was rippling inexperienced, punctuated by passing fish and cormorants chasing them.
Slightly additional on, we noticed fluid our bodies diving and resurfacing: a pair of otters catching fish. Unbothered by our presence they ate their fish, after which vanished up a creek into the forest.
On our return downstream from Rainbow Springs State Park, we pulled over for a swim about half a mile upstream from KP Gap Park, our place to begin. A cormorant surfaced subsequent to me. I ducked underwater and bought a close-up view of the chicken swimming with silver bubbles slipping off its feathers.
From black water to turquoise
Our subsequent cease was a home on stilts we’d rented on Vrbo for 3 nights close to the junction of two rivers, a 10-minute drive from the city of Fort White. Strolling throughout the garden we put our boards into the Santa Fe, a black-water river tinted by tannins from decaying vegetation. After 350 yards we became the Ichetucknee River, the place the water beneath our boards shifted to turquoise. We paddled upstream, previous homes set again from the river with raised wood walkways over waterlogged floor and bald cypress tree knees resulting in their riverside docks.
Two boys had been snorkeling, citing handfuls of small black shells and sifting by means of them. The person with them mentioned they had been searching for fossilized shark enamel. Sandy clay on the riverbed and banks erodes to launch an abundance of fossils. The Florida Museum in Gainesville has greater than 11,000 from the Ichetucknee River.
Defeated by sturdy present the place the Ichetucknee flows by means of a culvert beneath Freeway 27, we let ourselves float downstream. Nearing the junction with the Santa Fe River we may hear music; a crowd of boats was anchored alongside the forest edge. Folks gave us pleasant waves and we had been provided beer.
The subsequent day we drove 10 minutes to Ichetucknee Springs State Parks south entrance, and began our paddle from Dampiers Landing, a canoe and tube launch. We went upstream, the wrong way of tubers floating all the way down to South Takeout, the final exit inside the park.
Above the tubing part the Ichetucknee widens and its present steadily will increase. Round Grassy Gap Spring, the place the river threads by means of islands of vegetation, we noticed scattered canoes, every with a band of snorkelers. I by accident nudged one who had been zigzagging throughout the river. My apology was overridden by his exclamation, “I didn’t catch it!” He defined that the group was catching turtles for the annual survey carried out by the Santa Fe River Turtle Project.
Shut to 2 miles after beginning, we handed the outflow from Blue Gap Spring, the biggest spring within the group that feeds the Ichetucknee, and paddling turned much less strenuous. We reached North Finish launch, the place the river begins with water from its headspring. It was a straightforward drift again to our rented home, lingering over views of gar, popping by means of the culvert beneath Freeway 27 and loitering to observe a grazing manatee.
Be careful for the manatees
The subsequent day, on our option to Ocala National Forest the place we might be staying for 2 nights, we stopped at Silver River. After days spent on spring-fed rivers, I believed that my sense of surprise would have run dry. However huge aquatic panoramas bordered by purple cardinal flowers and blue spikes of pickerel weed flowers had been a heady mixture.
Somebody passing in the wrong way described the place to see a gaggle of manatees. Within the lee of a submerged tree had been three adults and a calf resting on the underside. One of many grownup manatees slowly surfaced to breathe and we listened to its exhalation.
Reaching an island swinging with monkeys — rhesus macaques intentionally launched within the Thirties — I heard acquainted voices. Within the coronary heart of the Ocala Nationwide Forest, there’s a cabin constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps known as Sweetwater Cabin. Due to its recognition, it’s a must to enter a lottery months upfront to get a allow to lease it. My buddies Cassy and Marco gained and we’d deliberate our journey to overlap with the week they’d be on the cabin and organized to fulfill at Silver River.
Due to lack of coordination, Cassy and Marco had booked kayak leases with Silver River Kayak Rentals an hour earlier than our launch slot at Silver Springs State Park. They intentionally dawdled on their journey and we caught up with them on Silver River. Marco excelled at snake recognizing, declaring water moccasins camouflaged amongst tree roots on the water’s edge. We bought out at Ray Wayside Park, roughly six miles downstream from the Silver Springs State Park’s canoe launch and had been taken again to our vehicles by shuttle service, booked with our launch slots.
As nightfall fell, we sat subsequent to Sweetwater Spring with cocktails and listened to a barred owl, which Cassy and Marco mentioned had been there each night. At Sweetwater cabin, with its plain décor and with out TV or Wi-Fi, nature is leisure and ornamentation; watching fish within the vibrant turquoise spring, seeing a stripy Jap coral snake crossing the trail, listening to the songs of unseen birds.
After a morning at Silver Glen Spring, we returned to the cabin and used its metallic canoes to discover Juniper Creek, a spring run that flows from Juniper Spring to Lake George. Sweetwater Spring has a brief and shallow run, simply sufficient to steer a canoe into Juniper Creek. It will have been tough to navigate the tree branches that cross the creek on paddle boards.
Cassy and Marco thought there was a mountaineering path close to the cabin as they heard individuals speaking and passing by. Out on Juniper Creek, they realized it was paddlers that they had been listening to. Assembly different individuals whereas out on the water is as a lot part of the expertise of Florida’s spring fed rivers as seeing wildlife.
In Silver Glen Run I noticed cages of eelgrass planted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to revive aquatic vegetation after Hurricane Irma. Subsequent time I’m there it might need unfold exterior of its protecting enclosures. For those who’re on these rivers in fall, leaves on the bald cypress timber shall be a tawny distinction to the blue spring water. With every go to to Florida’s spring-fed rivers, there’s something new to see.
Comply with New York Instances Journey on Instagram and join our weekly Journey Dispatch e-newsletter to get professional tips about touring smarter and inspiration on your subsequent trip. Dreaming up a future getaway or simply armchair touring? Try our 52 Locations to Go in 2023.
