Last week, after a little front blew through, it seemed like a good time to get away for a while so I made a spur of the moment trip over to Fisheating Creek on the west side of Lake Okeechobee.
The water level has been very low for months, except for when Chuck and Mac were there, of course :wink:, so I wasn't sure how it would work out. The folks at the county park where you can put in said it was too low to go upstream, so I decided to go downstream where I was confident I could find a spot to camp late in the day. The following day I got a reasonably early start and decided to try going upstream, knowing I could always turn around a go back down, if necessary. As it turned out, I had to drag the canoe a few yards where the creek enters the lake upstream of the put in, then pole and paddle after that. Since the creek has a good, firm sand bottom in the shallow spots, poling against the current works better than paddling, anyway.
Went up a about three miles, then back down a little to a nice high spot (no cypress knees under the hammock
) where I hung out for a couple of days. The weather was great, low forties at night and about seventy for a daytime high and an almost full moon. Nice and quiet, no motors, no people, just owls, blue herons and some crows feasting on the armored catfish that had been killed by the cold a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't get much better.
For reference, the reading on the USGS gage at Palmdale was about 1.72' when I put in and about 1.62' when I took out. I wouln't want to try it at much lower water, although Brad (Swamprat) said he has made it at about 1.45'.
The water level has been very low for months, except for when Chuck and Mac were there, of course :wink:, so I wasn't sure how it would work out. The folks at the county park where you can put in said it was too low to go upstream, so I decided to go downstream where I was confident I could find a spot to camp late in the day. The following day I got a reasonably early start and decided to try going upstream, knowing I could always turn around a go back down, if necessary. As it turned out, I had to drag the canoe a few yards where the creek enters the lake upstream of the put in, then pole and paddle after that. Since the creek has a good, firm sand bottom in the shallow spots, poling against the current works better than paddling, anyway.
Went up a about three miles, then back down a little to a nice high spot (no cypress knees under the hammock
) where I hung out for a couple of days. The weather was great, low forties at night and about seventy for a daytime high and an almost full moon. Nice and quiet, no motors, no people, just owls, blue herons and some crows feasting on the armored catfish that had been killed by the cold a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't get much better.For reference, the reading on the USGS gage at Palmdale was about 1.72' when I put in and about 1.62' when I took out. I wouln't want to try it at much lower water, although Brad (Swamprat) said he has made it at about 1.45'.