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Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival November 12 - 16, 2003 in Brevard County, Florida A celebration of birds and wildlife. |
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Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival November 12 - 16, 2003 in Brevard County, Florida A celebration of birds and wildlife. |
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Water defines Florida with 8,500 miles of tidal shore, 7,800 lakes, 320 springs and 35 rivers. Visitors can cheerfully regard Florida as the world's largest water park.
The Ichetucknee and Rainbow Rivers are natural waterslides. For thrills, surf the Atlantic off Cocoa Beach or paddle Big Shoals on the Suwannee River.
From sea kayaks along the Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail to yachts on parade on Fort. Lauderdale's waterfront, Floridians revel on the water.
Florida's water is bridged, tunneled under, ferried across, hiked beside, houseboated on, skimmed by airboat and, at beaches, toe-tested by tots. Fishing piers extend into the brine; great sea turtles haul themselves up from it to lay eggs in beach nests. Castles get built and treasure gets hunted for.
But mostly, folks relax.
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From the trickles in Florida caverns to the flow of the Apalachicola River, the Florida Panhandle re-supplies the brackish Gulf of Mexico with fresh water. Inland, canoe streams run through swift channels. High-walled flumes along Econfina Creek south of Chipley and beaches north of Milton along Coldwater Creek provide variety. The Chipola River is a canoeist's paradise, with its slow moving waters and rapids along the way.
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Springs bubble into streams, streams become rivers, rivers braid the coast in deltas. Beyond the ragged edges of marshes, kayakers paddle sea trails in north-central Florida. Near White Springs, canoeists shoot Suwannee rapids. The Santa Fe provides crystal clear springs to explore. This is the Other Florida, where the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers meet at Twin Rivers State Forest and boats from the coast cruise to Steinhatchee Falls. Kids still swing from ropes into clear springs while divers explore the ancient underground chambers.
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In the 18th century, botanist William Bartram canoed the waters in Northeast Florida, introducing a genre of St. Johns nature and travel writing later pursued by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and today's Bill Belleville. For 270 miles, the Intracoastal Waterway separates Florida's mainland from Atlantic barrier islands. Along the way, Pellicer Creek passes Princess Place near Flagler Beach. Paddlers can navigate the Amelia River alongside Fernandina Beach, which in 1811 became Spain's last platted town in the New World.
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Three waterways flow through central-east Florida: the south-flowing Kissimmee, the north-flowing St. Johns and the wind- and tide-driven Indian River Lagoon. Warm-water red mangroves give way to marshes north of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. Between Playalinda and Apollo Beaches, no road, no trace of construction, mark the barrier island for 11 miles, affording majestic dunes that border the sea. Large sea turtles paddle ashore on summer evenings to lay their eggs.
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Springs and their clear paddling streams extend through countryside north of central Florida's water amusement parks; lakes and rivers extend south. Silver Springs empties into the Silver River creating a canoe run of the Ocklawaha. Lakeshores surround Mount Dora and the pretty downtowns of Sanford, Winter Garden, Lakeland and Kissimmee. Accessible towers in Clermont and Lake Placid supply panoramic views of the many lakes that dimple Florida's Central Highlands.
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Florida's Sunshine Skyway spans Tampa Bay, linking St. Petersburg and Clearwater to the southwest region. Cruises from Tampa carry birding enthusiasts to Egmont Key, the site of a pre-Civil War lighthouse, and Bird Key, an Audubon site. The canopied upper Hillsborough River challenges paddlers, with shoals and plush marshes. Further north, the ragged shore draws adventurous kayakers who can launch from the Weeki Wachee, Homosassa and Crystal Rivers. These springs harbor manatees during winter.
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Azure waters surrounding Bradenton and Anna Maria Island have made beaches along the lower Gulf Coast some of America's best known. Visitors enjoy remote waterfront hideaways with names like Siesta Key, Lovers Key, and Barefoot Beach that instill a state of leisurely never-mind. Inland, waters seep into streams that supply Corkscrew Swamp, Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades. The Peace River, from swamp to Gulf of Mexico, meanders southward. At Moore Haven, the Caloosahatchee emerges from Lake Okeechobee. From Everglades City, paddlers can explore the Ten Thousand Islands.
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South from Stuart to land's end, only a mile or two separates beaches from mainland towns with restaurant rows and waterfront scenes. Jonathan Dickinson State Park supplies rental canoes for the nationally designated "Wild and Scenic" Loxahatchee River. Fort Lauderdale is the "Venice of America." Summers bring the town's Beethoven by the Beach event; winters, the Christmas boat parade along the Intracoastal Waterway. Tugs guide freighters up the Miami River. In the Everglades and at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, water defines every experience.
Sea Kayaking in Florida by David Gluckman
2003 SCBWF Articles
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