Kayaking Chassahowitzka Springs

[Kitsune]

Kayaking the Chassawhiz--... Chassahoozi--... Chassahowitzer--

I went kayaking along a river generated by cold water springs in Central Florida this weekend. Let me underline the word "cold", too, because most of the rivers around here and the Gulf is as warm as bath water this time of year, so swimming in these waters was a bit of a shock: 55-60F is rather chilly! Still, its refreshing to swim in water that isn't as warm as the air around you and is too cold to contain alligators and snakes. The stuff is so clean you can literally drink it if you dive down into one of the holes and we found that some residents have taken advantage of this by dropping pipes into the springs to collect drinking water. Must be nice, especially considering the state of the tap and well water in these areas.


Bluuue.

The springs go down anywhere from six to thirty-five feet or more -- at one of them I didn't have enough anchor line to find the bottom and judging depth proved difficult if you tried to do it by sight alone, since the water had little to no sediment in it. Some locals were even swimming through some of the caves and would dissapear for a few moments, then resurface at another hole several feet away. "Its easy", they said, "just dive in and swim towards the light." This wasn't comforting.


Stopped for lunch at a camping spot, which made me wish I had taken along a tent to extend the trip another day. But then, there's the whole "have to go to work on Monday" thing. Dammit.

Wildlife to be seen besides lots of crabs and several families of river otters should have included the peaceful, blubberous manatee, although it looks like they might have all been scared away by the recent storms. Ah, no matter.



Other sights include sinking airboats and panicked drunken captains feverishly using empty beer cans to try avert impending doom. Watch out for those rocks, guys. Its a bit shallow out there.