Bigbend Area Paddlers' Network

Bill Says it best, so let me turn it over to him. Remember, you can click on any picture to see a larger version. Put-in Monday, March 25, 11:40 / Take-out Tuesday, March 26, 12:00 noon Paddlers: Mo Friedman, Mike Lampman, Bill Murdick Milages: From Capital Circle West, on Rt 20, to Rt 65: 28.8 miles Rt 65/Rt 20 juncture down Rt 65 to Graham Creek: 42.1 miles Graham Creek south to the turn off for Butcher Point Landing and Gardner Landing: 3 miles (???) Dirt Road Directions to Butcher Pen Landing, and Back to Rt 65 Rt 65 to Butcher Pen Landing Enter at the sign marked Gardner Landing Set your odometer at zero. Make turns at these accumulative mileages (in other words, don’t keep resetting your odometer; let it run): At a reading of 1 mile, turn left At a reading of 1.5, turn left At 2.1 turn left At 2.4 turn right At 2.7 turn right At 3.4 arrive at Butcher Pen Landing   Butcher Pen Landing to Rt 65 Set your odometer at zero. Make turns at these accumulative mileages (in other words, don’t keep resetting your odometer; let it run): At a reading of .7 miles turn left At 1.0 turn left At 1.3 turn right At 1.9 turn right At 2.4 turn right At 3.4 hit Rt 65   Bodies of Water: Graham Creek, South Prong Creek, East River (upper segment), Apalachicola River, Humphrey Slough, St. Marks River, East River Cutoff, Fanny Lake, Thank You Ma’am Creek, East River (middle segment). Prettiest Runs: Graham Creek South Prong The beginning of Humphrey’s Slough Thank You Ma’am Creek Narrative: We put in at Graham Creek at 11:40 (N 290 51.197’ W 0.840 58.409’). Here the creek is wide, with a wall of leafless Cypress providing a ghostly look (see photo). However, the creek changes to a greener, lusher appearance near the end where it meets up with the East River. One of the nicest aspects of this trip is the ever-changing scenery. The trip touches on nine different bodies of water, or ten if you count the two very different segments of the East River visited at different times during the trip. To return to the beginning of Graham Creek, we went just .2 miles to South Prong Creek, which goes north (not south), to the right. South Prong is a narrower version of Graham Creek. Look for a phantasmagoric tree on the left (see photo) and a section where the spindly cypress branches connect overhead to form a gothic canopy. We were able to go .46 miles up South Prong. Back on Graham Creek, we paddled another 2.5 miles. Mike saw a huge gator on the right, but it disappeared into the water before Mo and I could get there. On the left, Mike also spotted a Prothonotary Warbler, a tiny golden bird with light bluish wings (see photos), which we all got to see. I got very close; unlike the huge blue herons, this tiny bird does not spook easily. The Prothonotary Warbler is one of the most prized sightings for bird watchers. We also saw a few blue herons on the early part of Graham Creek, swooping down low over the water as we approached, their weight pulling them down after leaving their tree branch, the big wings working to gain altitude. One bird kept flying off downstream ahead of us, and we spooked it three times before it got the sense to fly in the other direction, over us and upstream. Graham Creek becomes lush and green near its end. At the confluence of the fast moving East River, the black water becomes brown (Coordinates:___). We crossed the East River and put ashore for lunch. There we found odd, stubbled, mud towers made by crabs (or so we presumed; perhaps some other animal had built them). Some rose to a height of seven inches; they each had a hole in the top, like a smoke stack. The next segment of the trip required us to travel .7 miles against the strong East River current—the only upstream segment of the trip. This called for a little arm muscle, but anyone could make it. Just as we reached the Apalachicola River, a hunter emerged from the woods to where he had tied his motorized boat. He showed us the turkey he had shot (see photo). This was the first of three encounters with people during the trip. Two boats later passed us early in the morning on the East River Cutoff. The Apalachicola is wide and muddy and fast moving. Fortunately we were on it only briefly, .8 miles, staying to the left side, before turning south down Humphrey Slough. Entrance coordinates: ___. Humphrey Slough is a 2.3 mile journey. The early section of the Slough is very pretty, a quiet canal with two-foot banks, the green moving slowly through a lush forest with shadowy light (see photo). Then it widens and becomes less interesting, more like a river anywhere. At the juncture of Humphrey Slough and the St Marks River (Coordinates: ___), we turned left, heading south and down river on the St Marks. The St Marks is wide and fast moving here. We began to see the shack-like house boats and the semi-permanent fish camps belonging to the local squatters. After 1.5 miles, we hit the confluence of the East River Cutoff. We camped on the west bank of St Marks, looking out at the confluence. The campsite offered a small beach for landing and a small raised beach surrounded by cabbage palms and other trees for camping. It’s perfect for three tents and could probably handle a fourth reasonably comfortably. There’s a crude chest high table and a spot that’s been used for a camp fire (see photos). We left camp about 8:00 AM. Our next section was the East River Cutoff, a pleasant loop-di-loop stretch of water, ___ miles in length, that connects the St Marks with the East River. At the very beginning of the Cutoff, we paddled north up Fanny Lake, which is a still-water creek, the entrance at coordinates: ___. During the night, while Mo and I slept, Mike had made a moonlight visit to Fanny Lake, so that’s one option for those paddlers who aren’t dog tired. This particular stretch of water is dark, muddy, swampy, and not particularly pleasant. If you have to skip any part of the trip, this would be a good choice. At the juncture of the Cutoff and the East River (coordinates: ___), we turned right and went down river 2.1 miles to the small opening of Thank You Ma’am Creek on the left, just before a small white houseboat with green trim that seems set in permanently (but for the day when that houseboat is gone, the creek-entrance coordinates are: ____). We went up this pleasant, often sunny, meandering creek 1.7 miles. Along the way, we passed a momma gator and her brood of 18-inch baby gators. From Thank You Ma’am Creek down river to Butcher Pen Landing was a short .4 mile hop (you can see the aforementioned houseboat from Butcher Pen). We came out at noon. Epilogue: The Yellow Bird After the trip, Mike and Mo went down to St. George Island to join the gang camping out in the state park, and I (Bill) went back to Tallahassee to attend to a series of scheduled tennis matches and to celebrate my wife’s and my birthdays (Mar 28 and 30), with the idea of possibly joining the group on Thursday. Instead, on Thursday I came back to Graham Creek with my wife, Yoshiko, and a tennis buddy, John Lin, who happens to be a dedicated birder. John was enthusiastic about the Prothonotary Warbler (PW) sighting and wanted to find the bird we had seen, so I offered to take him down there. He said he had been looking for a PW "for decades." At the Graham Creek put-in on Rt. 65 we met a couple from Ohio taking a road break. They had been bird watching on St. George and had run into some of our group. When I told them why we were here, the man said that there were supposed to be PWs in the swamps in Ohio, but he had never seen one. I showed them the white blooming lotus you could see from the back side of the parking area. They weren’t paddlers, but they were getting interested. The guy said, "Does it require a lot of skill?" I said, "I wouldn’t recommend paddling without at least 3 minutes of instruction." That would be a minute on how to get in and out of your kayak without tipping over and the rest on how to keep the beer cold in your storage compartment. We started down Graham Creek. Our intention was to visit South Prong and then proceed further down Graham a mile or so to the same area where Mike, Mo, and I had seen the PW. Almost immediately, however, John heard and recognized the song of the PW (he listens to records of birdsongs) and he quickly spotted one only a hundred feet from the put-in. We spent about fifteen minutes watching the PW (John through his powerful binoculars) and slowly moving closer to it. I got very close and could clearly see the light blue shade of his wings—the rest was brilliant light gold. Then, as Yoshiko came silently in, the bird flew away. John, needless to say, was ecstatic. "I am fulfilled!" he said. He was giddy. "It’s the most beautiful thing in the world." We then went up South Prong and very soon saw two more PWs, a male and a female. I could hear John making pleasure noises somewhere off to my left. "John," I said, "what’s the big deal with these little yellow suckers, they’re as common as sparrows." John didn’t answer. He was in that transcendent state of bliss that only birders know about. We got to watch the PWs flitter around with each other from branch to branch for quite some time. John took about ten photos. If any come out good, I’ll post them. We then proceeded further along South Prong Creek looking for the phantasmagoric tree, when suddenly a HUGE gator—in the 10-12 ft range—slithered through some grass and entered the water just ahead of Yoshiko, who was leading at the time. We all saw it. This was a fairly narrow place, and a gator that big in a tight spot made me nervous, and we probably made him a bit edgy, too—another reason for discretion. So we turned back rather than crowd him. There’s always another day for South Prong Creek. With some time on our hands, we went north under Rt 65. Graham Creek is quite nice for about half a mile going in this direction. I was in the lead and spooked a blue heron. At one point you get to slide under the low, crossed beams of a RR bridge. You lean back and pull on the beams with your hand. Shortly after, the creek divides. We went left for awhile, but it soon became dark, muddy, and swampy—spooky in an unpleasant way. We went back and tried the right hand branch, which offered a sunny pool but then became mucky and dark, so we called it a day. I haven’t told John, yet, what he owes me for this trip, but I hope he’s paid off the mortgage and any liens on his house. --William Murdick

Mr. William "Bill" Murdick	East River Cutoff	Fanny Lake
Grahm Creek near HWY 65	Humphries Slough	Moe and Michael
Michael and Moe . . again	Thank You Ma'am Creek	Phantasmagoric Tree
St. Marks & East River confulence	Fresh Turkey !	Prothonotary Warbler Or, the bird with a name bigger than it.

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