Santa Fe River 2011 03 27

We kayaked the Sante Fe river starting at the O’leno state park (http://www.floridastateparks.org/oleno/) . The river level was at 36.93 at the I-75 bridge. The reason I mention this is because the water level was pretty low and you may want to think twice about making this trip if the level is any lower than this. You can check the water level at http://www.srwmd.state.fl.us/realtimeriverlevels/realtimeriverlevels.aspx We had to get out twice pulling our kayaks over some shallow areas, but this was relatively easy and well worth the effort. Also, there were several areas where trees had fallen crossing the river, but we had no problems making our way around these. The water level was more of a problem near our put in location at O’leno. At one point we came upon a bunch of deer crossing the river. The water level was so low that they had no problem getting from one bank to the other. Other than the low water, this was an awesome trip. There are absolutely no homes or other signs of civilization on the river. It’s totally pristine from the state park all the way up to I-75. We only saw one other boat and this was a john boat using an electric trolling motor. Other than that, we were the only ones on the water and this was on a weekend day with perfect weather. We paddled upstream for about 3.2 miles, just about a ½ mile past the i-75 bridge. The current was very easy and we had no problem paddling against it for the first half of the trip. As you approach the bridge, the river widens and oddly also deepens. Unfortunately, you also get a lot of road noise from the highway, but this does not last very long. One other interesting part of the trip was at about 1.1 mile into the trip. There was a short spur off to the left of the river. We followed it and there was a spot where the water was flowing down into a sink, causing a whirlpool. If you paddled on top of it, it would spin your boat in circles. Kind of weird! In my opinion, this was a great paddle and would highly recommend it to others, just as long as the water level was at an ok level.