Trail Hopping

With cooler weather comes hiking explorations. Our hiking down here is much different than up north in the mountains and more like a walk in the park...which is what we did a couple of days ago. Last season we hiked the south side of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Nature Trail. At the time, we didn't know there was a north side until we were headed back to Jensen Beach. On Sunday, we braved the possibility of Thanksgiving weekend crowds and took the north trail, only to discover we were the only people in the park! There is one paved handicap accessible path that leads to a boardwalk and viewing pavilion.

Then there is a sandy loop trail through the scrub brush with several tortoise dens.

It didn't take us long to complete the entire trail, so we crossed the street to do the south trail too. It is a bit hillier with different kinds of trees and plants.

This nasty sharp tree is called a prickly ash tree or toothache tree. From what I have read, the bark can numb your mouth, but beware there are some trees that look like this that are poisonous.

When the Jupiter Lighthouse started peaking through the bushes, we knew we were about to round the corner towards the Intracoastal Waterway.

As we walked along the ridge above the shoreline, Dave heard someone call out to him from the water. It ended up being the captain of a charter pontoon boat looking for the people who hired him to pick them up somewhere on the park's beach for a surprise wedding! We hadn't seen anyone but the captain said that if we do, tell them where he is, but don't wreck the surprise, because the guests don't know about the wedding. We never ran into any lost people so we don't know how it all turned out. We did find this Hammock Hangout oasis though, complete with posts for your hammock. I wonder how many people actually use it.

We still have a few more weeks before the winter season starts and more people arrive to take advantage of our weather. We are going to try and do as much as possible before then, but we still have our motto of "when they zig, we zag," down to a science. 

Another Day...

...Another gator...

...and he brought a turtle friend.

This time we saw them at Hillmoor Lake Park. The Woodstork trail is a great 1.8 mile walk with lots of water wildlife.

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Catch Of The Day

Since we didn't quite make it to the south fork of the St. Lucie River a few days ago, we decided to launch the kayaks at our usual spot in Hosford Park this morning. What a surprise to arrive and see a kayak floating upside down just off the ramp. We immediately put our yaks in the water and tried to retrieve it. It was so filled with water that it was barely afloat. We managed to push it to shore with our yaks and paddles, but when Dave tried to flip it over and haul it out of the way so no boats would hit it, he could barely move it, with its added water weight. He got it to drain a bit and pulled it up as far as possible, but we had to get out of the way because someone with an empty boat trailer was waiting to haul their power boat out. After our outing, we noticed that another good Samaritan must have pulled it up higher and flipped it over when it had drained. With the super high tide today, we presume it had floated from a dock (several docks were underwater along the way), and hopefully the owner will come looking downstream for it.

Once we were paddling we got to see more nature than we did at Halpatiokee. This turtle was high and dry, with its legs fully extended to keep it out out of any predators' mouths.

The turtle was smart, because not too far away from it we saw this alligator! At least it was only about a 4 or 5 footer, so we weren't too concerned with it (I also had a tarpon come to the surface and roll right next to me, which startled me more than the gator).

We also saw lots of boats from gorgeous 50+foot Grand Banks and Palm Beach yachts, to the complete opposite of them, boats that were salvaged by Sea Tow. The Sportfishermen was being kept afloat by the heavy ropes held up by the crane. The huge tour catamaran next to it was covered with barnacles, so it must have been underwater for quite awhile.

With all the things we experienced today, I would say that we had more than one catch of the day...or at least I caught them with my camera. 😉

The Park I Can't Pronounce

Our friend Lorraine told us about a park in Stuart where we could launch our kayaks. It sounded interesting and a couple of days ago we headed to Halpatiokee Park off Kanner Rd., just east of I 95. This is a huge sports complex with all sorts of baseball and soccer fields, but we managed to find a dirt road to a small, out of the way kayak launch. 

Since we weren't quite sure where we were, we asked a really nice kayak fisherman if this led to the south fork of the St. Lucie River. No he said, this is a separate canal that leads to two fresh water lakes (you have to portage to the second one, which we opted not to do). He said that he has seen owls, cougars, alligators, and deer along the shore, so we were excited to explore a new place. It was similar to paddling the backwaters of Lake Okeechobee, but unfortunately there wasn't much nature out that morning (that could have been because it was late morning and I 95 and Florida's Turnpike, which run near by, was quite noisy with traffic).

It was very pretty, and especially nice to be in some fresh water, complete with flowers, some of which, like lily pads, we see in the northeast.

Afterwards, we drove further down the dirt road to another kayak launch area and a hiking and bicycle trail that goes around the lake. 

It looked like a picnic table was placed there just for us and our lunch. 

I still have a problem pronouncing the park's name, but I think it is Hal-patio-key. Call it what you want, it was a fun first discovery...with barely a soul anywhere.

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Transport

Someone in our park is getting a new house...not us though. 😉 Here is one half arriving:

Here is the other half:

Actually, this is something like the 6th of at least 9 that have arrived within the past year, that the park owners are setting up and selling on vacant lots. They are all a little bit different, but we find it amazing that these modulars are all transported like a trailer on a trailer hitch and ball.

Good luck to management with trying to sell so many. The real estate market seems to be slowing down since there are about a dozen pre-owned units for sale right now too. A year or two ago you could barely find one or two, so that's probably why they brought in new ones. I hope it isn't bad timing for them.

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All Alone On A Sunday

What a surprise to find ourselves completely alone at the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park. There weren't even any rangers there today, even though it was a weekend. The downside to that was that there was no golf cart tram to take us to the beach. However, the 3/4 mile each way on the boardwalk didn't seem as long this time, despite walking with wet feet and Crocs. 

We were also surprised to see that the beach had eroded quite a bit since last year, most likely with our last stormy weather. The sand comes and goes all the time. This time it made a big ridge and berm.

The beach was so much narrower that the waves were reaching up to the protective sea oats that had been planted. You can see the dark wet sand in the photo and this was at about an hour after low tide.

We didn't attempt to walk all the way down to the inlet with the rising tide. We would have had to walk on the dunes and sea oats to get there, and we didn't want to destroy any of them. It was still a fantastic outing and we sat on some benches watching a few huge Sportfishermen going out the inlet in the distance, crashing through the waves like they were Waverunners. There were also several sailboats heading south just offshore. When we got back to our kayaks on the Intracoastal Waterway, there were finally a few other boaters and yakkers arriving. It was time to turn over the park to them. 

Footnote: I almost forgot to include our fantastic experience with several dolphins hunting right near our kayaks. They were scaring the fish, causing schools of fish to 'spray' out of the water. They threw them in the air to stun them and eventually ate them. Then to top it all off, I watched an osprey chase a bald eagle over the ocean. Then later, the eagle was flying in circles over our heads, giving us a perfect view of it. It was a 10+ day!

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Chaos At The Causeway

It has been windy and rainy the past few days, with the East and then Southeast wind building to gale force, and almost to tropical storm strength. Beachside saw gusts to 54mph and we have been told that Jupiter had a gust of 70 last night! Cabin fever set in yesterday, so this morning we ventured out to see how the boats in the mooring field at the Jensen Beach Causeway were faring. The south side of the Causeway is totally exposed in east and south winds, so it was wild there. Waves were crashing against the seawall, launch ramp, and shoreline. Several boats had broken loose and washed up on shore (we don't know if they were on moorings or just anchored out). 

This catamaran was up against the dock and seawall. Waves were breaking over the stern, pushing it into the seawall and holing the bow of both hulls.

There was also a sailboat washed almost into the mangroves, but Sea Tow was already on scene and attempting to tow them out to deeper water in very challenging conditions.

There was a news crew filming but we couldn't tell which station they were from.

It will take awhile to remove these boats, as there are still some boats washed ashore on the north side of the Causeway from our last nasty cold front. 

Weatherwise, this may be an 'interesting' winter. It certainly has been dynamic so far! 😉

Quick Beach Stop

We are trying to get some kayaking in while it isn't so windy. We thought that a trip to Peck Lake would be be an easy paddle and a chance to walk the beach on Jupiter Island. However, we didn't anticipate the heat factor- Google weather said it was 84, feels like 91! That really zapped our strength, so it was a quick walk on the beach and an in and out fast dip in the ocean for Dave (the water is still stirred up from previous heavy winds). 

The beach morning glories were gorgeous. I also found a large piece of seaglass for my collection.

We did pull the kayaks up into the shade overlooking the ICW for lunch. We even got to see a barge heading north...almost like being back in the St. Lawrence. 😉

We were really glad that we took advantage of the nice weather, but I guess our bodies had been used to 50s up north. We will adapt to 80s though, that's for sure.

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Where Am I?

I am sitting in the shade of a picnic area on the backside of a lagoon overlooking an inlet, while Dave is out snorkeling. Where could I be? 

It is Peanut Island in the Port of Palm Beach! 

The wind has eased enough for us to kayak from the Blue Heron Bridge out to the island that holds a lot of history for us.

It is so diverse with ships, mega-yachts, backwaters nature, clue blue water, a rocky reef, and the ever present iguanas. 

This is one of our favorite places to go, especially during these less crowded months before Christmas. What a great way to start our winter of paddling adventures!

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Down South

We arrived in Florida about a week ago. It was perfect timing since there were snowflakes up north soon after our departure. Although quite windy down here in Jensen Beach, it has been pleasantly warm and perfect weather for cleaning, weeding, trimming, and mulching around our place. The 'toys' are back up and running too.

Let the fun begin!

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