Oklawaha River - Gore's Landing

Election days depress me. No matter if my guy is winning or not, I'm still reminded how separated I am from my fellow human beings. So I voted, took the afternoon off, and headed out to the river. I had originally planned to do an overnight to escape the fallout, but that didn't come through. A few hours would have to do.


I wanted to enter the river at one of the less popular places (the Silver River and Eureka launch points are typically quite busy). Gore's Landing is about halfway between these two and way off the beaten path. I was the only one there, but I still ran into two motorboats on the river, one going faster than I have ever seen a motorboat go down a river. The Oklawaha is clearly a major artery for area fishermen. On this same river several weeks back, I passed a man standing up in his boat fly fishing, casting his line again and again. I asked him if he was using bait or a fly. He replied that he was using neither and that he simply liked the meditative act of repetitive casting. A kindred spirit.

The river north of the Silver River is also abundantly spring-fed, so the water is mostly clear (hence my first underwater shot above) and a strenuous upstream paddle. I stopped often to recover and also to scout for possible camping sites. The places I saw seemed marshy and riddled with what looked like piles of bear feces (thus solving the age-old bear-shitting-in-the-woods quandary, but also arguing strongly against camping here.) It is also clearly someone's priority to keep this part of the river navigable, as I saw many cleared and uprooted trees along both sides of the banks.

The bonus of a vigorous upstream is a heavenly downstream return. I reclined and floated the entire way back and arose just in time to see my launch point go by. My wish for everyone, political friends and enemies alike, is to enjoy such a float sometime. It clears the cobwebs, slows the blood flow, calms the nerves, soothes the knitted brow, and restores the republic.