20060226 - Crystal River (I can't believe I was swimming with alligators)

One of the nice things about this park in Florida is that I can sit and the only thing I can hear are the birds. I imagine that I am sitting in a rocking chair on an old southern porch looking at trees with Spanish moss and listening to the birds.
On Tuesday this week we went to Juniper Springs Recreation Area, located in Florida's Ocala National Forest. The recreation area and surrounding wilderness consist of two medium sized blue springs and a seven mile spring run. Starting at the canoe ramp, the upper spring run is about 10-15 feet wide, shallow, and has many twists, turns, deadfalls and overhanging branches. With a current of about 2 MPH, paddlers must pay attention or face an unexpected dunking. A white sand bottom gives the appearance of paddling down a sandy dirt road. From the start, palmetto, palms, oak and cypress form almost a complete canopy over the small creek, which is much appreciated on hot summer days. About two miles downstream, the run enters Juniper Prairie Wilderness. Further downstream the creek becomes wider and deeper while a matting of leaves cover the bottom. Near the takeout the creek widens again into a flood plain complete with marsh grasses, alligators and many wading birds.
Rich and I arrived at the springs and got our canoe, paddles, life vests, and pillows. We passed a picnic area with some picnickers and a watcher. Both of us failed to note that the spring was “moderate level difficulty”. We put the canoe into the run, and got on board. Thus began one of those trips where the best thing you can say while it is happening is “Some day this will make a great story”. Hopefully some day is now and you, reader, will enjoy the story of our adventure. 5 minutes into the trip we knew we were in trouble and 10 minutes into the trip we (and all of our belongings) were in the water. After we got the canoe out of the river and got ourselves into the canoe, we chased down all our belongings (2 floating canoe seats, shoes, and lunch bag) where they had landed on the river banks downstream. We were unable to locate Rich’s hat. The river was narrow and very windy. Some areas the water was not as wide as the canoe was long, there were sweepers completely across the water and the S curves were more than we could handle.
In the beginning we were both sitting on the canoe seats. At one point I was knocked into the canoe. Since it seemed more stable with me on the floor I stayed there for quite a while. Imagine a tubby 60 year old with her bottom on the floor of the canoe and her back against a strut of the canoe and her legs up on the seat of the canoe (not a very dignified position, of course I am not a very dignified person). Unfortunately my legs were not happy about the position and after a bit my left thigh got a 5 minute charley horse and shortly thereafter my right leg did the same. And then Rich who was still on the seat was unable to get under a sweeper and we went back into the water. This time we managed to corral all our belongings before they floated downriver. This time when I got into the canoe I got in with my legs under the seat. Looks better, feels better but…when we went back into the water (for the third time) I ended up sitting in a sideways canoe half in and half out of the water having some challenges getting out of the canoe. This time we were not able to get the canoe out of the water so we had to empty of water by using the paddle to sweep the water out.
Now you need to understand that we rented the canoe around noon and the last shuttle from the pullout place was at 4:30. It was a 7 mile trip. Should have been no problem, however, if you keep going swimming, it takes a bit longer. We arrived at the pullout point at 5:00. Luckily for us the kayakers who had passed us near the end told the driver we were coming and since we had rented the canoe they knew they still had people in the water. As we were leaving the park the ranger asked Rich if we had seen any alligators on the trip, especially a 15 foot one in a specific area. It is so lucky we did not see any alligators. Had I known there were alligators swimming in the water with me, I would have come completely unglued. The shuttle driver told us some days 80% of the canoeists go swimming and some days almost none.
The trip was beautiful when it was quiet. We saw lots of fish, lots of turtles, and lots of birds, especially wading birds in the grasses near the end of the trip.
And now some of the after effects.
Electronics: Rich was wearing his phone - it did not survive; I was wearing my pedometer, it appeared to have not survived, however, after 2 days on the shelf, it came back to life and even remembered it’s history; The digital camera also appeared to have not survived, however, after 4 days on the shelf, it also came back to life and even remembered its last few pictures as you will see at the end of this Blog.
Rich’s wallet: the plastic totally survived; cash dries fast and well; other paper doesn’t do as well, but some comes back; and the wallet itself (after being cleaned and oiled) seems to have come through OK.
Clothing: Most clothing is made to be washed, so although my jeans stayed wet all of our clothing survived; My shoes (made of man made fabric) survived, Rich’s shoes (made of leather) did not.
On Wednesday I went to a fabric dyeing class at one of my local fabric stores. We made 13 gradations of hand dyed fabric. I now have 13 (supposed to be red actually are yellow to orange) hand dyed fat quarters. It was fun and the fabrics are beautiful. I think I will be able to use them in my autumn leaf quilt.
I spent Thursday and Friday at the quilt shops working on quilts. I still have work to do on several quilts.