UF Students Canoe the Suwannee in Frigid Temps

January 9th, 2010. We awoke to 38 degrees and cloudy skies.  Cloudy skies are always compounded when living in a forest.  

As you may have figured out by now.  I generally write this journal the morning after the actual day I’m writing about.  Well, I had just finished the blog entry for Jan. 8th and had mentioned that it was too cold to kayak.  I went outside with Joyce to walk the dogs and two van loads of students from UF pulled up in front of the canoe launch with canoes.   They made ready to canoe down river just before the shoals and then portage to a primitive camp on the opposite side of the river.  I couldn’t imagine wanting to canoe in such cold cloudy conditions and then sleeping on the ground in a tent during “historic cold weather”.  Anyway, I hope everyone stayed healthy and had a good time!  

Later in the day, I took the John Deere Gator over to the Little Shoals shop and cut a piece of board to finish the repair to the Woodpecker bridge.  The nearly ten miles round trip on a wide open ATV was no fun in these frigid temps.  I think the high was 44 degrees.  Joyce finished cleaning out the utility room in the back of the restroom building and rearranging things.

When I got back I took a short nap with Maggie and Rico who are always willing to participate!  I hadn’t slept well the night before.

Hike to Little Shoals and Workamping Chores

January 4th, 2010.  This morning we woke to 35 degrees and sunny skies after yet another hard freeze warning. Highs for the day would only reach 50.  Obviously it didn’t freeze overnight.   Because of freeze warnings over the last few nights, I’ve been disconnecting the water supply to the rig and using the water tank and pump in the fifth wheel overnight.  I use quick disconnect hose fittings which makes the job quick and easy.  In addition, I use two inline filters a sediment filter and a charcoal filter that I fashioned to attach to the bottom of the rig on the service side.

We did our park chores beginning around 11:00 as it was slow to warm up.  Even then it was only 46 degrees.  We emptied garbage cans and cleaned the bathrooms.  We also cleared some fallen branches and and small trees that fall frequently across the roads and trails.  In route to Little Shoals State Park, we took a detour and did a mile hike out to the Little Shoals on the Suwannee River.

Below is a picture of  Little Shoals back in November when the water level was much lower.

After the hike, we took down the Christmas decorations that we had put out last month at Little Shoals Park.  Joyce will remove the decorations at Big Shoals State Park tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, I assisted the park rangers, Gary and Dylan with repairing one of the three bridges along Woodpecker Trail.  A tree had fallen across the bridge damaging the railings about a month ago.

Almost finished.  We ran out of wood to finish the opposite side of the bridge which suffered less damage.  Apparently there is a minimal budget for repairs.  We had to scrounge the boards from Stephen Foster State Park.

Although the weather channels are still forecasting a freeze, I won’t disconnect the water tonight.  I have yet to awaken to temps below 35 and have not found any sign of ice outside.  Not even any signs of ice in the metal water bowl for our dogs on the cold cement slab.  Thus, I’m confident my two thermometers are accurate.