Black & White Wednesday Suwannee River

This is the view looking out the front of the boat. This river has sand bars on one side and limestone cliffs on the other. The current washes the sand away to reveal the limestone cliffs and overhangs. 

On the right side of this picture is sandy shores and the left is ricky shores. The water is very dark. It reflects everything.
This Cyprus tree was down by the water by itself. It makes me wonder how long it has before the river claims it and the tree begins its journey down stream.

"The Wind is my friend"

It was quite windy on the river both days. One thing I have learned from all my years boating is the wind will almost always be on the nose(Blowing straight from the direction you want to go) Of course being in a canoe from the side is almost worse. The ripples on the water is a puff of wind coming from about a 45 degree angle. The other thing of note is when the body of water isn't very wide and you see good size ripples you know the puff is pretty strong.
I saw this Turkey buzzard eating on something. The current was sweeping me directly towards him. I took a few pictures and was trying to avoid getting caught up in the debris. As I paddled away I saw he was working on a dead alligator and then I saw the rest of his buddies sitting further up in the tree. Once I got clear of the stuff in the water I had a bad angle for any more photos.

Still on the Suwannee

Early morning fog on the Suwannee. This was the scene I was greeted with as I awoke. The fog burned off as the day heated up. 

These guys were camped out just around the bend from me. They had been there all week. They had so much stuff they needed a trailer for their boat. This thing looked like it towed behind pretty well.  

This is kind of a self portrait. I am usually careful not to get my shadow in the picture. I saw it from were I was standing and decided to take the picture anyway. I kind of like the effect.

Camping on the Suwannee

This was my camping spot on the river last weekend. I paddled just past the I-75 bridge. This was about 2 miles from the bridge. Far enough to not hear the traffic. The sand bar was pretty good size. It also had a nice flat spot for my tent, the tarp and even  an old fire ring. 

This is the view from the other side of the bank. The bank was about 8 feet higher then the water level. 
The water is very dark. It makes for these reflections. The trees are coming to life. Green is everywhere. It was very nice. The Limestone makes for quite a contrast to the trees. And seeing the trees growing out of the rocks is very cool.
This old bridge across the river was nice. I Enjoyed seeing it. The current was sweeping me by pretty quick.
This piling was from another bridge. I really liked the spiral pattern. And it was reflected in the water as well.
There was not a lot of wildlife visible along the river, but the trip was really nice. This would be a good trip to make with a group.

Sights along the Suwanee River

This past weekend I spent 2 days on the river and camped over night. (More on that later) This picture was soon after starting. Notice the limestone overhangs. In places where the river turns you have rock on the outside of the curve and sand banks on the inside. The water is full of tannin so the water is almost black. It is pretty clean but very dark. It makes for these wonderful reflections in your pictures.

This was a root from a Cyprus tree. It reminded me of either an elephant or maybe even an Aardvark. It was a very cool natural formation.
This is a male Cardinal, I saw several of these. This was the only one that was nice enough to pose for me.
I camped on this sand bank. When I woke up in the morning there were all these little tracks running all over the place. It took me a while to find this guy. He can be seen making tracks. Just going about his business. I imagine they were looking for food. 
This was the only turtle I saw all weekend. He was about a foot long, and very shiny.
Viewing wildlife from the  Suwanee River is pretty tough. The banks are for the most part high and very steep. They are also mostly limestone. I heard a ton of birds all weekend. Most I never saw. I also saw a lot of them that were in a hurry or back further in the trees making them selves harder to photograph. The other thing that makes it tough is the current was running pretty strong. It would sweep you right by stuff.  Stay tuned for Black and White Wednesday.

Stars Over the Suwannee River

This is a Time lapse video I made from my trip this weekend on the Suwannee River. I hope you enjoy the video. I am still practicing on making these time laspe videos. It takes many pictures to produce one of these. The pictures are 30 seconds apart and then they play back at 15 frames a second.

More to come,

Stay turned

Black & White Wednesday Santa Fe River

Early morning on the river. I got up and saw this fog on the river. So naturally I put the boat in the water and paddled around a bit. I took some B&W pictures cause this scene just begged for it. These Cyprus Trees were standing there waiting. I also like the reflections on the water.  Notice the waterlines on the trees as well.

This is my boat tied up on the bank waiting to be loaded for the days trip.
My view from camp. I was camped right on the banks of the river. I will talk about the trip tomorrow.

Another view of the river from my camp. You can see the boat waiting. The river is calm now but that would change later.

Wild life on the Santa Fe River

This was a group of Turkeys I spotted. This was the edge of someone's backyard right on the edge of the woods. This picture was taken early in the morning. There was another grouping of 4 or 5 just in the tree line. I wasn't able to get a decent picture of them. 

This alligator was cruising along in the river. It looked to be about a 6 footer. He headed over to the bank and I stayed on the other side of the river.  In the picture he is floating pretty high in the water. As I got closer he sank down until only his eyes and nose was out of the water and then he disappeared completely.

These 2 turtles had a nice little rock to sit on and check things out. They were keeping an eye on me as I passed by. Of course I was keeping an eye out for submerged rocks. I did manage to get a few new scratches on the bottom of the boat. 
I spotted this deer standing in the brush. As I got closer she started to walk up towards the trees. Finally she turned and looked back posing for a picture and then walked off into the trees.
This Yellow Crowned Night Heron was hanging out fishing. He looked at me once and then went back to fishing. I took a few pictures as the current carried me by.  
This snail appeared to be laying this eggs on the side of the Cyprus Tree. This was another early morning picture. 

I saw a good bit of wild life along the river including some Wood Storks , Red Tailed Hawks and some Cattle Egrets. I also saw 2 snakes swimming across the river in the rain so I wasn't about to get out the camera.

I have lots more pictures and don't forget Black and White Wednesday

Canoe on the Santa Fe

These are the pictures I took this weekend I pasted them into a movie. This is just a series of still shots I took and made into a movie. I will post some of the pictures individually in the next few days. Needless to say it rained a little bit this weekend. I had to bail water from the boat while it was still raining. Look for the pictures of the inside of the rubbermade bin. The first 2 times it started raining I just put the camera in. After that I started shutting it off. The camera was taking one picture every minute. I plan on doing more of this in the future. Remember to check back for updates.

getting Ready for the trip

Ethan and I are getting ready for our trip on the Santa Fe River this weekend. This is a picture of our new dry bag. It has all of our sleeping stuff and clothes that we need to keep dry. Ethan was a little surprised at how big this pack was. We put it on him and he fell back and landed on the pack. I don't guess he will be carrying too much stuff. Fortunately we won't have to do much portaging with the canoe and all the stuff.

At the last minute Ethan decided to bail on the trip. The weather looked kind of iffy so maybe next time.