Last October, we spent a week in North Florida kayaking the Ichetucknee River filming the amazing wildlife there (see video at right). And while we were there, we took a day and kayaked about 10 miles of the Santa Fe River. The Santa Fe is longer and wider than the Itch so you see some different wildlife, most notably, alligators! We only saw two on this trip. The Santa Fe has a unique characteristic in that it disappears at the O’Leno State Park and flows underground about three miles before it re-emerges. We launched downstream of the River Rise Park where it comes back above ground. Although O’leno is something you should visit at least once, we did not visit there this trip. The area where the river flows underground looks like a large pond and is filled with all the trash that ignorant litterbugs throw into the river, which is sad to see. There were about a dozen springs along the stretch that we kayaked. It started out as a cool fall day, but warmed up during the trip which took about 6 hours (lots of wildlife viewing slowed us down!). I hope you will enjoy this video of our adventures. Special thanks to Lauri Shubert, our best kayaking buddy, for the still photographs used in this vid. She does an amazing job of getting great stills of the flora and fauna on our trips.
Smell Like Dirt
In Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret Atwood4 Comments»
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Ruthless wrote @
I really enjoyed the Santa Fe video. The footage of the alligators was great as well as the bald eagle and osprey in flight. Kudos to you and your cameraman for capturing these awesome sights and sharing them with all of us Smell Like Dirt groupies.
debra taylor wrote @
what a beautiful day on the river, your video was most enjoyable. i live off a boat ramp on the Santa Fe ,in Fort White. keep on filming for all to admirer, it makes me want to trade the canoe for a kayak, thankyou for sharing such a wonderful thing.
Smell Like Dirt 
[…] Dawn (aka SandyBottom) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLast October, we spent a week in North Florida kayaking the Ichetucknee River filming the amazing wildlife there (see video at right). And while we were there, we took a day and kayaked about 10 miles of the Santa Fe River. … […]