Cool, Windy Weather

It’s not unexpected that even Southern Florida has cold spells. Well last week was one of them. Mornings were cold in the 40’s and daytime highs barely reached the 60’s. But what was worse was the wind, at times reaching 40 mph. On those days we stayed inside but finally the wind stopped, and we got out paddle again.

On Wednesday we got out in our canoe and paddled even further up Hickey’s Creek. The creek is much narrower and wilder beyond the little park that we got to last week. There are many low hanging branches and tight bends but has more wildlife. We paddled for 3-1/2 hours and even though it was only 60^oF, it was sunny and I didn’t need a sweatshirt.

We saw a Alligator, a Limpkin, many Ibis and Egrets.

A few weeks ago they got 12” of rain in the counties around Fort Myers, but the rain had stopped by the time we got here. However, as we drove due south on the small local roads from Lithia Springs, all the farm fields were underwater. All this water is entering the Caloosahatchee River and has also filled Lake Okeechobee for the first time in a few years.

The local TV news people are going crazy; “It’s been terrible, all this brown water coming out of the river is ruining our beaches at Sanibel and Fort Myers. It’s all that dirty polluted water from that big bad lake”. Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all the lake is now full and whatever comes in must flow out. I guess the locals here just want the Lake to flood until the dam bursts. Don’t they realize this? Second, they are only releasing 5000 CFS from the dam into the river but here downstream at our campground there is 10,000 CFS passing through the lock. This means half the water is runoff from the record setting rainfall and of course with pine trees there is a brown color to the water along with the dirt and fertilizer runoff from the farms. Here at camp the water is brown colored but clear and the fishing is good.

But they are still complaining on TV every day. They want this freshwater stopped, the salt water fish don’t like it and some die.

I noticed that NBC was videoing in our campground so I walked over to talk to the cute reporter. I found myself on the 6 O’Clock News that day. I videoed this using my cellphone from our TV, take a look.

For us to paddle the river upstream of the lock it’s easy to paddle across the river and portage through the Corps. picnic ground and lock viewing area. Yesterday we decided to stop and view the boats going through the lock and visit the Corp. visitor center. The photos above are a view of boats passing through the lock.

They say that Manatees also pass through the lock everyday and wait around until the lock opens each morning. The lock is only in operation from 7AM to 5PM. So boats wanting to traverse FL from Fort Myers to Stuart on the waterway must wait overnight here, if they get here too late in the day.

Today is our last day at Franklin Locks. We leave Saturday morning to travel along the river to the East Coast and the city of Lake Worth. We will stay for a week at John Prince Memorial Park. on Lake Osborn.