This is about a 2 hour paddle on easy water. We'll be going downstream, with the current, the whole way. This river is about 1/2 hour north of Gainesville in High Springs.
The cost for this tour is $39 per person for "Wanna Go" members (non-members $50). With your own boat it's $25 per person for members and $35 for non-members.
for tour dates, please check our website calendar at: www.adventureoutpost.net
Description
On this trip, we will start with a lesson on how to kayak. We don't get into advanced techniques (don't worry, we won't be rolling!) but focus on the basic techniques for steering,
The four mile stretch between Hwy. 27 and Rum Island County Park begins as a slow, slightly tannic flow with only the slightest inclination to move westward. Without the benefit of a paddle, canoes and kayaks surrender their obedience to the river's current in favor of the slightest breeze - even if it's blowing in the upstream direction. Moving downstream, the river alternately loses water by way of siphons (underwater cracks which drain the water into deep, underground channels of the aquifer) and gains water by way of springs (which bring water up to the surface from the aquifer).
Wildlife
Of all the rivers in north Florida, there is perhaps none with the fantastic population of turtles that you'll see on the Santa Fe. Most common are peninsular cooters, and chicken turtles. Occasionally you might also see a Florida snapping turtle. There are plenty of otters in the river. Keep a good eye out for them near Poe Springs. This is also a good area to watch for beavers, the huge rodents (largest in N. America) that survived being the main ingredient in a long-lived hat fad (remember Abe Lincolns stove-top?) and have repopulated their original Florida range. As with so much of Florida, feral hogs are well established. The first hogs to frolic in the Santa Fe woodlands were plodding at the heels of the first Europeans intruders - the Spanish conquistadors who crossed the river in 1539 (more about this in the "History" section below).
Of all the rivers we guide tours on, this has the smallest population of alligators. Most people are just fine with that. (if you want to see gators, there are plenty in other nearby waters - we'll gladly point the way!) On the other hand, you'll find more turtles here than any other north Florida river. Not only in actual numbers (it's not uncommon to see a couple of hundred in a 3 - 4 hours of paddling) but it has the greatest number of species. Water birds, deer, wild hogs and otters are some of the other animals commonly seen.
History
Florida's earliest inhabitants who first arrived nearly twelve thousand years ago, found game to be plentiful in the lush Santa Fe forests and at the many springs along the river. One of the earliest dated artifacts of human presence in Florida came from a paleo-Indian camp site found near Hornsby Spring. Here, a spear tip imbedded in a mammoth bone gave clear evidence of a nomadic hunters brave efforts to feed his family.
Another interesting prehistoric site is near the Hwy 27 bridge, where the remains of a fishing weir was discovered in the river bottom. This was a row of posts spanning the river in a V-shaped configuration, with the point of the V pointing downstream. In the point, a basket would catch fish driven down by a group of Indians.
In 1539, Hernando de Soto led an army of nearly 500 Spanish soldiers on an exploratory mission through Florida. Earlier Spanish expeditions to South and Central America had yielded unimaginable wealth (at the expense of the natives who rightfully owned it) and the rush was on to find similar loot in La Florida. Fortunately for the Indians of north Florida, their wealth was not in gold or precious minerals, but in rich land. That would be taken later. For now, the Spanish moved through quickly, making winter camp in the Tallahassee area before continuing westward.
In the 1600's, Spanish missionaries of the Franciscan order established a network of missions and outposts across north Florida. Most were built at Indian villages that sat alongside an important Indian trail, stretching from the St. Augustine area to the mission San Luis in present day Tallahassee. For nearly a century, this important era in north Florida's history, resulted in the total demise of the Indian populations through disease, abuse and warfare.
Today, many place names in north Florida can trace their origins to the mission period. Some of our primary Rivers, including St. Mary's, St. Johns, St. Marks and even Suwannee get their names from missions that were located on their banks. Santa Fe river gets it's name from an important mission, Santa Fe de Teleco, that overlooked a broad, beautiful valley of the Santa Fe a few miles east of today's O'leno State Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment