Katie's Landing - Lower Wekiva River

Katie's Landing is a canoe launch off of Highway 46 on Wekiva Park Drive. It has been closed for quite a while, but the public launch facility has reopened during the past few weeks. Katie's has a storied history as a privately owned facility that rented canoes and cabins, but is now owned by the county. While the launch area is still fairly rough and rutted, you can get a car right to the river, drop your non-motorized boat, and park in the newly paved parking area. There are also rest rooms available. There is a sign that says the boat launching fee is $3.00, but there doesn't appear to be a place yet to pay. In any event, this is great news for paddlers because of the location on the Lower Wekiva River.

Mary and I launched from Katie's Landing this morning, and paddled to the St. John's River and back. We took our time and basically floated downstream to the St. John's (over 3 hours) taking in the beautiful scenery. For the first stretch from the launch there are several private homes, but once past there it is very isolated. At one point we became a bit concerned because we heard several very load alligator growls, and there were several very large gators in the middle of the river that didn't seem inclined to move when we got close. We were under the impression that the growling was primarily a Spring thing - will have to check that out a bit further. We saw many birds today, including Blue Herons, Egrets, Ibis, Tri-Colored Heron, Wild Turkeys, Sand Hill Cranes, Limpkins, and others. We also were quite close to a couple groups of Manatees today.

The trip back upstream was a bit less than 2 hours. This was not because we wanted to go that quickly, but because we were racing a thunderstorm and lost. We encountered a driving rain for about 20 minutes, but fortunately the lightning stayed in the distance and we returned safely. While the Lower Wekiva is beautiful and fairly primitive, there are very few if any places to seek shelter during a storm.

Even with the storm, it was basically another great day on the river. Having made this run, Mary and I have now paddled the entire stretch (at one time or another) from Rock Springs Run (Kings Landing) to the Wekiva River to the Lower Wekiva River to the St. John's River. We look forward to many more days on the rivers this fall!

Here are a few pictures from today:

A few of the Manatees we saw today.

The entrance to The Lower Wekiva from the St. John's River - either the water level is a bit high or the sign sunk! : )

A baby tree frog on some of the tall grass in the river.