Canoeing in North Florida

I used to live in Gainesville, Florida, and always thought it would be nice to go back down for a canoeing trip. This Thanksgiving break seemed like a good time to do it. A lot of club members have gone to the Everglades, but that is rather far, and many people are unaware of the beautiful rivers available in the northern part of the state, such as the Suwanee, the Santa Fe, and many others. Originally, I thought of doing a long trip in the Ocala National Forest, but when Christine and Jeff joined the trip, we decided instead to visit several area, including Crystal River, home to many of the Gulf coast's manatees.

We agreed to meet at O'Leno State Park, which is at the spot where the Santa Fe River disappears into a sinkhole for 3 miles, before coming up again. I picked this location because it is easy to get find and near a nice river. It is also fairly close to where I used to live, so I know the area well.

On Thanksgiving afternoon, we put in at High Springs for about a 6 mile run to a take-out at Rum Island. We could have gone further, but were getting a late start, and in any case, that was far enough to paddle in one day on flat water. It was warm and sunny, and turtles were everywhere. We saw lots of big birds too. The most common trees seemed to be cypress. There were plenty of weeds in the water, which often made paddling a lot of work.

This is a pretty river, but not entirely wilderness, since the land on the left, and sometimes on the right, is privately owned and developed in places. We were hoping to see alligators, but didn't find any. We saw a number of springs, including Poe Springs, which has been developed a lot since I saw it last in the late 80's. At Poe Springs, George and I traded our canoe for Christine and Jeff's kayaks. It was almost sunset when we got off the river.

The next day, we drove down to Homosassa to find a place to camp. I knew there were places there, but they are relatively expensive and cater to motor homes. That is about all you can expect along that part of the Florida Coast, so we stayed at one. Then we took the boats to Pete's Pier in Crystal River and paddled out into King's Bay (see map), which is home to many manatees. Many areas were marked as manatee sanctuaries, where boats could not enter this time of year.

We paddled past Buzzard Island and around Banana Island, to where a large number of boats were anchored, near a narrow channel where swimmers and divers could try to see manatees. There were some manatees here as well, but they normally stayed away from the swimmers. One came out once, and three people in wetsuits jumped on it and tried to get a ride. You are not supposed to do that, because it harasses the manatees.

We paddled back around the other side of Buzzard Island, and a manatee surprised Christine by surfacing under her kayak. One boat anchored there had engine trouble, and we paddled back to Pete's Pier to get them help. After that, we paddled up one of Crystal River's canals. That turned out to be fruitful, since just past the first bridge, we immediately encountered three manatees. We stopped a while to watch them as they swam under our boats. I got in for a swim as well, and one swam right underneath me as I floated in the water, kicking me with its tail.

We went further up the canal, and found about three more manatees swimming around a group of boats that had stopped to look at them. One of these surfaced directly under our canoe, almost flipping it. I got a very close look at one as it swam directly toward our canoe. We paddled up to Three Sisters Spring, and then back down another canal to Pete's Pier, arriving just before sunset.

On Saturday, we drove to Ocala National Forest, our original destination. I decided to just do the popular 7 mile canoe run at Juniper Creek. We stopped in the visitor's center first, and they told us you have to arrive by noon, so we hurried, but this turned out to be unnecessary since we were doing our own shuttle. We camped at the very tropical-looking Juniper Springs Campground. The springs there form the source of Juniper Creek, a very narrow, clear stream flowing through the subtropical forests.

Juniper Creek is incredibly beautiful. It is also something of an obstacle course, with lots of tight turns and many trees to duck. Toward the end, it opens up and flows through swampy areas, where we hoped to see some alligators, but there were none visible. We came across some people who had made some questionable choices of routes, and wondered if they were lost. There are many possible channels through the wide sections toward the end of the run, but some are very shallow.

On Sunday morning, I went down to the spring for a swim. I brought my wetsuit, because the water is only 72 degrees year round, but decided not to use it, since Jeff and Christine were already in the water and weren't wearing them. (I never used a wetsuit here when I lived in Florida, but remembered what the spring felt like, and decided to bring one this time in case I wanted it.) We also walked over to the Fern Hollow spring, which is undeveloped and more beautiful. I think it may be the prettiest spot in Florida.

UT Canoe and Hiking Club