Weikwa Springs is a great place to canoe. Not so much to row, but canoeing is awesome.

On Friday we decided to take the afternoon and spend it on the water. The Osborns are a water-loving family and came prepared with an Adirondack guide boat (which is NOT a canoe), a white hull, and a kayak. The guide boat and white hull are row boats.

We divided up and in the guide boat were Nat (at the oars), my mother, and Damon. In the white hull were S-G, my dad (at the oars), Fuller and me. Austina was in the kayak. Once we were in the water, shoved off from shore, we started down the Weikva River. This river is narrow and shallow until you make it to the Wekiwa Marina, where is gets a tad deeper. In the past few years several trees have fallen into the shallow part. So, every few feet we were trying to navigate around or over these downed Cyprus and Pine trees. It made rowing very difficult. Add to that the 20- 30 other people paddling along in their rented canoes and you have bumper boats, almost like the kind you find at an amusement park, minus the underwater rail to keep you from turning over.

So, we have difficulting rowing and bumper boats. Now, add to that two women with an irrational (yet somehow rational) fear of alligators. Actually, what you should envision is the water lilies and other foliage being so lush and thick and these two women with irrational fears of alligators somehow jumping straight from that foliage into our boats.

Ok, now we have rowing issues, bumper boats, irrational fears of alligators, and a 13 month child who does not want to be in a life jacket or sitting calmly on his mother?s lap. What he really wanted was to be back at camp, napping, or to become gator bait by getting in the water (the kid loves water). I finally got him to go to sleep, but it was a fight to the nap. And then as he became heavy with sleep, I discovered how uncomfortable the white hull was.

Rowing issues, bumper boats, irrational fears of alligators, a fussy child, an uncomfortable seat, and no one had eaten lunch. Well, I think we fed Fuller before we left. Bruce & Barbara (Nat?s parents) had rented a canoe when it became available, and they were able to canoe quickly downstream and meet us at the fork in the river. We took the right side and headed for a place to eat lunch. We finally got to a place off to the side where we just shored up the boats next to a downed tree and passed the food around.

At this point two of the boaters were really uncomfortable. Again, it comes from the irrational fear of alligators, but come on! We were right on the shoreline, right next to where some gator could come up on us and gobble up the dog (who was smuggled onto the river in a bunch of towels and the well-tipped kids at the canoe rental turned their eyes). Sure, the gator would have to claw his way past the mother with the sleeping child and the men with the oars to get to the contraband dog, but that fear was hovering over these women as lunch was consumed.

We headed back upstream to the springs. We stopped at the marina (which had burned to the ground last Wednesday) so that Bruce & Barbara could take over the white hull and Daddy, S-G, Fuller, & myself would finish the trip back to the shore in the canoe. Once in the canoe, it was a different trip. Fuller calmed down, he sat in my lap on the floor of the canoe, Daddy & S-G navigated the river without much issue, no more bumper boats, and after some minor difficulty overcoming the strong current where Rock Spring & Wekiwa Spring merge, we made it back to shore just fine.

The Wekiwa Springs is a great place to canoe. There is gorgeous greenery, some wildlife to see (we saw a bunch of turtles and several different kinds of birds), and the weather was perfect- not too hot, not too cold. It ended up being a great water trip- in a canoe.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS