March 2018 - Page 3 of 3

Crooked River Campsite Z: Day 26, Florida CT Paddle 3.10.18

March 10th, 2018susanafield1 Comment

Dear Reader, Today’s paddle had all the ingredients for a perfect day of paddling, except two. Dang, we were so close! It started with The Old Carrabelle Hotel’s proprietor and gracious Innkeeper, Skip, returning Miss Pink, Baby Blue, John and me to Carrabelle’s Public Launch Site on the Carrabelle River where he’d picked us up two days ago. And then up the river we went, past Carrabelle’s waterfront and fishing fleet and pleasure crafts. Up into the marshes, where we veered to the right, up the Crooked River. Islands of marshland which turned into wooded forests. Tate’s Hell State Forest, …

Layover Carrabelle: Day 25, Florida CT Paddle 3.09.18

March 10th, 2018susanafield1 Comment

Dear Reader, Today is a layover resupply day. We opened the big box we’d packaged and had mailed to us via General Delivery, and spread its contents around our room. We’d made a milestone: our first mailbox pickup. My brother Rick showed up with the REI purchases we’d ordered over the phone while camped at Spoil Bank 2 earlier this week. I was excited to get my new sleeping bag liner, and John his Hydroskin paddling shorts. We went back to Carrabelle Junction for today’s Blue Plate Special of French Dip and then Rick took off with some unused and …

Carrabelle: Day 24, Florida CT Paddle 3.08.18

March 8th, 2018susanafield1 Comment

Dear Reader, This morning was freakin cold. In Florida. In March. There were solid ice droplets on my boat. Miss Pink was not happy. But I was just happy we didn’t have to paddle far and thus could stay in our tent with the fly doors closed to block the wind while we drank our morning coffee. We only had a measly 1.8 nm to paddle to the small, quiet fishing town of Carrabelle. There, Skip, the Innkeeper of The Old Carrabelle Hotel, met us at the public boat launch with his truck, loaded up our boats and gear and …

Carrabelle Point: Day 23, Florida CT Paddle 3.07.18

March 7th, 2018susanafield5 Comments

Dear Reader, There’s so much to share today. Mostly because last night I published my post before we had a beer and ate at The Hole in the Wall, which was a stumbled-upon hoot! The bar’s owner (left) and the waitress were improvising their own equivalent of a comedy routine, (although I doubt they’d call it that!) and had John and I smiling from ear to ear in disbelief. That hour or so spent in that bar has been a highlight of our trip. We laughed and felt no pain. When you stay at the Appalachicola River Inn, which we …

Layover Appalachicola: Day 22, Florida CT Paddle 3.06.18

March 6th, 2018susanafield2 Comments

Dear Reader, This morning we awoke to a forecast of a south wind with gusts up to 25 mph, 80% chance of rain and some thunderstorms. We had a 20 nm stretch to paddle with a seven-mile crossing. Winds out of the south would hammer us. At 5:00 am John told me to go back asleep. I was happy to oblige. But first I had to photograph the sunrise. And yes, that is another bridge, as seen from our hotel room at The Apalachicola River Inn. Even with our recent layover day at Spoil Bank 2, we were still tired …

Appalachicola: Day 21, Florida CT Paddle 3.05.18

March 5th, 2018susanafield4 Comments

Dear Reader, Last night the sky was spectacular! Out along the spoil banks, far from Panama City and heading into the deeper wilds of the northeastern panhandle, we were finally away from light pollution. And noise pollution. No drone of traffic in the background. No roar of military aircraft. Sure we were camped by a high energy power line but that was the only opening in the bush large enough for us to get off the water and camp. A pack of coyotes yipped and yapped and howled at the stars just as I too marveled. It was a cold …

Layover Spoil Bank 2: Day 20, Florida CT Paddle 3.04.18

March 4th, 2018susanafield7 Comments

Dear Reader, It is totally my fault that we didn’t paddle today. And I didn’t know that it was going to happen until 3:00 am this morning when I woke up shivering. Anticipating a cold morning like the one before, I’d gone to bed dressed in my fleece sweater over my usual sleep-attire tank top and in my stretch pants over my undies. And I’d put on my thin cotton socks. Which is more than I wore the night before. But it wasn’t enough. So I added long underwear bottoms, a pair of wool socks, another fleece top, a fleece …

Spoil Bank 2: Day 19 Florida CT Paddle 3.03.18

March 3rd, 2018susanafield0 Comments

Dear Reader, Last night we had Zero internet at our camp in the ditch. Then this morning at 5:00 am we had three bars! How odd! How does that even happen? But we were happy and since the temperature was a cold 46 degree we made it a two-cup of coffee morning in bed while we surfed the net. We got on the water at 10 am by which time it had warmed to a cool 67. And tonight we are still in the Ditch. We paddled 12.5 nm, from descriptively-accurate Spoil Bank 1 to Spoil Bank 2, entirely in …

Spoil Bank 1: Day 18 Florida CT Paddle 3.02.18

March 3rd, 2018susanafield0 Comments

Dear Reader, Last night right after I posted, we had our first night of being serenaded by frogs. Then this morning we had our first morning of needing to drag our boats out across the mudflats, due to low tide, before we could launch. So it should come as no surprise, on this day of firsts, that tonight we have our first night of being camped somewhere without cell phone reception such that I won’t be able to publish until tomorrow. Today was our second longest day of paddling so far: 14.7 nm from Piney Point to Spoil Bank 1. …

Piney Point: Day 17 Florida CT Paddle 3.01.18

March 1st, 2018susanafield2 Comments

Dear Reader, This morning we woke early after another night of pissing in a cup in the tent to avoid the swarm of mosquitoes plastered to the underside of our tent’s rain fly. By 7:45 we were on the water, hoping to beat the worst of the day’s predicted high winds with gusts as high as 30 mph. Our goal was just to reach our intended camp for last night, Piney Point, six nautical miles away if we paddled in a straight line. But in wind and around landforms you seldom paddle in a straight line. The wind, for a …