November Paddle

Chipola River, Friday, Nov. 14

The meeting spot for the Chipola Paddle was at the Yancy Bridge Boat Landing on SR 166 north of Marianna. 13 club members and 8 invited guests arrived at the landing. We were then off for a shuttle through town and out to Magnolia Landing. It took some time for everyone to get in the water, and with people stopping to visit Sandbag Spring close to the put-in; the group was spread out down the river, but regrouped at the lunch spot. After lunch the group paddled by limestone outcroppings including a cave known as the Ovens. Paddlers traveled up a short spring run to Maund Springs, and some paddled a distance up Spring Creek. Spring Creek is the outflow from Jackson Blue Springs, but one can’t paddle upstream to reach the spring without crossing a dam at US 90 and paddling another four miles or so up Merritt’s Millpond. After passing under the I-10 bridge paddlers quickly reached the take-out.Although there were storm warnings, the morning storms were east of us in the Tallahassee area, and a later storm came through around 9:00 p.m. While we were on the river we had brief sprinkles but no significant rainfall. The weather was warm and the fall color of the hardwood trees beautiful.
Posted by Paddlesolo at 8:27 AM 0 comments