Quite a few of us paddled to the key off Cedar Key during a joint canoe/sailboat weekend.

Favorite Places

Cedar Key National Weather Service Live Buoy Report
This is a neat area to canoe. There are numerous small estuaries leading back from the bay. The East Pass of the Suwannee River enters the gulf just north of Cedar Key and would be fun to explore, as it is totally undeveloped. This is a fisherman's paradise, and a lot of them use air boats, which are noisy, and can be dangerous if the operator isn't paying attention to where he is going. Because it is so far out of the normal tourist traffic, you can still experience solitude along this section of the coast.

One Monday I joined my son Michael, Larry Page, and Gene Talley at the small county campground north of Cedar Key, and the four of us paddled out to Deer Island. For five hours, we enjoyed Florida as it was. The only footprints on the sand were ours. The gulf stretched out to the horizon, sparkling blue. No traffic noise, no jet skis, no 'no trespassing' signs. We explored the woods on Dog Island and found some great places to camp in cooler weather. We walked the beach, and each of us played our own role of Robinson Crusoe. It was great.

We paddled around the north end of Dog Island, stopping to check out the exposed section of the shell mound where the tides were slowly changing the shape of the island. There is no beach on the inshore side of the island, but we disturbed a bald eagle, and watched him fly to a perch in a higher tree.

We continued to paddle down the gulf-side of a chain of islands that stretch towards Cedar Key, and then headed back through a very shallow water area to the campground. If you aren't careful, the tides can catch you and strand you in the middle of a mile of mud flats till the next tide.

Chassahowitzka River
Here's another place that I really enjoy. It's in an area of Florida that isn't too well known. North of St. Pete and Tarpon Springs there are two well known springs: Wekki Watchee and Homassassa. Both of these are developed. The Chassahowitzka is a short, spring fed, clear water river that lies in between Weeki Watchee and Homassassa. It feeds into a wild life reserve of about 30,000 acres. Most of the reserve is marsh grass and palmetto hammocks. It shelters over 250 types of bird life, to say nothing of all the other wild critters that find a protected place to live.

This river isn't as long as its name on a map of Florida. Driving up the west coast of Florida, above Tampa on Route 19, the turn off is easy to miss. Most people have heard of the attraction at Weekiwachee springs, where imitation mermaids put on a show. Very few casual Florida visitors have ever seen or heard of the Chassahowitzka. Florida fishermen however know it well.

The river is only about four miles long. Starting in a series of springs, with crystal clear water, it flows slowly down to the Gulf. There is very little development on the river, and while weekends get hectic with boat traffic, during the week things really quiet down.

What I enjoy the most about this river are the many side streams that twist back into the tropical jungle that covers both river banks. You can get totally away from any signs of civilization with a few strokes of your paddle.

Another thing I like is the complete change in scenery as you go from spring-fed fresh water into brackish salt marsh, and then finally into the open Gulf.

This is a bird watcher's paradise with a total mix of both land and sea birds. Anhingas and cormorants, for instance, on the same branch. Great Blue Herons, and Pileated woodpeckers on the same short stretch of river. Otters play and feed here. You never know what you will see if you paddle quietly and keep your eyes and ears open.

There is a campground run by Citrus County (352-382-2200). They permit pets, so you get barking dogs. Quiet hour isn't intil ten o'clock, so you get a noisy campground during a weekend. The tent sites are in a heavily wooded area, clean, but pretty close together.

If you are looking for some place different to paddle the next time you come to Florida, you might find a visit to this area of Florida very rewarding.

Myakka River Myakka River State Park
The stretch of the Myakka River I paddle the most is between the upper and lower lakes. It is only a couple of miles long, but the river twists and turns and the scenery constantly changes. In places it is too narrow to turn a canoe around, in other areas it spreads out over wide prairies of swamp grass. Enormous oaks and multitudes of palmetto palms line the banks in other areas. There is usually not much current and the water is deeply stained almost a chocolate color with tannic acid.

This is a popular river for fishing but the park as a whole is probably best known for the really wide variety of its bird life and for its large alligator population! My wife will not canoe the Myakka River with me, but I have never had any real problems with alligators. I have a lot of respect for them and try to avoid startling them when they are snoozing. They can be a little grouchy about having their naps interrupted. Alligators, like the shark, are primitives, extremely well adapted to their environment.

To name the birds you might see on a trip to the park would take up this whole newsletter. Let me just say that it is fascinating. I was paddling through a wide area of the river, just at twilight, when I startled a big buck deer, knee deep in the water. He was silhouetted against the setting sun, with a beautiful set of antlers. He raised his face from the water, shook his antlers and studied me with his big brown eyes. The canoe drifted slowly towards him and when he realized how close I was he took off with several leaps and quickly reached the bank, turning once as if to say "goodnight" before disappearing into the darkening oak hammock. I didn't have a camera with me that evening, but I never forgot how pretty he was.

When the Myakka river floods back into the woods of Myakka State Park, you can't go anyplace in a motor boat, but in a small canoe you can enter a world hardly anyone has ever seen. The only way I know to describe the feeling is to recall my first impression at a very young age when my parents took me into St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. A feeling of total awe that anything could be so beautiful. You could feel that here was some great mystery, some marvel of creation. The Cathedral for its vaulted grandeur and stained glass marvels, Myakka forest for its enormous oak trees soaring up out of the dark chocolate water, completely blocking out the sky, their enormous limbs covered with air plants, tree ferns and tiny orchids, everything muted and still and mysterious as you glide between the trees, no rustle of undergrowth, no sound of our passing. Sometimes rewarded by seeing an owl or a deer down the long vistas between the trees. Unreal, but all the world of the Wee Lassie.

November, 1999: Sandy Lawrence, Larry page, and Dale Andrews all joined me for a morning paddle on the Myakka last week. We had a very pleasant, relaxed paddle up to the upper lake and back. I was disappointed by the lack of bird and animal life. Normally, you see an immense variety of bird life, to say nothing of deer, wild pigs, and an endless supply of alligators of all sizes. We were the only boats on the river, yet saw very little. There was an air boat spraying the water Hyacinths on the upper lake. We stayed as far away as possible, but got some pretty good whiffs of the chemical defoliant they were spraying. They say it is harmless to fish and wildlife. I find this hard to believe. A canoe trip on the Myakka river is an excellent way to see Florida as it was a hundred years ago. It is truly a unique environment.

Rock Springs Run/Wekiva River:
If you are in the Orlando area and Disney World is not your cup of tea, try spending an hour or so on Rock Springs Run. Just outside of Longwood, which is northeast of Orlando on I-4, ask around for Kelly Park, which is where the run starts. A neat, clean picnic area overlooks the main spring and swimming area. There is camping available amongst the pine trees and just up the road you can launch your canoe into crystal clear spring water and leave development behind. At times jungley and narrow, threading its way through a swampy woods, then running wide and shallow thru tall reeds, in twisting channels, you won't be bored!

There is one area where the deer come out in the river to feed off the water plants and I have always seen deer at that same spot year after year, and once surprised a doe with her fawn. You can call it quits at any place along the run and paddle back upstream to your car, or continue past the Marina at the junction with the Wekiva for another 8 or 9 miles to Katie's Landing, if you have arranged for return transportation. The Wekiva is nice, but not as nice or as interesting as the run.