Centennial Weekend

 

Although I wasn't able to do any paddling on Thursday's  NPS Centennial, the Park Service was kind enough to extend the Commemoration though the entire weekend and I got my kayaking  in on Sunday morning.  I'm now three-quarters of way through the Paddle Challenge.

Too windy for the floppy hat so I switched to my NPS Volunteer ballcap.

shortly after launching my kayak, I spotted what looked like bubbles in the river near the channel.

Initial bubble sighting

I thought that perhaps there were a gathering of manatees about and I paddled towards them to investigate.  As I got closer the "bubbles" were looking more like portuguese-man-of war, something I didn't want to tangle with, but it would be rather odd to find them in the middle of a flowing river this deep inside the bay.

Jellyfish?

Then it began to like like an iceflow!

It can't be ice!

No its foam!

 

 I,m pretty sure that this was a natural phenomenon, The bubbles were not pure white and did not have a detergent fragrance about them.   In spite of the waves the bubble patch stayed together  for the two hours that I was out on the water, it spite  (or because of ?) the wind and waves.

Happy 100th Birthday National Park Service.

 

DESO

#FLNPS100PaddleChallenge and #FindYourPark

The Lost Temple

The Manatee River was pretty choppy this morning, so rather than crossing north to Emerson point, I elected to head up river again.

My Hi-Viz hat really catching the sun.

Looking West into Tampa Bay

 I took a break at Bishop Point where the water was quite a bit calmer, before continuing up river  for another mile.

The tide and currents were with my on the way back, and I was moving at quite a clip with little effort.

Not having seen any wildlife at all thus far I moved in close to shore birds and a crab.  Exciting, Yes!

Bird

Crab

Then looming under the water I spotted some mysterious ruins.  Perhaps the remains of a lost Mayan Temple, or a Spanish fort.  Okay I was a bit bored at this point.

So more of storm tossed tidal channel than a great archaeological discovery, or hidden treasure, but a little day-dreaming never hurts.

At the end of today's paddle as I was loading up the truck Jorge Acevedo, the Park's Superintendent stopped  by and took my incredibly official  Paddle Challenge Selfie.

The HI-VIZ  paddler poses for a photo.  If only we could have gotten the wind and all the flags to cooperate. 

DESO

#FLNPS100PaddleChallenge and #FindYourPark

The Keyhole

Sunrise at De Soto NM

 

This morning I stuck to the waters immediately adjacent to De Soto National Memorial my first chance to kayak since the aborted Biscayne National Park paddle a week and a half ago.  I haven’t really done De Soto other than using it as a launching/landing place since Father’s day.  It was dead calm and little boat traffic at the time and I was hoping to catch sight of some marine life for a change.

 

Required Selfie

I arrived at the park just before the gates opened and launched pretty soon after sunrise.  The Manatee River was close to a high tide and I caught sight of something I had never seen before.  There is kind of a keyhole slot on the nature trail where it turns at “De Soto /Shaw’s point” and you can see through into the cove area.  I think that a high tide makes this much easier to spot from a kayak and that is why I never noticed it before, or maybe some brush has been trimmed back across the trail.  An exciting discovery, not really, but I’ll take what I can get.

 

 

 

The "Keyhole' looking east.

 

The "Keyhole" looking west.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No boats were moored in the cove this morning.

 

 

My wildlife encounters were limited to some mullet jumping and some happy dogs playing in the water.

 

WET

HAPPY

DOGS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tampa Bay

Not  getting  a picture of the mullet jumping

Still not  getting  a picture of the mullet jumping

 

DESO

#FLNPS100PaddleChallenge and #FindYourPark