January 11, 2026
Fun Stuff 2026
January 1st Birmingham Canoe Club Feast on the Beach. No water to paddle, but we had a great turn-out and some members went on a polar plunge. It was in the 60'sF but the water was cold. I did NOT do this.
January 4th - Limrock Blowing Cave. With John S. and Arlene Z., Donna and Danny, Dave H. our trip leader, other members of the B'ham Grotto. Water levels were low; air temps were chilly but not too bad. I got perhaps up mid-thigh deep in water on the walk out. I love this cave.
January 11th Mulberry Fork. With many members of the BCC and HCC. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m. Level a bit below 2 ft on both online and bridge gauges, but it felt like more. I had a dry hair day (I have tried not to do this but it was cold). lol
January 14th - 20th GCA Florida paddle 2026.
01-14 I drove down to Wakulla Springs State park lodge to spend the night. It was approximately halfway on my journey to Homosassa Florida, and it was delightful. The lodge was built in the 1930's and has been kept specific to that period. The elevator is under renovation so I didn't get to see it. It was an interesting journey because Verizon had a multi-state outage just as I got below Montgomery Al, and I had no cell service or map guidance after that. I did have the GPS working on my phone, through my truck dash, and was able to figure out the way without a paper map. But still.
The lodge had water turned off because of repairs, and though they were supposed to be finished with this before my arrival, it wasn't finished until after midnight. They had filled the bathtub with water and provided a bucket for flushing toilets, and plenty of bottled water for drinking/brushing teeth. This was not a big deal, but I had to chuckle at timing my visit right when Verizon was out and the water was off.
01-15 The next morning I took the Wakulla Springs boat tour for $7.00. I highly recommend this tour, and will do it every time I visit. Alligators, water birds, a resident otter, and several manatees. The ranger told me the manatees are from the Homasassa herd and have only been visiting since about 25 years ago.
After breakfast at the lodge, which I also recommend (the breakfast was a voucher I purchased when I reserved my room) I headed by Devil's Den dive site on the way to Homasassa. This is a very cool spot, smaller than I imagined, but gorgeous inside. I didn't have any buddies with me so I didn't dive or snorkel, just checked it out.
I arrived at the Chassahowitzka Hotel which is next to the campground parking area where we base the trips out of each day. There were 21 of us in the Hotel.
Joan S. and Patty C. joined us this year. We went to dinner at a place called The Freezer that had a simple menu - steamed shrimp, mussels in garlic and butter, smoked fish, clam chowder, cold beers, potato chips in a bag, a small cup of slaw or mac n cheese. I tried the mussels for the first time ever and they were delicious. The amount of food we got was amazing and it was affordable and fresh.
01-16 to be continued...
--- it's January 27th and I haven't been able to paddle local water again. There was water last weekend but it's cold af---