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WOW - Sunday's trip on Econfina Creek was great! George Blakely and Katrina Williams were the first to arrive at the put-in on Highway 20. It is a new put-in for paddlers on the northeast side of the river and it is REALLY nice. It's essentially a one-way road with wooden fencing and a parking lot - just drive halfway around the one-way road to a walkway, unload your boats and gear, then circle back to the parking area at the entrance to park your cars (after you do the shuttle). It's a short walk to a floating metal boat dock at the water's edge. This may not look like the best put-in for some, especially if you are paddling the river in the winter and you are a little shaky about entering/exiting your boat - you may want to ask a fellow paddler to steady your boat. However, in the summertime it's not a problem - the water is clear, fairly shallow and totally irresistable - just ask those who jumped in the water as soon as we got there!
Back to the trip - George immediately got in a fast paddle upstream where he saw some of the beautiful springs along this river. By the time he returned to the put-in, Tom and Cindy Clark, Kerrie Barloga, Carole Kinney, Carole Swartz, Doug Sikes, and my son Dustin and I were getting into the water. We were in a wide range of boats from sit-on-tops, kayaks to solo and tandem canoes. Half the group went up stream to check out the springs just above the put-in while the other half lazily drifted downstream.. We were all back together again at the first spring down river. This is a large spring on river right (and many people's favorite one). It has a pretty, "grotto"-like look, lots of long, over-hanging ferns, and a group of "seeps" where the water bubbles up. As always, the spring was clear and refreshing while the main creek channel was tannic. Although there were "no trespassing" signs along the bank, there is a beach area that was available to the public. There was anot!
her spring just below the entrance to this one…Then another spring up a little stream on the OPPOSITE bank and numerous springs downstream...so many springs! After exploring spring after spring, we eventually just quit exploring and slowly paddled our way down the creek in the molasses-colored water.
About the trip - lots of talking and laughter along the way - not a single 'gator, snake or turtle (to my knowledge) dared reveal his presence before the "Tallahassee TEN"...or was it the music from the deaf man's boat that scared them away (more about this later)? I think a few people may have seen an owl. Despite our laughter and talking the birds serenaded us down the river while the river gods provided good weather on this beautiful stream with overhanging trees. The river often had 20" high banks and huge ferns with long fronds that were easily 2 feet long … absolutely beautiful. We visited several other springs along the way to the take-out (on the next road south that parallels Highway 20 - Highway 287?). In the summer, this section of the river gets fairly crowded with locals. We had hints of it on Sunday - occasional motor boats going upriver, LOUD music at both ends of the trip and, fortunately, only one motor boat with music…and a deaf boater (he had to be deaf !
- the volume of his music must have been turned up as loud as it could go…I know he was feeling the vibrations of the music on his boat). He passed us going down river - we were glad when he was finally outside of OUR hearing range. (The only time that I have EVER been thankful for a motor boat!)
It was reunion time for some - Kerrie Barloga recently returned from a 2 year bridge design project in Colorado - YEAHHHH - she came back!!! The Clarks are in town for a few months before they head up to paddle in the great northeast. Carole Kinney jumped in the water at many of the springs and others quickly followed. Carole Swartz had a lucky find in the first few minutes of the trip - a battery-operated fan that sprayed water… and worked! She had a fan blowing cool water on her and others that wanted to try it out for the rest of the trip! Needless to say, she motivated others to check out colorful objects along the river…no one could match her find, but we did a minor river clean-up in the process! Trina learned a few boat tricks from Kerrie. Doug was quite entertaining with his quick wit and excited about his recent retirement. George's racing canoe was the topic of conversation among a group of "locals" at the take-out. Dustin was trying out a different kayak - !
a colorful 13'2" kayak with a modified old-style racing design and really liked the ay it handled...until he started thinking about ways to further modify it. Overall, a good trip on a beautiful river - a good Mother's Day paddle!
See ya on the river soon!
Charlotte Hand outdoorslady1@aol.com | 
Information
about trips in the near future.