Weeki Wachee Spring

The place in Florida where mermaids do exist, manatees could be sexy sirens of the deep, and forgetting you took I-75 to get there is easy.  The Seminole Indians named  Weeki Wachee Spring; it means either "little spring" or "winding river", depending upon the interpretation.  Weeki Wachee is a place that transports you back in time, back to an undeveloped Florida.  The cool, clear-water, the brilliant, white-sand and the low hanging canopy make the Spring a special place.  The water hovers around 72 degrees all through the year.

The river; which bubbles out of the ground at a rate of 117 million gallons a day, is limestone rich and crystal clear.  Weeki Wachee is a first magnitude spring, and there are 27 such springs in the state of Florida.  It puts out a little over 100 cubic feet of water per second, it also has a current of about 5 miles per hour.  That flow rate has enough force to rip off a snorkel mask, take a grown man off his feet, or wash a mermaid down stream.

I wanted to float the river but I did not want to go to the touristy area known as Buccaneer Bay.  I wasn't really interested in the mermaids or the throngs of screaming children.  I was interested in putting in just below the bay and taking a leisurely float down the river time forgot.  I started looking for a reputable company to shuttle my canoe or my vehicle, whichever was the companies preference.  Goggling Weeki Wachee, canoe rental, and reviews turned up some terrible sources and some promising leads.  I called the lead that had the best reviews and kept my fingers crossed.  To my surprise the people on the end of the line were ready and willing to portage whatever I needed.  They also told me they would have a cooler of free beer on the porch!

The Kayak Shack owned by Jon Cone & Amber Costa is the best place to rent from, in my opinion.  They have canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards and are very accommodating   They will shuttle your craft up 5.5 miles and be waiting for your return with smiling faces.  I offered them 20 bucks to shuttle my canoe, my crap, and my girlfriend and I.  They promptly turned around and said, "No, we'll do it for 15, but only if you have a beer right now."  I knew it was going to be a great day, who can argue with hospitality like that.  Amber took my girlfriend and I around and showed us their canoes, kayaks, and their stand-up paddle boards.  They had everything and more, finding them was a real treat.

Jon Cone posing for a picture next to his plethora of canoes.  He even gave me a T-shirt to eat next door because mine was too wet to wear when we were done. What a great guy!

The place we put in was a short 10 minute van ride up the road.  I'm not sure where exactly where we put in at, because there was some very lively conversation going on in that 10 passenger van.   When you are given free beer, time to wait for the shuttle, and a roadie is not of the question, you know it is going to be a good day.

The driver, a young guy in his early 20's was real helpful loading and unloading everything.  We walked the canoe on a trailer for about 1/4 of a mile til we reached the water.  When we did, we were greeted with the most stunning aqua color water.  If the put-in site was indicative of what was to come, we had hit the jackpot.  After that walk the water felt amazing, I was in no hurry to hop in the canoe but I knew I had to get the show on the road.

We were told this area was the widest part of the river and that everything would begin funneling together after about 1/2 a mile.  We were told, "watch out for the big boats", "watch out for the little boats", "avoid the Manatees", and "stay left".  The last one didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I figured just like everything else it would make sense in time.  They were right, the wide expansive river narrowed quickly and became intimate, quickly.  

Looking ahead you could see the river laid out before you with white sand on the outside and green grass in the middle.  The whole area was teaming with life; fish, bugs, birds, raccoon's, turkey and even the lone manatee.

 

Less than 5 minutes from the canoe launch the rivers panoramic views of marshes, shrubs, mangroves and trees, gave way to a thick, encroaching, forest.  The canopy on either side of the now small river offered plenty of protection from the sun.  Even overhead, the canopy was getting thicker and casting long shadows at 1 in the afternoon.

The clarity of the water was amazing.  Words can't do it justice and I don't know if pictures can even do it justice?  Leaning over the side of the vessel you are in, becomes habitual and necessary.  You become almost afraid you will miss something if you are not looking down.  Seeing sand bubbling and spurting from the water pressure underneath the sand is an amazing thing to sit and do, but there was so much to see that I couldn't just sit and watch bubbling-sand potholes.  

I had brought along my spinning rods because I knew the water and the environment was not conducive to fly fishing.  I was right, but it was also not friendly to bait casting either.  The sub-surface currents were multi-directional.  There were swirls and cross-currents.  There would be boils in the same area as eddies, and vorticies were common around downed trees.  It was an angling nightmare, but a fish's dream.  There was so much life and so much variety of food that the water was simply teaming with fish.  Needless to say, I didn't do much fishing.  It was actually an unwelcome distraction to taking in all the sights and sounds.  So I packed up my rods and broke out what I really wanted any way.

I brought along one of my special occasion cigars.  My La Flor Dominica Double Box Press.  These big guys are about my all time favorite cigars.  They are HUGE first of all (54 ring gauge), and they are flavor to back up their huge profile. They are a limited quantity smoke at about 14,000 so I scoop a few up for special occasions, this was one of them.

Pay close attention to the person canoeing up front. Oh wait, she isn't.  My co-pilot.

After about a mile the river started to have a lot of ox-bow's in it, which made for some fun canoeing because of the overhanging trees, stumps, beaches, sunken logs and of course other boaters.  The beaches were little spits of sand on the inside bend of the ox-bows.  They were just as white as the sand in the river too.  It was amazing, it seemed as though the water became even clearer the further we canoed.  It was crazy how crystalline the water really was.

This was the first deep hole we ran across.  You could see the color change from 50 yards out.  It was at least 15 feet deep.  The soft sand and strong currents dug a fish filled trench that had swirling currents and boiling outside edges.   When you got over top of the hole it seemed to beg for a swimmer or someone to take notice of its depth and play in it.  I was too in awe of it, to do anything but record it.  It was the first time I had run across a hole that deep in a river that clear, I could actually see the bottom and count the leaves.

We were making OK time down the river, but I was a little taken aback to see were were exiting Weeki Wachee State Park?  I wasn't real sure if were were leaving the perfect blue waters behind and heading into something else?  I was almost disappointed we were leaving the confines of the park.  What was around the corner?

As it turned out, what happened was the trees gave way to flood plains again and the river opened up.  The sun was high above at 3 o'clock.  We still had almost 4 miles to go and already the river had changed forms several times.  Weeki Wachee was not holding back.

As the river widened and the flood plains spread out, it took on a different tone.  There was real loud music, whooping, hollering and all kinds of carousing coming from around the corner.  It sounded like there was either a party or a small concert happening ahead.  There were even people playing in trees along the river.  You could smell the Bar-B-Que, the campfire, beer and cigarettes.  I began to think, "paddle real hard and ignore what's on your right".

Passing the Private Property on our right, as quickly as possible so we could drown out the competing John Mayer and Skid Row.  After getting downwind and out of eye-sight the beauty started to quickly return.  I had read about that spot and I am not going to cast any negativity.  As soon as we were about 1000 yards away the music faded, the yelling and screaming was replaced by the chirping of birds and the buzzing of Cicadas; tranquility was restored.

At one point near the end, there was an unmarked tannic river/stream that flowed into Weeki Wachee.  The small river/stream flowed in from the right.  It immediately turned the water tea colored.  I nearly missed it and did not take any pictures.  All I was able to snap was the left, center and right.  It happened to quick for me to realize what happened, and spinning around to paddle back up stream was quickly shot down.

This is the center of the river looking down stream, just after the tannic river merged.

This is the left side of the canoe after passing the tannic creek.

This is the right side after passing the tannic creek.  Weird right?

 This is the last bit of clear water before the tea stain totally over took the river.

It was one of the most beautiful canoe rides I have been on in years.  I can not wait to go back and do it again.  Jon and Amber are accommodating to say the least and offer fantastic service.  You should check them out and go have a few free beers.  The whole river was beautiful and I have a few must do's for next time.  I want to check out Hospital hole, I'm not going to dive it, I'm just curious if you can tell anything from the surface?

The restaurant next door had a great menu and a great view of Roger Park.  The whole adventure was fantastic and the repeat trip will be an all day affair.  Now that I gotten my feet wet in the winding river, I can better prepare for the ride.  I'm working on a couple of ideas for fishing Weeki Wachee too.