Adventure on Little Lake Harris

Today, Makenna and I went on a canoe trip planned by Trout Lake Nature in conjunction with the Lake County Water Authority. Lavon from Trout Lake planned the trip. The 10 am outing had so much interest they added another trip for 2 pm. That's the one Makenna and I did. Less birds at this time, but still worth the trip.

All day it was cloudy, coolish (low 70's) and threatening rain. We decided to go anyway.

We drove to Astatula, 19 to 561, pass the landfill and the drivers license place, take a right onto 48W in the town of Astatula, take this to the end where it turns into a dirt road with a small boat launch at the end. We got there, got our life vests, picked out a canoe and hit the water....just in time for the rain to begin.

It was raining, and thundering in the distance the whole time we were on Little Lake Harris. We turned off into the Double Run Preserve. This Preserve was purchased by LCWA to protect the Double Run spring flow and the hardwood swamp that surrounds it. Double Run Swamp was the historic connection between Lake Apopka and Little Lake Harris and still serves some of its role as a water quality filter and reservoir for seepage flow through the wetlands and from the surrounding sandhills. Also, hidden in the depths of this swamp is a small 3rd magnitude spring. The combination of these natural features means that the water in Double Run has great clarity. Little Lake Harris has water that's more on the brown side. Anyway, before we turned off we did a bit of a poll to see who wanted to continue on and who wanted to go back. Brad from the Lake County Water Authority was willing to turn around with anyone not up for the 2 hours paddling in the rain.

A few did turn back and Makenna and I decided we were sticking with it. We had gotten an updated weather situation by someone back at LCWA and the storms were not really going to be a threat for us. Rain was still going to happen, but lightening was not. We called it an adventure and continued on.

Once back into the narrower water the rain vacillated between picking up to what felt like some sort of punishment, and dropping off to just plain rain. Nevertheless, it was really lovely back in this area. I love being in the woods or near the woods (as it was in this case) in the rain. It seems the bark of the trees gets darker and the green of the leaves gets brighter and it all has a glow because of the wetness that I find awe inspiring.

Lots of the trees along the banks were cyprus and there was evidence of some other trees, not cyprus, having fallen over. Big root systems facing vertically. We saw some poison ivy (Makenna identified) and pickerelweed which looks like purple spikey hyacinth water plants, spatterdock, which is like a lily pad with yellow flowers that don't ever open up past a slight bud like size. We saw an apple snail shell sitting on top of a spotty leaf and Lavon told us it was the native, non invasive snail which is integral to the snail kite and the limpkin 's diet. The way to tell if this was a apple snail was by looking at the snails outside spiral. the apple snail does not have deep grooves or channels. The non native channel apple snail does. Check out the website for lots of good information on this.

We saw a dead alligator floating in the roots of the trees by the banks. We could smell it before we we saw it and initially we thought it was a log floating there. It's belly was white and shiny and that ultimately is what helped us identify it. Not very log like in that way. Not sure why it would be floating there dead or what could have killed it. Doesn't seem like a good thing though.

We did see birds as well....osprey, white egret, great blue heron, green Heron, anhinga, kingfisher, and lots of little ones I don't know. I had never seen a kingfisher and Lavon identified it by it's white band around the neck, black bill and the females have a red stripe across their breast. Cool.

By the time we got back to the boat ramp we were cold cold, wet and tired and looking for some hot chocolate and dry clothes. Makenna brought a change of clothes, I did not. We learn from the youth, eh? We hauled the canoe up, said our good-byes and headed out. What an adventure!
Makenna: We have to stop for hot chocolate on the way home.
Me: Can't we wait until home?
Makenna: No, we have to stop, I'm freezing!
Me: Ok, next gas station and we're there.

It hit the spot, that's for sure! I was a drowned rat, soaked hair, clothes, shoes, everything. What a sight we both made. But we had fun and I'm glad we did it.

Makenna and I both would like to work on getting kayaks so we can be out in the water more often. There is so much to explore and we just have not done it. I really did like being in a canoe this time, though. I haven't been in one in so long and have mostly kayaked lately. The seating is different and so is the paddling. It was nice. Canoe? kayak? Either is good!!