Advertisement
Published: April 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Lets Get Started
heres the entourage that headed out with us Well yall, I embarked on an eleven and half mile kayak excursion this past Saturday, March 29th, down the Hillsborough River in Tampa. It was part of my friend Shawn’s biology class trip. Needless to say it was a pretty large sized group of people. The day was set to start off at 8:30am and conclude at 2pm, with some presentations being given about halfway down the river at a breaking point. We finally didn’t get onto the river until about 10:30am (thanks Brice and Alana for being so late). Upon them finally arriving we car pooled from our return spot to our starting spot. After unloading all the canoes and kayaks, plus some guidance to the people who have never done either before we began tossing people in boats and shoving off. Shawn and I were one of the few people to depart last which is probably a good thing as we got to bear witness to the so called acclaimed canoer, capsize his canoe immediately from the boat ramp. It probably didn’t help that there was ALOT of weight in that canoe with two big guys, a medium sized girl and a big cooler.
When we
finally got into the water after dicking around far to long we set out down this small stretch and hung a right. Needless to say, none of the rest of the group was in sight so we guessed and guessed wrong. We ended up in a small inlet and ran into another group that was out on the river. We did manager to see the first of many gator encounters of the day. Once we got turned around we headed down stream and finally regrouped with the rest of the class, then had to just hang out until everyone could catch up. Upon everyone catching up we were all set free, having a guide at the front (who was ALWAYS way ahead of everyone, I think we caught up to her twice the whole eleven and half miles and we were hauling ass at one point going approx 5mph) and one who brought up the rear of the group with the stragglers.
Once we were free to go and move at our own pace we broke free and tried to avoid all the yappers (who we had to all stop, and be spoken to about “voice levels”) in
Alligator
we were actually this close... order to actually witness some wildlife. In absence of the noisy people we came across some more alligators, a bunch of turtles, and some very beautiful birds. There was also some interesting vegetation along the way, mostly all green, although we did capture some yellow flowers when we stopped for some people to find a tree, if you know what I mean. At that point when I was sitting in the kayak waiting, I noticed how bad the mosquitoes were and was being eaten alive. Sure nuff after the pit stop right around the bend is where we stopped for lunch, lol. The mosquitoes were even worse while we ate and one person gave a presentation. Finally the professor had enough of the bugs and said lets get outta here the rest of the presentations will be done in class (that was the smartest decision of the day).
We shoved off and got out in the lead, where it was the guide and two other groups. This is where the fun began, we encountered some crazy obstacles, such as having to limbo under trees and narrowly squeeze through a downed tree complete with branches everywhere. One of the
groups we were friends with (Ana, Andrea and Ivan) caught up to us and we just watched them try to avoid things such as trees and what not. Most of the time they ended up running smack dab into them which was hilarious! As I mentioned earlier the guide liked to get way ahead of everyone, well there was one other group with her and we slowly approached them as they were stopped and we thought they said bear. So we eased towards the bank in order to sneak a peak and snag a picture. Well what they said was, there, in reference to the alligator which was now so close to use I could’ve reached out and petted the damn thing! Would’ve taken a picture, but A) we were far to close and B) my hands were on the paddle ready to high tail it outta there, LOL!
Overall it was a great time, aside from the bugs, note to self bring bug spray next time. The temperature got very hot near the end of the trip, plus near the end the river got a lot wider thus pretty much all out in the open with no
Interesting Sign
this sign was posted on the building and next to the boat launch... odd i dont recall seeing that same sign at the start, lol shade. Upon finally arriving and getting the vehicles from the start point to load up Shawn’s kayak we took off. I did snap a picture of a sign that was posted at the ending point, which wasn’t at the starting point, that was pretty interesting. If you want an interesting adventurous journey on the river this was a very nice little trip. Ok so eleven miles isn’t little, but there were boat docks throughout that we passed so you could’ve shortened the excursion.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0236s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb