Taking my new canoe out tomorrow.

Just bought this 15-ft fiberglass Mohawk canoe for $150, he also threw in two new wooden padals and a life jacket.

The boat appears to be for about the early 1980s but it's a very sturdy fairly lightweight fiberglass model.

Early in the morning I will drive to my friend's house with the boat on top of the van and have him drop me off at the ramp there.

I will go about 6 mi downriver by water, drinking beer and hunting fossils. And whatever else I decide to slowly do at my leisure..... Perhaps throw some rocks with my David or Shepherd sling...

Might even smoke a little green herb.... One never knows.


Going to take lots of photos and update this thread.

Look for updates soon

 

Here are some pictures of my last trip.

 

Right now it's the height of the dry season around here, you will rarely find a spot in the river that's more than about waist deep. This is the time of year that you dig fossils.
.

You simply go out in the river anywhere you can find Sandy gravel and commence to dig and sift with whatever tool you use.

Sharks teeth are common so are ice age mammal fossils such as Mastodon and mammoth.

 

In this picture you can see the device I fabricated to dig. Plus the gasoline that propels my particular device

 

Did you take those with your phone camera? It looks relaxing. Must be nice just to get away from the all the noise.

What do you have to do to the fossils once you collect them? Is there some kind of special drying and mounting process?

I'm in IL. We had several inches of snow last night so the snow plow guy has been through about five times already. Want me to mail you some snow?

 

During hurricane Irma in September of 2017 this water was a good 17 ft higher than these pictures.

I found many good fossils at year after the water finally receded.

 

Sunset on the street where I live in front of my house looking West. Me and my girlfriend always leave our vehicle unlocked here, sometimes she even leaves the window down with the keys in it..... I tell her at least take the keys out and make it not too easy to steal.

I even keep about 30 or $40 worth of cash in the van between $1 bills and change here and there.

.

A road where I take my evening bicycle ride.

 

I should take my 44 cap and ball with me but I won't. What's that they say don't trouble trouble till trouble troubles you?

Almost anyone you see on the river will be armed. Thinking about taking my gun not because I'm worried about that but just because it's fun to shoot at the empty beer cans I'll create.

Probably another good reason not to take the gun....
Even out in the woods you know there's got to be some authoritarians to possibly bother you

 

Departing as soon as I finish this post. Private boat ramp that's part of a a little enclave community of sorts, think rednecks, hippies, bikers and hillbillies, and perhaps a meth cook thrown in amongst the mobile homes....lol.

I got a few friends that live down in here. It's a nice place and I thought about buying property here, the only problem is once about every 10 years where you see my boat sitting there will be at least 15 ft of water on top of that. So needless to say all of the houses down in here are built on stilts.

It's a rare event but when it does happen the dirt road in here floods and if you live here you have to take a boat to your car parked up on high ground. But that water would recede within a couple of weeks. Right now however, it is the driest time of the year in the lowest water levels . It will quickly rise when they rains set in good here in about another month or two.

Well anyhow I'm off here's a few pictures and I'll have more later.... If this damn phone will ever load them... Another thing about this little neighborhood out here is that people act right there's no crime or if there is you'd never see it.... You know why? Because you just assume that everyone that lives out here is armed because probably they are.

 

A place I stopped for a brief siesta in the shade, see a barbed wire fence in the picture? Beyond it is cattle grazing land, not long ago I saw two very large Tom turkeys.

Of course I did not bring my gun and that would be poaching as that is private land there, but damn if I shouldn't have bought my gun just to shoot. There are plenty of high Banks along the river and places to stop.

Just get a beer can and fill it with water and put it against a nice bank for a safe back stop and get back about 80 or 100 ft and let her rip. We don't all own guns because we're scared of being a victim of crime and carry them continually. Contrary to the anti-gun beliefs of people who don't live around here. I just think they're fun to shoot.

Wouldn't it be nice to be paid to work one of these ranches out here? Somebody's got to come along and check on that fence once in awhile, check up on the cattle and whatnot.

And run off old dirty hippie trespassers

I'm not trespassing but I'm right at the edge of where you don't want to go any further inland from the river and if you see a fence she certainly don't want to cross that.

Some landowners really don't care and some of them care a lot.


.

I stopped the boat to dig for fossils here, areas like this old oak tree that's been here for ages are likely spots to dig because it traps the rocks over the time.

 

Well it was a taxing day I was on the water 8 hours. Average about a beer and a half every hour

I have a ton of photos I'll add to this thread. Stupid phone takes forever to load them but here goes. Here's the boat with the anchor in the water, at one of my stops.

As the day wore on.....

.
A prime area to hunt fossils....

 

Look at all these cypress trees on the left hand Bank, they're also Cypress knees that stick up as part of the root system

. Areas with all the rocks like this or what you're looking for

 

A grand old cypress tree. I bet it has seen a lot. @James California

 

@Falena a photo rich thread I thought you like. I used mention function since I didn't know if you would stumble across the thread or not. Here is the obligatory picture of an alligator. Look along the bank in the center of the picture. I saw much larger one also. I did not have my phone at the ready and he was right a breast of my boat when I saw him. And he started sliding in the water so I figured instead of trying to turn the boat around and get closer to him I should pass on that particular photo. He was about 8 ft this guy here is probably about four maybe five foot. Ones like him I'm not too worried about but an 8-footer is big enough to give you some real trouble if he wanted to. But 99% of the time you just give them their space and they won't bother you.

 

Sometimes people try to harvest some of these old timbers. I'm not sure how legal that is but I do know I don't have the energy to try it myself

 

Airboats are very popular on this River but you won't see too many when the water is this low cuz there were several areas of limestone outcroppings that are exposed that I had to get out of the boat and find the best way to drag the boat through so I didn't bash my hull against the rocks.

There is also a canoe rental place that charges $90 to take you in a school bus that's dragging the canoes on a trailer about 7 miles up the road and drop you off. Screw all that noise, I own my own boat now and that's for tourist. They have all these old aluminum Grumman canoes, I feel sorry for those boats cuz you know how much those people beat them up. I would try to get a job there but that work is only seasonal.

One time my friend that lives on the river said that two old folks in canoes passed his house and they were using sign language and he couldn't figure out what they were saying so he got pencil and paper, he said they were exhausted and the experience was just too physically demanding for them and they had already dumped the boat five times in the water and they wanted to get out.

So my friend called the canoe rental place and said to come get these folks. The rental place told my friend to tell them to get back in the boat and keep paddling the 5 mi back.

My friend told them if you don't get your ass down here and get these people I'm calling the sheriff to report you for abandonment, needless to say they bought their ass down there and got their customers.

Here is my fossil digging tool full of the rocks that are typical, you take this down in the Sandy Rocky areas shake the dirt out and see what you have found, there is a very common fossil visible in this load. Can you find it?

 

Sounds like you've got a good life! We have so much in common. I grew up in canoes around Indiana and Ohio. Moved to Arizona when I was 18 and found cannoeing again on the Verde River (only in season). My Aluminum canoe didn't work to well as when you hit a rock in fast water they tend to spin. So we all got the plastic town and country type but we still have our share of fast water flips. Funny you posted this because yesterday was my maiden voyage in my second fishing kayak. I stay on lakes and like to travel. Also I have a .38 Army Colt 1860 replica. I try to replicate Wild Bill's shot at Dave Tutt which is pretty challenging! You enjoy what you do!

 

I was born and raised in Central Florida and I moved about a hundred miles South to Tampa for the next 16 years and about 12 years ago I moved another hundred or so miles south.

I like it here in this small town there's not a whole lot going on but we do have this River. And I got a decent job a nice place to live and a nice beautiful girlfriend what more could a man want?

I have a 10-ft plastic sit inside of type of kayak. It actually fits inside of my van and you can close the door on it so there's no pain of having to tie it on top. I just unloaded the canoe by myself and that went okay but I'm not sure I could get it back up there by myself. I guess I could if I had to but it's 15 ft long and weighs I think somewhere between 60 and 80 lb. Just much easier as a two-man job.

Well the good news is my girlfriend's on her last week of chemo today out of 9 weeks.

So I think I'll drive back up to that beautiful Park might even take my kayak and do a little fossil hunting but it won't be a long day because I have to work at 10:00 p.m. tonight and I don't want to be gone when she gets home from cancer treatment too long.

 

Hey I bought a 10 ft. sit on top kayak after getting rid of my 12'er two man kyak. Bought my wife one of those fold up kayaks. Have a friend that is doing it in Fla. Actually I camped in Swannee for a week. I'd love to explore that area. My new kayak is sort of unstable. I'll get used to it. You have my sympathy about your girlfriend. I'm undergoing treatment myself. You have to keep the head up, keep moving, and trust in Jesus. At least that's what works for me. Check out sometime "mycancerstoryrocks.com".

 

We have a victory chair on the front porch, as soon as she gets home she will add her last colored arm bandage to it. They're bright colors wound around the chair frame.

We do so hope. I will certainly check out your website and I hope all goes well. I have a friend in Jesus as well. And Jesus is just all right with me!

About 23 years ago I took a three-week canoe trip on the Suwannee. It certainly a very beautiful place and I am sure it is filled with fossils but that's a deep water river you about got a scuba dive for the treasures there. And then there might be a big daddy Gator or a giant catfish down there in the same hole you're hunting around in.....

I'll pass and wait for the spring dry season....

Took the little doggo, to the nice park up the road.

Tested his tolerance for the water, he does not like it but he will tolerate a percentage of it but he does not like being over 2/3 of his body height deep. He is said to be a mixture of Chihuahua and Blue heeler. At first I had doubted that but as he gets older I think I can see the heeler influence. Sometimes I think he's just a fox. But the main dominant genie has in him seems to be spring, as in a coiled spring. He's hell on Wheels.

I was swimming in it too so I didn't bring my phone and this isn't the picture where he was wet but this is a picture of few minutes ago.

 

I love your dog! I've had three Catahoulas. Here are two. Great dogs. Smart, love hunting and swimming!

 

I'm more of a cat person but that is a really sweet looking dog.
Is he smart?