This was my second trip out, and I decided to try something a little different. Rather than paddle up and then downstream, I was dropped off at the launch site on CR 419 and then picked up downstream at Snow Hill Rd., where I left from last time.
During my last trip, my back got really sore so this time I bought a pad for the for the back rest. That was a huge improvement! I still need to do something about the metal part of the seat that connects the seat to the backrest; it’s still a little rough on the tailbone, but that is an easy fix. I also learned that about 2 hours about as far as I want to go without taking a break to walk around and stretch out.
On to the river… the first part of the river is a very different experience than the second part. With no hiking trails on either side of the river for about the first three miles, it is very quiet. Nothing makes a sound except for the wind through the trees and an occasional splash from an alligator or turtles.
As the river approaches the portion of the state forest where the hiking trails run alongside the river, there is a little more human traffic around, so there are several “hellos” and friendly waves from the shore.
I mentioned alligators – there were a few along the way, but there are two really big ones that I passed. Unfortunately the picture below didn’t come out that well, and I’m not good enough with photo shop to bring down the tone of the white areas.
The one other thing that I wanted to note about this trip was the speed. On my first trip, I noted that my speed upstream was about 1mph with pretty much constant paddling. Going downstream and letting the river do most of the work, my speed was closer to 2 mph. This is a good data point for future trips. The map with all of the technical details is down below the photos.
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