This river was a perfect run for our St Patty’s Day in Florida, as we put in we came around the first few corners to the most beautiful emerald green waters I have ever seen. This river was pretty, twisty, and turny with lots of very shallow spots which was great for Travis and I. We made our way up to the Spring which fed the river at a very quick pace. Again we left the put in with the intentions of seeing some manatees since we heard that this was a popular hang out for them. We weren’t 15 minutes into the paddle and along came a little baby manatee just leisurely floating down the crystal clear green waters. We moved on pretty quickly since we were on a mission to make it up to the top quickly. There was some new company today, some teenagers from Minnesota had come out and were all paddling these little tiny kayaks. It was great fun talking to them and getting out for a quick swim here and there along the river. We made it up and down the river in about 2 hours and 40 minutes and decided to stop for some lunch.
After the break we headed back onto the water to a much busier scene, this river was pretty well used, they had kayak and canoe rentals at the top near the spring so we had many “obstacles” along the way. We did a little more playing around with everyone racing up to the top of the river quickly and back down again since time was really getting away from us. As we were getting closer to the bottom of the run some sunbathers who were hanging out by the rivers edge told us they had just seen a momma and baby manatee float by. Jeff and Julie were ahead of us and were the first to spot the pair, of course we slowed down as soon as we could and floated right over the pair. They were the most graceful looking creatures and just seemed to float down with ease even though the momma was almost as large as one of the canoes. The baby followed closely of course and we even got to see them come up for a few breaths which was an amazing site. One sad thing to see on this beautiful animal was a pretty large scar on top of the mommas back, she had been cut pretty badly by a motor boat at some time in her life. We did see quit a few boats going way to fast on these rivers and apparently the manatees don’t have much sense and they come up for air whenever they need it. We floated along with these gentile giants as long as they were going in the same direction as we were and once they turned we picked up the pace and made our way back down to the put in. I was pretty happy that we had a great encounter with the manatees since I was really looking forward to seeing them basically since I heard we were coming down to paddle in Florida. Another really great paddling experience down in the books as well as 5 hours and 20 minutes added to the logs, this day was work for sure!!! 
And now for a little Floridian fun...Ice cream trucks are a dime a dozen in New England but down here in Florida they have ice cream boats!!!!
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