North Florida Water: Both Salt and Fresh

[htmb]

My children are very lucky. While most of us must think about how to best honor parents, siblings, or other family members each and every year, my children only need worry about me one out of every four. Three years of nothing and then, BOOM!, here comes that extra day!

Actually, I'm the lucky one because, as they get older, their ideas for celebrating my birthday become more and more special. I think, other than the absence of one of my sons and his family - the Arizona group - this year was just about the best birthday ever.

It was all a surprise with measured-out information leaked just carefully enough to soothe any growing anxieties that might develop along the way. Since they understand me so well, and have temperaments similar to mine, they know what might make me uncomfortable and what types of activities I might like.

To begin with, S flew in from New York for a long weekend. She leaked this information a few weeks ahead of time because she knew I also needed to arrange time off from work. Later, I was told to prepare to spend a long day out in the elements on Sunday and, as we got closer to the day, they told me we would be going out in the Gulf of Mexico off of Steinhatchee, Florida.

Steinhatchee is at the red dot on the map below. Our drive there from Gainesville would take almost two hours.



The town is north of Cedar Key, and is located where the Steinhatchee River empties into the Gulf. It's much more rural than Cedar Key, if you can believe it, and to even reach Steinhatchee from Cedar Key by car, one would have to drive way inland before being able to drive north due to extensive wetlands.

The purple dot marks the islands of Cedar Key, the area along the coast where I've visited so many times in the past.



Though Steinhatchee has grown a good bit since I was there about twenty years ago, it's still a backwater place, with "old Florida atmosphere."

That can mean just about anything.

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Along the way we drove through some beautiful and varied landscape. We crossed over the Suwannee River, the one Stephen Foster wrote the song about. The water seemed to be quite high.




The roads were fairly quiet.




With lots of cattle, pine forests, and flat fields, this was clearly an agricultural area.




At one point we passed a fenced compound and saw some exotic deer.
















There were little signs of spring everywhere such as these blooming azaleas and redbud trees.







Pleasant and peaceful surroundings until this...

[breeze]

Happy birthday, htmb. I'm either a little late or four years early.

What great kids you have, to take you on a mystery tour.

Are your kids older than you/had more birthdays? I can't do the math. Don't know where to start.

You're taking us to what the guide at Wakullah State Park kept calling the REAL Florida. I guess the intersection of 27, 19, and 98 is the real Florida too, since I see palm trees.

[htmb]

Wakulla is about 90 minutes to the north of Steinhatchee, and similar in many ways.

My children are in their twenties and thirties, Breeze, but I'm a mere teenager.

The plant in the last photo is the Suwannee Lumber Company, founded in 1954, according to their website. I imagine they are a major employer in the area.

[bixaorellana]

Can't wait for more. This is sure bringing back some memories for me and yes -- it's the real Florida! Gotta admit I never saw a deer like that, though.

[mich64]

Happy Birthday htmb! It is very special that your children planned a day like this, for you and for them.

[Deleted]

Happy Birthday, Girl! All the best!

[mossie]

Happy Birthday htmb, and don't drink too much.

[htmb]

Thanks!!!

If we had continued west we would have ended up at Horseshoe Beach, an area where my son does a lot of recreational fishing. Instead we turned right and headed Northwest.









Soon we came to the turn-off for the town of Steinhatchee.




The Sea Hag Marina was our ultimate destination.




As we crossed the newish bridge we got a view of the riverfront.










And here's the reason we went to Steinhatchee instead of Horseshoe Beach....




Boat rentals!

[htmb]

In March of 1993, the northern part of Florida was hit with a severe storm, now referred to as the "Storm of the Century." In Gainesville, we weren't as affected as horribly as those along the coast, but I still remember the terrifying sounds I heard that morning. As the hurricane force winds roared outside, my sons took S inside my closet for protection.

Residents along the coastal areas had not been forewarned and at least ten lost their lives due to the high winds and water surge. Whole communities were destroyed.
www.gainesville.com/article/20130312/articles/130319882?tc=ar


I'm not sure how badly Steinhatchee was affected, but much of what can be seen in town seems to have been constructed in the years since the storm.

[htmb]

When I was told what we would be doing, I must admit I was a bit shocked. While I'm comfortable being on fresh water lakes and rivers, going fishing offshore, on an unfamiliar boat, was a bit out of my comfort zone. Still, I reminded myself that my son was an experienced Gulf fisherman. Plus, the weather was beautiful.

We really lucked out.











The plan was to travel out of the mouth of the river and into the Gulf.




Loons are rare for us to see, but I've sometimes spotted them in the wintertime.







Herons are always out and about.







Here's a look back at civilization.










On the 24 foot-long boat with me were my two daughters, one son, two granddaughters a whole lot of picnic-type food, bottles of water, fishing equipment, various hats, jackets and scarves, and 100 shrimp for bait.

Here's where we were headed...

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In case you're wondering, the word "Steinhatchee" has Native American origins and means "dead man's creek."

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Here's a better photo of what our boat looked like with the canopy up. It's from the marina's website.

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We had to go very slow traveling out of the river, but as soon as we had passed this sign we took off.



We were going out at low tide. There were a few oyster beds visible. It's the ones just under the surface of the water that you need to watch for. They're sure to destroy the bottom of the boat.




Once we were far away from the shore there wasn't much to see besides water, and more water.




I spotted lots of crab pots in the distance.




Occasionally, a pelican would get close to the boat.










Other than that, there weren't a lot of photo opportunities.







The water wasn't deep in most of the surrounding area. Here, you can even see a sandbar.





Occasional a boat would race by.




I'll have to ask what this little one was thinking.

[Deleted]

Fascinating so far, and you haven't even caught any fish yet. I spent a lot of my childhood on boats out in the Gulf, including a few times when a severe thunderstorm suddenly blew in out of nowhere. It was pretty exciting when trying to hightail it back to the harbour in Pass Christian to wonder whether we would be struck by lightning or overcome by the huge waves that also popped up out of nowhere. So I fully understand your misgivings about going out into the Gulf. It's strange, though, after all of these years, that I still have a precise memory of the locations of the sandbars and the channels to use, as well as the locations of emerged pilings and such that were good fishing spots -- I was often in charge of steering the boat, being all of 12 years old. We would go fishing for speckled trout and crabbing at the same time and usually came back with plenty of both. So I totally understand your son's attraction to fishing in the Gulf.

One problem with the sandbars and such is that they are always completely changed at every hurricane and you have to learn the new locations all over again after the storm. We would fish around Cat Island, which even got cut in half during Hurricane Camille, even though it had a pine forest covering it. Then again, it was no more than perhaps 150cm above sea level at the highest point. I have no idea what happened to it after Hurricane Katrina.

The photos of the roads and fields of North Florida naturally look exactly like the roads where I lived, and of course I have been on US19 and US98 plenty of times myself. The last photo in post #10 showing all of the navigational posts in the distance would seem to indicate that sand bars and mud banks must be extremely numerous there.

[htmb]

Kerouac, I had known you grew up near the water, but I had no idea you spent so much time out in the Gulf. You describe the sandbar situation well. In the central part of Florida where I grew up sandbars and mudflats were not as common. We knew we could wade out just a bit from the shore before we'd be in water way over our heads, but here in north Florida there are mud flats everywhere. Where we were fishing, had I wanted to get into the "shark-infested" water, it probably would not have come up to my shoulders, and I'm not very tall.

[mossie]

I have copied the start of an article in todays Times, which is nature tooth and claw. And Florida centric.

"For Florida’s egrets, the advantage of nesting in trees above alligators is clear: if you have a quarter-tonne of hungry top predator beneath you, lesser predators, especially the tree-climbing sort that eat egrets, will stay away.
What, though, do alligators get from this relationship? Well, it turns out the alligator-egret pact is more Faustian than it appears because every now and then the egrets push a chick out of their nests and the alligators eat it.
Sometimes, if not enough chicks are forthcoming, the alligators slap the trees with their tails until one appears, and scientists studying one of nature’s more unlikely symbiotic relationships have concluded that although both sides benefit, it is a grim trade"

[breeze]

I'm surprised that the water is so blue. It gives you something pretty to look at when you're out there.

[htmb]

Breeze, if the water had been any other color, meaning the sky was gray and stormy, I hope I wouldn't have been out there. :-)

Thanks for the post, Mossie. I can see how that symbiotic relationship would work. I used to live on a lake and the areas where birds had their roosts were also popular with the alligators.

[mossie]

Well, here is the articles conclusion

At the same time “siblingcide”, where the stronger chicks kill off the weaker, is common. The result, particularly when combined with the observed habit among some alligators of shaking the tree, is a steady rain of juicy chicks. “It turns out that in prolific years it can be a pretty amazing amount of food, enough to support most of the breeding females over the course of the dry season,” said Mr Nell, whose research is published in the online journal Plos One. “There are tens of thousands of nests, and they provide a stream of nutrients.”
Mr Nell’s research has shown that so significant is the effect of this fluffy manna, that a 2m alligator living beneath a bird colony weighs on average 3kg more than one elsewhere. “It’s less like hiring a bodyguard, more like keeping a psychopathic murderer in your yard to scare burglars,” he said.

[bixaorellana]

There are water people and there are landlubbers. Despite being firmly in the latter category, I always love your wonderful pictures of the water.

How did the little kids enjoy the outing?

Totally fascinating info on the egret-alligator dynamic, Mossie!

[htmb]

The kids were surprisingly great! There was no toilet on the boat so we were a little concerned about the girls sucking down liquids, but there was never a problem. They loved it.

The BIG kids were well behaved, too. Fortunately! You just never know with some siblings, even at their age.

[htmb]

Here are a few photos showing the bottom.










And more showing the horizon.
















Water, water everywhere!

Since that can be a little boring, how about a few snaps of the family...

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You can see the birds are perched on an oyster bed.










There were lots of white pelican's in the area.

[bixaorellana]

That water is so nice and clear! Looks like it was quite brisk temperature-wise that day.

What is the yellow thing your daughter is fooling with?

Great bird pictures from you, as always.

[htmb]

That's the bait bucket with 100 shrimp. She was trying to muster her nerve to grab one of the squirmy things.

[htmb]

With all the talk about fishing and the huge bucket of live shrimp, you'd think we would have caught some fish. But we didn't.

We had a great time and spent about five hours out in the Gulf. We ate a nice lunch and made some good memories, but the only fish we caught was a pathetic little puffer fish whose pictures I'll spare you.

While we were out fishing, the wind had picked up a bit. I was sitting on the front bench thinking I might get some photos on the way back to the river. Not wanting to warn me we were going to be going full throttle until we reached the channel, the captain, my son, took off without warning, leaving me to protect my camera from the flying salt water as best I could.

Needless to say, I was unable to take photos until we entered the no wake zone once again.

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We probably surprised the marina workers when we cruised past the docks, but we wanted to go up to the bridge before we called it a day.

[bixaorellana]

Super captures of what was obviously a super day. I can't believe you caught that pelican spitting water! Gorgeous blue water. In spite of my grousing about being out on boats, your lovely pictures are giving me nostalgia. Glad you managed to save your camera from the spray, not least because of that magnificent last picture.