Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Prairie Creek March 25, 2015

 
PRAIRIE CREEK
March 25, 2015
(Trip Report by JB)

Prairie Creek in Gainesville, Florida, is a hidden gem just a 1/2 mile south from the right shoreline on Lake Newnan from Ed Powers Park.Today we launched around 11 a.m. with some cloud cover overhead and smooth as glass water underneath us on Lake Newnan.

 Upon entering the entrance to the creek you encounter towering moss draped cypress trees on both sides of the bank. Just past Kates Fishcamp you paddle under two concrete bridges and are immediately entering a tight twisting mysterious creek. All around you are huge staggering ancient cypress knees each an artwork to themselves. The water is a blackwater creek from being surrounded by much woodlands.   
 
 
We soon encountered an owl whoooo was startled by our presence and flew into the safety of the forest where undoubtedly it was watching us from its camouflaged perch. Also encountered red shouldered hawk, great blue heron, a young snowy white egret and many melodic tunes from various other winged friends, all around us, we were serenaded with lovely music.
 


 
The sun began to make an appearance and the cloud cover soon burned off. This gave the creek an even more enchanted feeling with sunshine peaking through the thick green canopy overhead, nature's cathedral. A truly beautiful sight to behold. Each twisting turn we made brought us even more stunning views than the last.
 
 
About 2 miles into the journey we started to encounter bitty gators on downed trees along the bank. 
 
 
At this point we came upon a small bridge where we decided to have lunch.Walking along the bridge

we spotted some fuzzy scat that we are trying to ascertain to whom the droppings belong. Bear,bobcat, fox? Along with the mysterious scat on the bridge we also encountered bull ants, so we abandoned the bridge for eating lunch on the creek bank on our yaks. A mysterious, low growling sound was heard from the opposite side of the bridge where we were having lunch, so we quickly finished up and got back onto the water. 
 
As we floated down the creek, we heard another low growl, unmistakingly belonging to a young bull gator claiming his mating spot. We felt safe passing this young bull, but a little further up we heard a very loud growl undoubtedly belonging to a very large gator and decided to use common sense and turned around for the very scenic journey back.





Many pics were taken along with fantastic memorable sights that will never be forgotten. 




We logged about 6 miles, but it seemed much longer because this is a very fluid creek with many twists and turns.

 
 
 
Definitely worth a return trip to go further down the creek, perhaps after the gators have had their fun in this wild wonderful magical way!

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