85 miles on the Suwannee - Technical Information (draft)

85 miles on the Suwannee - Tech Talk

A week of springs, smiles, fun, and a lot of memories.

Editor's note.  I am going to post this but will revise it later by adding graphics and pictures and more information including resources...

Prologue

Please note, as you have already noticed, I am very wordy but I hope that our trip will help many others on future trips.  Get a strong cup of coffee and enjoy our trip.  There will also be a video version of this as well....sometime soon.  Also, in order to help with those that may use this blog as a reference for their trip, I am going to produce a separate, more condensed version on this blog with more technical information on it that may not be included in here.

General Information: 

• River Camp
• Each sleeping shelter has (total of 5):
• two "tables" with bench at opposite corners of the shelter.  The handicapped shelter has one.  There is a wood framing member that goes around the interior perimeter of the cabin that doubles as a nice shelf for miscellaneous small items.
• Ceiling fan/light combination - make sure they both work via switch by door.  We had one that we didn't find out until later in the evening.
• Two outlets that allow for plugging in electric devices like phone chargers and MP3 players
• Outside light.  Sometimes the switch was on the outside, sometimes on the inside.
• Screen around shelter.  Make sure it is intact.  We had one that was missing a section and didn't notice until later.
• Outdoor picnic table
• Outdoor fire place and/or grille.  Check before claiming due to some being unusable.
• Varies at each shelter:
• Hooks for hanging hammocks.  These varied GREATLY by shelter (even within the same camp).  Check to make sure your needs are met.  Some have one common hook for two hammocks.  We used Atlas Straps from Eno.  This provided enough flexibility to make the longer and shorter distances work.  We had one set of regular straps as well.  High recommend having a set of Atlas straps for each hammock.
• Misc hooks for hanging personal items and clothes.
• Some had rope to dry clothes but there were not many.
• Campground Amenities:
• Restroom facilities 
• Permanent structure - concrete block structure with Men's/Women's designated sides.  One shower in each side.  Cleanup sink for washing dishes, etc.  Water was free of sulphur smell.  Due to size of facility, mud didn't seem to easily collect on floor.
• Portable structure - Elevated, portable building.  Two total, one building has two restrooms for individuals (1 toilet/sink/shower) combo.  The other side is handicapped accessible.  All use instantaneous water heaters which provided uneven hot water.  Cleanup sink was a laundry utility sink type setup.  Water had a heavy sulphur smell.  Due to small size of room, dirt/mud on the floor was common.
• Large covered shelter that has 4 picnic tables.  This is where you are supposed to cook (not in your sleeping shelter).
• Large group size grille for cooking.
• Large group size fire ring
• Primitive campsites (5 total)
• Other notes:
• I know we are outside but we had multiple issues with wood roaches.  I ended up spraying Deep Woods Off as a repellant after killing about two dozen at one shelter.  They come up from between the cracks in the floors.  Being in a hammock gave me peace of mind but my kids were sleeping on the floor.  You may want to bring a can of roach killer for peace of mind.  Spraying before you set up will let it air out as well.
• I listed if there was a host available.  This varies due to seasons.  In general, the are hosts throughout the spring/winter/fall months.  Hit or miss during the summer months.  
• A host being present also appears to affect if a cart is available.
• Firewood can be purchased from an available host
• There is talk that ice will be available at each camp in the near future.  May want to call ??? to inquire about this.
• We brought two 5 gallon buckets of small sized wood for kindling.  Besides fires, we were using the wood for our Biolite stove.  Typically, Florida State Parks do not allow the gathering of wood from the ground.  You can pick up wood from other places as you go down the river but that seemed to be a lot more work than bring it.
• There are many, many boat ramps along the river.  Some are well known, others are hidden gems (not heavily used).  I did not locate all of the ramps, just the ones that we may need or are near a point of interest.
• We used a Lowrance Elite-5 along with the phone app (Back Country Navigator).  My wife setup all of the waypoints in Google Earth, and then I imported those into the Lowrance using these utilities [link???].  The phone app was the premium version but was only $10.  Having two sources of information was helpful, especially since I was just learning how to use the Lowrance.

Day 1 

Stephen Foster State Park (SFSP???[name]) to Woods Ferry River Camp (WFRC)

Woods Ferry River Camp (WFRC)

River Information

• River is very windy and fun
• Eddies at turns in river are powerful
• Numerous sand bars for breaks
• Not populated
• Watch for widow makers in trees

River Camp Information

• Access type and description - Long, long ramp up to camp.  Path is paved from boardwalk to bathroom and to the handicapped shelter.  
• Host - yes
• Cart available - yes
• Restroom type - permanent concrete structure
• Cell phone service
• Verizon - appeared to be 3G
• Metro - non-existant
• Information format
• Start & End
• Temps
• Total time
• River time
• Distance traveled
• Water level (White Springs)
• misc notes - Even though there was a host on site, the campground was in rough shape.  The large grilles at the shelter needed to be cleaned out.  Disappointing because it had rained and water was trapped inside the grille as well.  I would think the host would clear these out on days of high use (Friday - Sunday).  We had the handicapped shelter, last one available, and the grille outside was broken and unusable.  Restrooms were clean.  

Day 2 

Woods Ferry River Camp to Holton Creek River Camp (HCRC)

River Information

• River is very windy and fun
• Eddies at turns in river are powerful
• Numerous sand bars for breaks
• Not populated
• Watch for widow makers in trees & bridges

River Camp Information

• Access type and description - Long stairs.  Path is paved from boardwalk through camp to bathroom.  4 of 5 shelters are on paved path.  
• Host - no
• Cart available - yes
• Restroom type - portable structure
• Cell phone service
• Verizon - appeared to be 3G
• Metro - non-existant
• Information format
• Start & End
• Temps
• Total time
• River time
• Distance traveled
• Water level (White Springs)
• misc notes - Site was in good shape but had some mechanical problems.  Dripping faucet at main shelter and our sleeping shelter was missing a screen.  Did see three wood roaches in our shelter.