Day 6 - Short and Sweet
Clever subtitle???
Editor's note. I am going to post this but will revise it later by adding graphics and pictures.....
Lafayette Blue Springs State Park (LBSSP) to Peacock Slough River Camp (PSRC)
Always start off the day....
Omelets with ham in them again for breakfast After eating and packing, we spent some time exploring and swimming in the springs at the park. Gorgeous. There was a land bridge similar to Charles Springs??? but much, much wider. The swimming hole was much larger as well. We videoed it several ways with the Gopro, dropping the camera into the deep water. It appeared to be about 20 feet deep but looked much deeper since it was so dark. After swimming with the girls, we headed for our boats. When we approached the boat ramp, a bus with teenagers pulled up from Admiral Farragut Academy. Later on, we found out they were on the river as part of a Biology class studying water clarity or something like that.
Spring???
With a short day, less than 10 miles, we got an intentionally late start. When we arrived at our first shore excursion, it was lunch time. It was a smaller spring with private property on both sides. The house to the west was quite large and for sale. It was interesting because it was not only crystal clear but had some interesting rocks in the water acting as a barricade for larger boats. Those rocks have large holes in them. After pondering what the portholes size openings were for, Shawn figured they may have been used for anchoring larger boats way back when. I can live with that.
After lunch we crossed under ??? bridge. This was of note to us since this is where we started our spring float down the river and inspired this week long trip. The blue suspension bridge stands in stark contrast to the other bridges that we have gone under previously. Besides the color and support type, we have gone over this bridge multiple times and would continue to do so. This is the road we take to get to Suwannee River Rendevous (SRR), the site of our yearly reunion and where are eventual stopping point is.
Spring ???
Shortly after the bridge we stopped at ??? Spring. On our previous trip, the water level was about ??? higher and we didn't even know this spring was here. It wouldn't have mattered much since it would have been covered in the tanic waters of the Suwannee anyway.
The spring is maybe 100 feet from the river. The rock formations were ???. It was a very nice location, so nice that we took our group photo at this spot. It is also the location of the water fight that happened shortly after that picture was taken.
Water you say?
I was warned there would be water guns on this trip since Shawn's bailer is more like a large water gun. As a former Boy Scout, I am always prepared.
River Camp: Peacock Slough River Camp
(slough - definition ???)
The saying familiarity breeds contempt was put into reality at this location for multiple reasons. First, I was coming in pretty fast and within 20 feet of shore, I hit something in the water...hard. Hard enough that my boat was tipping and I had to make a decision, fast. Either tip the entire kayak and spill the gear on top into the water or get wet. I chose the latter but paid a small fee in the amount of pain. The straining wrenched my back enough to be an annoyance the rest of the trip but i didn't hinder me too much. What I hit was a large, flat rock submerged less than a foot from the surface of the water. After floating the kayak to shore, I decided to jump into the deep water between shore and the rock. That deep water ended up being only 3 feet or so deep! I gave Shawn, Debi, and Casey a scare for sure but it all worked out.
The second part of familarity that got me was the condition of this camp:.it was awful. This was the river camp that inspired this trip. There was no camp ground host, the grass was high, and it, again, needed a through cleaning. The facilities were like the first camp, Woods Ferry River Camp: regular restrooms and no sulfur smell to the water.
This camp was also the beginning of having full river camps again. There was another Boy Scout Troop (from Chattanooga, Tennessee) this time. They were on their fall break, paddling almost the same length we were doing. There was also a group from Admiral Farragut military school in St Pete. They were on a biology class field trip studying water clarity. Both groups, were quite well behaved.
For dinner, it was the beginning of our dehydrated dinner meals from Mountain House. We had been eating the breakfast meals throughout the week. I cooked two different meals so the ladies could taste both and decide what they liked. Once choices were known, I would portion out the meals equally, giving me what wasn't liked. First up was Beef stroganoff and Chicken with Fried Rice. Thankfully, they liked both but I gave Savannah more of the stroganoff. I had intended on doing a dessert but we had some snacks over at Shawn and Debi's place that hit the spot.
Daily Digest
We ha
- River Camp write-up: Another full camp. A Boy Scout troop took 2 shelters while another group from a military school took another. We took two as well. No camp ground host and it showed. Place needed some cleanup with the high grass. Restrooms were just about out of toilet paper but a ranger stopped later with firewood for us and had to go back to get keys for the paper supplies. This camp looked gorgeous in the spring but now needed some work. Sad really. Bath house was similar to WFRC. Needed a major scrubbing though. Cell phone service (Verizon) was ???
- Slough - definition
- River Camp Write up:
- Access type: short stairs. Paved to the restroom area???
- Cart available: none
- Restroom type: permanent structure
- Water type: treated
- Host: none
- General condition:
- misc notes
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