Ichetucknee River Kayak Trip

Location: Five miles North West of Fort White, Fl
GPS Coordinates: 29.954748, -82.784587
Date: 2/18/2013
With Monday being a holiday (Presidents day), Julie had the day off and a three day weekend. We had originally hoped to use the long weekend to get some camping in somewhere, but we didn’t start looking in time and all the Florida State Parks campgrounds were full. Someday we’ll learn to plan further ahead when trying to make camping reservations in the winter. It may have been a good things as we had a “cold” spell with the lows in the low thirties on Saturday night and high twenties on Sunday night. Definitely a little chilly for a couple of Floridians.
Since I had decided to take the day off also (not a holiday for me) we really wanted to get outside and do something. We’ve looked at kayaking the Ichetucknee River a few times in the past, but our timing was never good as this is primarily a tubing river in the warmer months, but in the winter tubing is closed down which makes for a good time to try this river. We drove the 45 minutes from Gainesville, through the booming town of Fort White and onto the south entrance to the Ichetucknee Springs State park.
We only had one vehicle, so we had decided to go ahead and paddle up river to the spring head (North Entrance of the park) and then float/paddle back down to where we had originally put in. I was thinking that we could put in at the South entrance, but that was wrong. We actually had to travel a half mile west past the entrance to the “Last take out” location. Here there is a parking lot with a short dirt road down to the river. You can unload your kayaks and gear here and carry them the last 50 yards to the river. This is a great place to launch the kayaks as they have a set of docks that makes it very easy to enter and exit your kayak or canoe.
We hadn’t been kayaking much lately, so going against the current gave us a good workout. We only saw one other guy in a canoe attempting the paddle up, flow back way of doing this trip. The flow of the river was about 1.4 – 2.4 mph, so although we found it challenging, it definitely was doable and we made it to the head of the river without too much effort. We did see about 4-5 other canoes making the trip down, so it was a very quiet day on the river, From the “last take out point” to the spring at the head of the river is 3.08 miles making it about a 6+ mile round trip.
While on the river we saw some wild turkey, a few deer, and one playful otter that didn’t seem at all afraid of us. I never got my camera out to take a picture as I figured that he would just bolt as soon as I did. But he just kept rolling in the grass and mud and we passed. Of course he was nowhere to be seen when we floated back down and I had my camera ready. That’s always the way! There were also a ton of birds along the entire trip, but especially near the northern section in a quarter mile section where the river widened and there was lots of sunlight.
The entire run of the Ichetucknee river is clear spring water which makes for some very nice paddling. There are many springs along the length of the river, unfortunately several of the springs are fenced off or posted as off limits.  I’m guessing this is due to the thousands of tubers that are on the river during the summer. It’s too bad that you can’t paddle over many of these springs.
The southern entrance to the park. You go a half mile past this sign to put in your kayak or canoe.
 
The area to launch at the “last take out” location

Boardwalk on a trail at the northern entrance of the Ichetucknee State Park

The head spring of the Ichetucknee River

 

Dock area at the head spring

Julie ducking under a fallen tree. This was the only tree that you had to deal with while kayaking

Some areas along the river have some interesting limestone outcroppings

 

Julie looking down into one of the springs that is accessible while paddling this river

Many cypress knees on one of the spring runs

Required turtle picture for any trip taken on a Florida river

 

 

 

 
Here is the link to the Picasa album with all the pictures from the trip.
 
Here is the GPS track of our trip on the Ichetucknee River
Ichetucknee River Kayak Trip at EveryTrail
 
 

Camping weekend at Lithia Springs

Date: 8/3/12 – 8/5/12
Location: Lithia, Fl
GPS Coordinates: 27.869287, –82.224526

We found this campground that is real close to our oldest daughters new home. Lithia Springs is a Hillsborough County park. The campground is nice with a few of the sites sitting next to the Alafia River. The main draw to this park is the large spring with a beach area surrounding it. We were there in early August, so the weather was still warm and as a result the springs were packed with day visitors. If you want to claim a spot near the spring for the day, then get there early. I’ve read other blogs about this park during the cooler weather and it sounds like things are much calmer during the cool months.
There’s not much hiking at this park, but there is a canoe and kayak launch if you want to do some paddling on the Alafia River. This is a quirky campground in some of the site layouts. Some of the sites are very unlevel and many  have their water and power on the wrong sides or far away from where you would park your camper.
Here is our Review of this campground:
Campground: Lithia Springs Campground
Website: http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/facilities.aspx
Site Number: 25
Price: $24 night
Date visited: 8/03/2012 - 8/05/2012
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 3 (varies by campground loop chosen)
Campsite space between sites: 3 (varies by site)
Campsite privacy between sites: 3 (varies by site)
Campsite level: 2. Most sites not very level. Also, some of the water and power hookups are not well placed
Campsite parking: dirt
Campfire permitted: yes. Fire ring on each site
Campsite picnic table: Yes
Campground Facilities: 3.5
Campground access to hiking: 1. No defined hiking trails
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 4. A large spring for swimming and a river for canoe/kayaking
Campground access to biking: 3
Overall Campground rating: 3. A nice park, but a little quirky in places!

Our site, #25, was very large and nobody close by!

Hanging out at the camp site

Looking at our site from the road

Alexander Springs Camping

Date: 3/2/2012 – 3/4/2012
Location: Ocala National Foresr
GPS Coordinates:  29.076640, -81.583269

Many years ago (before kids!), Julie and I used to do a lot of camping around the state of Florida. We would frequently camp at the many campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest since it was relatively close to Gainesville. Probably the most visited campsite for us in this area was Hopkins Prairie, which was a location with no water or electricity at the sites. There used to be a “lake” that surrounded this area where we used to canoe, but the water level is down quit a bit and now the area is pretty much dry.
Since we now have a trailer (no more sleeping on the ground for us), we decided to give the Ocala National Forest another try. It has only been 25+ years since our last visit. We took off Friday after work, but being in the early spring, the days were still short and we didn’t get to the campground until after sunset. This would be our first time setting up in the dark. There are no hookups at the sites, so we had to take on water first and then locate our site. With a little difficulty backing into our site we finally got situated.
This campground is nice and has a beach and canoe/kayak launch on the Alexander Spring run. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our kayaks, so couldn’t check out this river. There are a few short hiking trails, but nothing too strenuous. 
Since it had been many years since we had been to Ocala National Forest, we decided to take a ride around and check out some of the campsites and do a walk down memory lane for the places we had been before. By the end of the day we had decided that there were not many campgrounds that we would be interested in coming back to camp at. They really can’t compare to the Florida State parks.
We also did a long hike at Farles Prarie (see map below) where the Florida Trail crosses through the forest. This was a good hike along some wetlands and ponds. But be careful in what roads you take to get there.Most roads are sand and several require four wheel drive. We almost made the mistake of taking a road where we would have definitely gotten stuck. We did make that mistake many years ago in this area and it took us hours to dig our way out.
Our Review of the campground:
Campground: Alexander Springs
Campground Website: http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/southern/ocalcmp.htm#alexander%20springs
Site Number: 61
Price: $21 night
Date visited: 3/2/2012 - 3/4/2012
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 4
Campsite space between sites: 4 (varies by site)
Campsite privacy between sites: 4 (varies by site)
Campsite level: 4
Campsite parking: paved pad
Campfire permitted: yes. Fire ring on each site
Campsite picnic table: metal
Campground Facilities: 3.5
Campground access to hiking: 4
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 5
Campground access to biking: 4
Overall Campground rating: 4
Notes: Campground is very nice. There is a road that runs parallel to the campground and some car noise can be heard at some of the sites. Especially site #61 (our site). There's not a lot of traffic, but car noise can be heard.
Alexander Springs Run






The hike we did on Farles Prairie
Florida Trail - Farles Prairie at EveryTrail

Three Sisters Spring–Crystal River

 
Crystal River Florida
GPS Coordinates: 28.887959, -82.589456
Date: 1/2/2011

We have a pair of kayaks, but we needed at third since our daughter Allison was joining us on this trip. So, we drove south to the Crystal River Kayak Company. This business, right on US-19  in Crustal River, has a good selection of kayaks for rent and is also just a short paddle to the Three Sisters Springs. From the put in the springs is an easy 10 minute paddle through a series of canals. During the winter, this area is a haven for manatees, with a great number of them hanging out by the spring run. . We were early enough that the crowds were not too bad yet. We kayaked around and returned about an hour later and it was a very busy time with lots of charter/tour boats. If you want to do this trip, then I would recommend visiting Three Sisters Springs in the early morning or NOT on a weekend!!

Nice blue skies make for a good day on the water.

This is the area right outside the Three Sisters Springs. The area beyond the roped off area is if for Manatees only and gives them a place to get away from all the commotion.

One of the manatees swimming near our kayak in the nice clear spring water.

You can tell from this picture that the area is starting to get crowded with tour boats and other motor boats.

We kayaked up the short spring run to the Three Sisters Springs. It is usually much quieter in here and usually there’s a few manatees hanging out in the spring boils.

My daughter in the rental kayak. The rentals were much nicer than the kayaks that we have, but guess they probably cost more also!!

You don’t see too many pictures of me in this blog since I’m always the one taking the pictures, but somehow one slipped in here.

This picture shows how nice and clear the spring water is and there’s a manatee hanging near the bottom of the spring.

And finally, here is the GPS track of this trip.
Crystal River - Manatee trip at EveryTrail