This is a first! Never before has any member of the family other than my wife Barbie and my son Sean gone canoeing with me. But for the past year or so my sister Natalie has been insisting that I one day take her along with me when I did the Spring Creek to Chipola River trip. One of my other sisters, Karen had also shown an interest in going and so this week we made it happen.
For that past ten years or so I've tried to make at least one canoe trip to the Chipola in mid September. There are a few reason for this...first, after Labor Day inner tube floaters, canoeists and other boaters suddenly (almost) disappear from the river, especially during the mid week. Also the temperatures are nice and the insects are gone. Lastly, mid September is when the hatchling modern day dinosaurs--the alligator snapping turtles are emerging from their nests. Although it's a long drive for me I love going.
After meeting up in Tallahassee the night before the three of us drove over to Marianna to see Ricky Mcalpin at Bear Paw Canoe. Ricky is a local native of Marianna and an interesting person. He would arrange for us to be dropped off at the headwaters of Spring Creek from where we would travel downstream to its confluence with the Chipola river, some four miles away.
Karen and Natalie ready to go...
Right away Natalie spotted this fine male Mobile cooter so I was obliged to go in the water and capture him for some photos. Even non-turtle people admit that these are exceptionally pretty animals. This guy sports the super long front claws that adult males possess, but what strikes me are their gorgeous aquamarine eyes!
This one sure was colorful and nice.
Even his rear legs and tail were neat looking.
One last look before we released him back to the creek...
A little later we caught this Mobile cooter who was missing not just one front foot...but both!
He otherwise appeared to be in fine health.
We stopped at one point to do some swimming and snorkeling and it was here that this enormous female cooter was found hiding under a giant downed tree that nearly blocked the entire creek. She was in about 5 feet of water.
No turtle hunting trip to these waterways is complete without capturing and photographing at least one of these little river gnomes...a young male loggerhead musk turtle. They're sure cute but will bite the crap out of you if you take liberties...
This guy was found prowling the bottom under another large brush pile in the creek.
A little further downstream we stopped at a nice sandy bank to swim around and eat lunch. Just beyond this old blow-down tree is the Chipola.
On the Chipola. It was my plan to paddle upstream to see Maund Spring. I knew it was a pretty good distance but the current was light and I figured that if Karen and Natalie doubled up, it would be doable.
On the way upstream I managed to net this fine beast---a flawless adult male Barbour's map turtle, or 'sawback' as they were once known to the locals as.
The reason for that name is obvious.
Both Natalie and Karen admired the strange, almost alien looking turtle. They have weird eyes, a pug nose and a goofy overbite. But they also have beautiful greenish and yellow markings. And then that cool dorsal spike!
We released him just a few yards from his point of capture and he bolted away in a flash.
As I mentioned, September is the time for emerging neonate alligator snappers so while heading upstream I kept an eye out for them when close to shore.
Look closely...
Yeah I know, a terrible photo with glare and movement. But you can still see the little shell and long tail.
Natalie did the netting. Here she is with the find of the day, a brand new alligator snapping turtle!
It was actually much smaller than it appears in this photo being less than 2 inches. As proof of his age, he still had the remains of his egg yolk-sac.
We snapped just a couple of pics and then returned him to his exact perch among the tupelo roots. If all goes well, he could eventually be a 100+ X 100+ turtle, meaning that he could grow to over 100 pounds and live over 100 years. Alligator snappers are incredible animals.
After what seemed like a dozen, "I think it's just around this next bend" we finally arrived at Maund Spring.
It was overcast at this point and difficult to capture what the spring really looks like and due to some heavy rain the day before the water wasn't as clear as it normally is. So here's a photo I took a few year ago under better conditions.
I guessed that the vent was about 30 feet below in a narrow crevice that bends to the north. I checked CaveAtlas.com when I returned home and I was just off a little---it's actually 29.6 feet down. The water feels...brisk. It takes one a few minutes to actually make the plunge.
All three of us swam around looking down into the spring vent with our masks and I think everyone was glad to have made the long paddle to see this place.
Prior to this, we had seen exactly zero other people (except for some folks on their dock near Maund Spring) the entire trip. But we encountered some profoundly drunk rednecks floating in inner tubes near the I-10 bridge. It was the only negative of the day.
We finally ended up back at the Bear Paw ramp where we emerged from our canoes tired, stiff and sore. But it was great anyway.
Early the next morning Karen had to head back to Vero Beach for a meeting so Natalie took a long leisurely cruise down into the Apalachicola National Forest. It is always a nice drive early in the morning but we didn't see much in the way of wildlife. This little old female gulf coast box turtle was our only reward.
After that, we pointed our wheels east on I-10. It was time to go home.
For that past ten years or so I've tried to make at least one canoe trip to the Chipola in mid September. There are a few reason for this...first, after Labor Day inner tube floaters, canoeists and other boaters suddenly (almost) disappear from the river, especially during the mid week. Also the temperatures are nice and the insects are gone. Lastly, mid September is when the hatchling modern day dinosaurs--the alligator snapping turtles are emerging from their nests. Although it's a long drive for me I love going.
After meeting up in Tallahassee the night before the three of us drove over to Marianna to see Ricky Mcalpin at Bear Paw Canoe. Ricky is a local native of Marianna and an interesting person. He would arrange for us to be dropped off at the headwaters of Spring Creek from where we would travel downstream to its confluence with the Chipola river, some four miles away.
Karen and Natalie ready to go...
Right away Natalie spotted this fine male Mobile cooter so I was obliged to go in the water and capture him for some photos. Even non-turtle people admit that these are exceptionally pretty animals. This guy sports the super long front claws that adult males possess, but what strikes me are their gorgeous aquamarine eyes!
This one sure was colorful and nice.
Even his rear legs and tail were neat looking.
One last look before we released him back to the creek...
A little later we caught this Mobile cooter who was missing not just one front foot...but both!
He otherwise appeared to be in fine health.
We stopped at one point to do some swimming and snorkeling and it was here that this enormous female cooter was found hiding under a giant downed tree that nearly blocked the entire creek. She was in about 5 feet of water.
No turtle hunting trip to these waterways is complete without capturing and photographing at least one of these little river gnomes...a young male loggerhead musk turtle. They're sure cute but will bite the crap out of you if you take liberties...
This guy was found prowling the bottom under another large brush pile in the creek.
A little further downstream we stopped at a nice sandy bank to swim around and eat lunch. Just beyond this old blow-down tree is the Chipola.
On the Chipola. It was my plan to paddle upstream to see Maund Spring. I knew it was a pretty good distance but the current was light and I figured that if Karen and Natalie doubled up, it would be doable.
On the way upstream I managed to net this fine beast---a flawless adult male Barbour's map turtle, or 'sawback' as they were once known to the locals as.
The reason for that name is obvious.
Both Natalie and Karen admired the strange, almost alien looking turtle. They have weird eyes, a pug nose and a goofy overbite. But they also have beautiful greenish and yellow markings. And then that cool dorsal spike!
We released him just a few yards from his point of capture and he bolted away in a flash.
As I mentioned, September is the time for emerging neonate alligator snappers so while heading upstream I kept an eye out for them when close to shore.
Look closely...
Yeah I know, a terrible photo with glare and movement. But you can still see the little shell and long tail.
Natalie did the netting. Here she is with the find of the day, a brand new alligator snapping turtle!
It was actually much smaller than it appears in this photo being less than 2 inches. As proof of his age, he still had the remains of his egg yolk-sac.
We snapped just a couple of pics and then returned him to his exact perch among the tupelo roots. If all goes well, he could eventually be a 100+ X 100+ turtle, meaning that he could grow to over 100 pounds and live over 100 years. Alligator snappers are incredible animals.
After what seemed like a dozen, "I think it's just around this next bend" we finally arrived at Maund Spring.
It was overcast at this point and difficult to capture what the spring really looks like and due to some heavy rain the day before the water wasn't as clear as it normally is. So here's a photo I took a few year ago under better conditions.
I guessed that the vent was about 30 feet below in a narrow crevice that bends to the north. I checked CaveAtlas.com when I returned home and I was just off a little---it's actually 29.6 feet down. The water feels...brisk. It takes one a few minutes to actually make the plunge.
All three of us swam around looking down into the spring vent with our masks and I think everyone was glad to have made the long paddle to see this place.
Prior to this, we had seen exactly zero other people (except for some folks on their dock near Maund Spring) the entire trip. But we encountered some profoundly drunk rednecks floating in inner tubes near the I-10 bridge. It was the only negative of the day.
We finally ended up back at the Bear Paw ramp where we emerged from our canoes tired, stiff and sore. But it was great anyway.
Early the next morning Karen had to head back to Vero Beach for a meeting so Natalie took a long leisurely cruise down into the Apalachicola National Forest. It is always a nice drive early in the morning but we didn't see much in the way of wildlife. This little old female gulf coast box turtle was our only reward.
After that, we pointed our wheels east on I-10. It was time to go home.
