With our anniversary approaching we wanted to make time for a visit to one of the cold-water springs in the area, a feature in northern Florida that we will surely miss. We decided to travel by canoe, so we dropped Lydia with our wonderful pastor's wife for the morning and hit the road.
It was a beautiful morning and because we went on Thursday, the day before a big holiday weekend, we were practically the only 2 in the park, at least for a while. We canoed up the Ichetucknee River and then back down, not seeing a single person until we reached the headwaters. It was just us and the birds (and turtles, lots of turtles). We saw egrets, green herons, little blue herons, ibises, wood ducks, coots, grebes, bitterns, and osprey and several little teeny tiny bobwhite in the 'savanna' on the way out of the park. Last time, we saw 3 river otters, but alas, no such luck this time around. The water was lower due to Florida's drought, but since this river is spring-fed it's not affected as much as some of the other area waterways.
Getting ready to head out.
Sorry about the glare on these pictures, that Florida sun is intense!
Lots of lovely spider lilies out to greet us along the way.
We stopped here for a brief little swim. The water definitely feels cold at first (72 degrees), but it cools your body temp down so thoroughly that the rest of the day is quite comfortable even as the air temperature rises (and rises).
The aqua-blue area is the actual spring; it's quite deep and you can see the water bubbling out from the aquifer.
A great day to be a turtle.
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