A TREK Mini-rally at Blue Spring State Park

Blue Spring State Park is one of our favorite Florida state parks. It has a beautiful deep spring and a 1/2 mile spring run that empties into the St. Johns River. Manatees are numerous here in the winter. The spring run is closed to paddling, but you can paddle in the mouth of the run, just before it converges with the St. John's. We usually see more manatees in this area than we do on up towards the head of the spring.

So, we were excited and quickly accepted when Clair invited us to join her in Blue Spring State Park for a Safari TREK mini-pre-rally. Clair recently moved to Orange City, about 5 miles from Blue Spring State Park and invited us and a few other TREK club members to spend a few nights here before going on to Tampa to attend the Southeast TREK Fun Club Winter Rally. We were also excited to learn that Wayne and Lynda, paddling friends from home would also join us here at the park.

This area has many good paddling opportunities. The St. John's River has numerous cuts, canals and "dead" rivers in the vicinity. The river flow is negligible so you can paddle about anywhere you want and return directly to the park. On Monday I planned a trip to head north on the St. Johns River, west around Hontoon Island State Park and return to the St. Johns on the Hontoon Dead River. We did this ten-mile trip two years ago, and it was very enjoyable. TREKers Harry and John declined to paddle, because it was a little chilly, but Wayne and Lynda are always game. Today's paddle was also very nice. It is usually pretty windy here, but not today. It was sunny and clear and pleasantly warm. We saw lots of all the usual birds and many alligators. As we entered Hontoon Dead River, the river became narrow and winding. Eventually the river became clogged with water hyacinth, which made the paddling pretty difficult. These stretches would sometimes go on for several hundred yards and extend out of sight and around the bend, leading us to question our sanity. Why did we follow this crazy trip leader??? Eventually, however, we made it back out onto the St. Johns and back to Blue Spring. Everything was fine again, and everyone agreed it was a grand paddle.

On Tuesday Harry and John joined us. We paddled south on the St. Johns and explored several bays and some old channels that cut across to the old St. Johns channel. We had none of the vegetation problems we had encountered the day before. Alligators were seen by all. That evening Clair invited us to her home and treated us to a wonderful dinner in the dining room at her retirement village.

On Wednesday we will head back to Tampa and Lazydays for the SETFC Winter Rally. Oh yeah, and to the Crown Club!