Winter 2014-Manatee Springs

Mon. Feb. 17-Thu. Feb. 21: Manatee Springs was only about 30 miles from Cedar Key. We bought breakfast at the Sunset Island Café while doing the laundry, broke camp, bought groceries and got to our campsite in time to have lunch there after setting up. We went the short distance to the spring and walked the boardwalk up to the Suwannee River but saw only birds, fish and turtles, no manatees. Ann and Shelby arrived before 6:00 as promised and after we ate dinner they went to the spring. We all finished setting up our camps and then played dominoes. Playing dominoes or card games was to be our every evening activity for our time together.

Way down upon the Suwanee River...

Turtles along the spring run

Our large campsite at Manatee Springs

Tuesday morning we all walked to the spring with our devices to use the WiFi available at the concession stand there, which became our everyday activity after breakfast. While we were there we saw a small manatee in the spring run that slowly made its way to the river. We spent the rest of the day at the park riding our bikes 2.75 miles on some of the trails and Marv, Ann & I went snorkeling in the spring. The air temperature was about 76° and the spring is always at 72° so Floridians wouldn’t even consider going in but it was fine with us.

Snorkeling in Manatee Springs

Sunset over the Suwanee River

After we got our internet fix on Wednesday Shelby drove all of us to Cedar Key. We visited the bald eagles and the ospreys and had lunch at Tony’s again. The whole time we were searching for a good place to put in our kayaks without much luck. We drove to the back of the old cemetery, thinking there might be access there, but only found a short cut to the nature boardwalk that we had walked with Oiens. We ran into a woman at the park there that had lived in Cedar Key for thirty years. She couldn’t think of anyplace we could put in and was very apologetic. But then she said, “Oh I know where you could go! Take state route 347 north about 5 miles to the Shell Mound Park.” It turned out to be there perfect spot! There is a small campground with a public access into a tidal waterway that opens to the Gulf of Mexico and is a National Wildlife Refuge. We paddled all the way up one shore to a large fishing pier, across the channel, and then back along the opposite shore before crossing back over to the access site. We saw lots of water fowl and wading birds and enjoyed the quiet area for nearly two hours with no other boats or watercraft to bother us. On the way back we drove the 7 mile nature loop through the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Key Nature Preserve but we saw only one alligator and one armadillo. By the time we got back to the campsite the spaghetti sauce I left simmering in the CrockPot tasted great to all four of us.

Paddling through the grasses in our inflatable kayaj

Great Blue heron

Our first armadillo of the trip

Each day at Manatee Springs the weather got warmer and sunnier. So on Thursday we drove north to Fanning Springs about 10 miles away. We had packed lunches and our swim gear and spent several hours swimming in the blue spring that is just a short run from the Suwannee River. We saw a couple of manatees in the run but nothing like the pictures on the bulletin board that showed as many as 11 right near the shore of the spring. There was a short nature/boardwalk to the bank of the Suwannee, which we walked and then stayed at the overlook to watch some kayakers come down the river and take out at the park. On our way home we stopped for ice cream before heading back to our campsites. That gave us the energy to ride our bikes 6.3 miles on more of their trails before dinner and games. Along the road and right at our campsites we enjoyed watching the practically tame deer that browse and wander without seeming to care about the human visitors to their home.

Ann & Peggy snorkeling in Fanning Springs

Marv & Ann snorkeling in Fanning Springs

Fanning Springs swimming area

Happy turtles on a log

Looking downstream on the Suwanee River

Ann & Shelby biking

Deer beside our camper

Thursday the weather was threatening as we picked up our camps. Ann was out early to take a picture of the biggest deer eating grass right next to our camper. As she sat and read a few raindrops fell and so we all finished quickly and headed over to the spring for a last visit. To our joy we found a very large manatee hanging out in the middle of the spring, floating and browsing and coming up to breathe as people took pictures from all around. Since Ann and Shelby had finished with the internet they said they were going to be on their way and we’d meet again at Hillsborough River State Park. Thunder was rumbling in the distance as we finished up and packed up our devices, when to our surprise Shelby returned saying that Ann was getting on her suit so she could swim with the manatee. And she proceeded to do just that. With her snorkel gear and flippers she entered the water. The manatee slowly circled around and swam right to her. She gave it a small three fingered pat and it swam away and down the spring run. We got lots of pictures and a short video to record her feat and then hurried back to the vehicles as the skies really opened up and the rain poured down.

(pictures of Ann snorkeling to follow)