Day 3!
This morning we woke up at Big Shoals to learn that a colony of ants had set up residence in our tent. They had fallen in love with Abby. Then we admired our incredible skills at hanging our food bags. Bears could totally steal our food if they wanted to because we are not exactly talented and at the end of the day the task of throwing a line and hoisting our massive food bag is daunting. But we have been unbothered by bears because, as anyone who has down all their bear based research by watching Winnie the Pooh knows, bears are very lazy.
At 7:30 we addressed the second half of the portage and decided we should drop in at the lower half of the shoals and hope for the best. No one died.
The shoals made the water super foamy so we spent thirty minutes to an hour drifting through nature's bubble bath trying to build snowmen from the foam. We did not succeed.
Our first goal for the day was white springs because we knew there was a store there and we were having fever dreams of red bull and BLTs. We got to White Springs around ten and pulled our boats ashore on the south side of the 41 bridge. We walked into town to go to a kayak outfitter to get a spare paddle in case we break one of ours (given how often we are running into things this felt prudent). The outfitter owners took pity on us and drove us to a grocery store and thanks to the kindness of strangers I got to eat fried chicken while floating down a river while Abby ate a BLT (which, coincidentally, is the perfect sandwich because it features the whole food pyramid).
The store owners told us we are by far the youngest people they’ve ever met who have tried to do the whole Suwannee, apparently this is an old man's sport.
She also told us there was a swimming hole about five miles downriver. They said we would know we were there because the trees would be full of flags. It was a beautiful bend in the river and a pretty great place for a mid afternoon stop.
They also insisted we take their number in case of emergency. People have no faith in us. We are incredibly grateful for how kind they were. We are also grateful for how cute and soft their dog, Chewbacca, is.
This morning I decided I wanted to be able to see but the river had other plans. While in the throws of passion singing along to Wide Open Spaces (by the Dixie Chicks, which is great paddling music by the way) I somehow lost my glasses in the river. I can only hope they were found by a near sighted alligator and that he loves them as I did.
At around 3:30 we got to the first river camp. After looking at the campsites downriver we decided to stay at Woods Ferry for the night rather than attempt another 20 miles since we were hit pretty hard with the heat stroke at this point and giggling at everything.
River camps are amazing and we can drink clean water we didn't pull from the river without waiting thirty minutes to purify it and we can shower and there are fans and screened sleeping spaces and it is truly the fanciest way to be in the wilderness. Three days in the sun has made us grateful for the hard floor and cold showers.
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