Day 3 , Dec 10,03 , Wednesday.
So far all of us have made it down the St.mary's River 5/16th of the total length. Slow paddling due to the strainers, blowdowns and shallow water. This is one beautiful section of the river and the weather has been just perfect up to now.
Last night while taking pictures swampy and Al both were introduced to that little strip of dark sand at the waters edge and found it out was some slippery mud. They did the St.Mary's River sit down as there feet just slid out from under them and then landed on there posterior. Both said they were OK but liter it caused some back problems for swampy.
We got out of the sack in the morning and don't you know it ....Overcast gray skies with a slight wind. Those gray clouds just keep rolling in over us, looks like it might be a wet day (Ya know it never rains when I go paddling and camping :roll: ) . We got everything packed up and down river we go.
This stretch of the river has shallow water but a good flow to it and for some reason there weren't that many blowdowns, anyway a lot less then we have had the last two day's.
Shortly after starting out here comes the light showers, sprinkles actually, not hard enough to put on a rain coat. Later we did get a little heavier rain and Van put on his poncho then the rain stopped. Later it started again and he put on the poncho then it stopped so the rest of us told Van to leave it on and that way it would not rain. Van said he would sleep in the darn thing if it kept the rain away, I found the cure for the sparkey curse ...just have Van along with his poncho. :lol:
Al and I were out in front of the flotilla and rounding a bend there were two of those big, fat, healthy, Georgia deer on the bank having there breakfast. We manage to get fairly close to them when the Harry & Van with Swampy came around the bend and that was just to much for the deer so off into the woods the vanished.
This is getting good, coyotes last night with some owls sounding off then the deer this morning.
We just keep lazing along down stream and when we started to look for a camp site the real rain hit us. It came down in buckets and all of the boats were filling up with water. It is surprising just how much rain an open boat will collect.
We located a hunters picnic and camping shelter so over to the bank and under the shelter for the rest of the rain. The area looked like a good camping area except for the posted No Trespassing signs.
From doing this trip several years ago I was sure if we didn't find a campsite really soon we would be in trouble because the land was posted on the Florida side of the river.
The rain stopped and back into the boats to look for a camp site. We paddled a short distance and on the Georgia side we located a good camping area so into the shore and checked it out. All of us agreed that this would be a good camp so the 1st thing we did was to put up swamps 12 x 16 tarp in case it wanted to rain on us again.
Next went up Al' tent, our hammocks and Harry & Van found a good area by the tarp for them to snooze on a little later. Set up Harry's folding table and the kitchen under the tarp and then got the wood for a fire later , down on the sand bar.
Today we covered 13/16 of the total distance so tomorrow it would be a shorter paddle to Traders Hill (only 3/16 to go) then I was expecting which is very good as you will find out.
Camp is at 30-44.053 West
While cooking supper the wind started blowing, or anyway we thought it was blowing.
For all of you Marines out there I have to tell this on us. While I was cooking up a chicken and dumpling soup, that I talked swampy into helping me eat , he got busy and fixed up a batch of carrot & raisin salad for us. Swampy took some carrots and scraped them , then adder a lot of raisins and a little thousand island salad dressing and boy it was good.
Had a fire going and the wind was getting stronger but we managed to get dried out by the fire and did it ever feel good. The boats were down near the waters edge so they were pulled up just a little further on the sand bar and then tied off to the trees, just for safety sake. (we just did not know how safe they were going to be)
After swapping true stories and enjoying the fire we decided it was time to hit the sack. The wind was still getting stronger.
I got in the hammock and in the bag, nice and comfortable when a blast of wind hit me and swung the hammock, the rain fly did a dance and pulled out one of the pegs to hold the fly out from the hammock. Sooooo out of that warm bag to retie and post the steak for the rain fly. Back in the hammock and don't you know it I had to repeat the process all over again. This time I fastened the fly closer to the sides of the hammock and went back to bed.
Laying there you could hear the rollers going over the tree tops and just a second later then a blast would come thru the bottom hitting the hammock. The rollers along the tree tops would move the trees which would cause the hammock to rise as the trees moved apart then the 2nd lower blast would move the hammock from side to side. The one side of the rain fly would be pushed against the hammock while the other side would try to fly up and away. There I am in the hammock going up and down then from side to side. I just went to sleep till a stronger blast would hit and wake me up. This went on all night long and into the morning. I sure hope the boats are OK.
By the way a roller is when the wind just rolls over the tree tops and it sounds like a Diesel freight engine going over your head.
It was blowing so hard at times that if even blew the Covers off of Harry as he was sleeping on the ground behind a small rise. Stuff on the table was blown off and on the ground.
Up in the morning and the 1st thing I checked on were the boats ... they were quite safe and on DRY GROUND about 6 feet from the water. Even this far up the St.Mary's there is a tidal flow (for better words) and it had to be low tide right now over at the ocean. This also meant one more problem, besides paddling against the wind we would be paddling up stream even though we were going down stream, the water flow would be against us.
So far all of us have made it down the St.mary's River 5/16th of the total length. Slow paddling due to the strainers, blowdowns and shallow water. This is one beautiful section of the river and the weather has been just perfect up to now.
Last night while taking pictures swampy and Al both were introduced to that little strip of dark sand at the waters edge and found it out was some slippery mud. They did the St.Mary's River sit down as there feet just slid out from under them and then landed on there posterior.
Both said they were OK but liter it caused some back problems for swampy.We got out of the sack in the morning and don't you know it ....Overcast gray skies with a slight wind. Those gray clouds just keep rolling in over us, looks like it might be a wet day (Ya know it never rains when I go paddling and camping :roll: ) . We got everything packed up and down river we go.
This stretch of the river has shallow water but a good flow to it and for some reason there weren't that many blowdowns, anyway a lot less then we have had the last two day's.
Shortly after starting out here comes the light showers, sprinkles actually, not hard enough to put on a rain coat. Later we did get a little heavier rain and Van put on his poncho then the rain stopped. Later it started again and he put on the poncho then it stopped so the rest of us told Van to leave it on and that way it would not rain. Van said he would sleep in the darn thing if it kept the rain away, I found the cure for the sparkey curse ...just have Van along with his poncho. :lol:
Al and I were out in front of the flotilla and rounding a bend there were two of those big, fat, healthy, Georgia deer on the bank having there breakfast. We manage to get fairly close to them when the Harry & Van with Swampy came around the bend and that was just to much for the deer so off into the woods the vanished.
This is getting good, coyotes last night with some owls sounding off then the deer this morning.
We just keep lazing along down stream and when we started to look for a camp site the real rain hit us. It came down in buckets and all of the boats were filling up with water. It is surprising just how much rain an open boat will collect.
We located a hunters picnic and camping shelter so over to the bank and under the shelter for the rest of the rain. The area looked like a good camping area except for the posted No Trespassing signs.
From doing this trip several years ago I was sure if we didn't find a campsite really soon we would be in trouble because the land was posted on the Florida side of the river.
The rain stopped and back into the boats to look for a camp site. We paddled a short distance and on the Georgia side we located a good camping area so into the shore and checked it out. All of us agreed that this would be a good camp so the 1st thing we did was to put up swamps 12 x 16 tarp in case it wanted to rain on us again.
Next went up Al' tent, our hammocks and Harry & Van found a good area by the tarp for them to snooze on a little later. Set up Harry's folding table and the kitchen under the tarp and then got the wood for a fire later , down on the sand bar.
Today we covered 13/16 of the total distance so tomorrow it would be a shorter paddle to Traders Hill (only 3/16 to go) then I was expecting which is very good as you will find out.
Camp is at 30-44.053 West
While cooking supper the wind started blowing, or anyway we thought it was blowing.
For all of you Marines out there I have to tell this on us. While I was cooking up a chicken and dumpling soup, that I talked swampy into helping me eat , he got busy and fixed up a batch of carrot & raisin salad for us. Swampy took some carrots and scraped them , then adder a lot of raisins and a little thousand island salad dressing and boy it was good.
Had a fire going and the wind was getting stronger but we managed to get dried out by the fire and did it ever feel good. The boats were down near the waters edge so they were pulled up just a little further on the sand bar and then tied off to the trees, just for safety sake. (we just did not know how safe they were going to be)
After swapping true stories and enjoying the fire we decided it was time to hit the sack. The wind was still getting stronger.
I got in the hammock and in the bag, nice and comfortable when a blast of wind hit me and swung the hammock, the rain fly did a dance and pulled out one of the pegs to hold the fly out from the hammock. Sooooo out of that warm bag to retie and post the steak for the rain fly. Back in the hammock and don't you know it I had to repeat the process all over again. This time I fastened the fly closer to the sides of the hammock and went back to bed.
Laying there you could hear the rollers going over the tree tops and just a second later then a blast would come thru the bottom hitting the hammock. The rollers along the tree tops would move the trees which would cause the hammock to rise as the trees moved apart then the 2nd lower blast would move the hammock from side to side. The one side of the rain fly would be pushed against the hammock while the other side would try to fly up and away. There I am in the hammock going up and down then from side to side. I just went to sleep till a stronger blast would hit and wake me up. This went on all night long and into the morning. I sure hope the boats are OK.
By the way a roller is when the wind just rolls over the tree tops and it sounds like a Diesel freight engine going over your head.
It was blowing so hard at times that if even blew the Covers off of Harry as he was sleeping on the ground behind a small rise. Stuff on the table was blown off and on the ground.
Up in the morning and the 1st thing I checked on were the boats ... they were quite safe and on DRY GROUND about 6 feet from the water. Even this far up the St.Mary's there is a tidal flow (for better words) and it had to be low tide right now over at the ocean. This also meant one more problem, besides paddling against the wind we would be paddling up stream even though we were going down stream, the water flow would be against us.