Rain and a Kayak down Pellicer Creek…

The last few days here at Pellicer Creek Campground near Palm Coast Florida have been mostly cloudy with occasional rain showers. The temperatures have been mostly in the upper 60’s and low to mid 70’s but the showers have been frequent enough to have kept us mostly indoors. This has been great for catching up with our reading as I have read a couple of thriller books and Sharon has read a few books herself.

The day that the rains were to begin there was a 3 to 4 hour window of opportunity for me to get in a paddle down Pellicer Creek. When we first got here we wanted to take our inflatable kayak down the creek to see what was there. Well I chose this time since the rains were still a good distance away and went out to inflate our kayak. You may remember we were thinking about buying a kayak when our son said he had one a friend had given him that he would probably never use. It is a really inexpensive one but free is free!

Once we got the kayak we realized we needed to buy a keel and a paddle. We tested it out while we were at a campground that had a small lake near it. It worked fine but we really haven’t had the opportunity to use it since. So I inflated it and made sure it was still sea worthy. We toted it down the hill to the kayak access on Pellicer Creek here in the campground. Sharon had decided it in her best interest to not join me on this foray as she suddenly got cold feet when she learned there were alligators in the creek. Something about being in an inflatable kayak in alligator infested waters made her a bit, well… SCARED!!!

 

I put the kayak in the water and slowly drifted away. The current was slowly going with me as the tide was still going out and low tide was still about 40 to 50 minutes away. So at worst I would still have a slight current to paddle against if I didn’t stay too long and at best I could coast back.

The creek starts out narrow with lots of Live Oaks, Magnolias and Palm trees lining the shoreline. Lots of ferns under them made this typical of what is called the Real Florida area. As I paddled under Interstate 95 the cars and trucks were whizzing overhead as I lumbered slowly down the creek. At that particular time  I imagine my day was so much different than those rushing by on the highway overhead.

The creek began to widen just past the I-95 bridge and as I got closer to the Princess Place Preserve the creek flowed into a larger body of water. I could continue on to the Mantazas River but since that is a shipping waterway so I decided to turn back before going too far. The tide was still going slowly out so there was a small current and some feisty winds I had to deal with. I had turned back earlier than I wanted as the winds gusted up suddenly alerting me of the impending rain not far behind.

I got back to the Pellicer Creek Campground and toted the kayak back to the RV. What a relaxing and enjoyable trip this was and as I told Sharon about it her first question was what…. Did you see any alligators…  Nope, not a one… I think she wished then that she had gone with me after all…