Following another round of local flooding, I headed out to the New River to continue paddling up through Tate's Hell State Forest, fully prepared and determined to make my way up to the elusive bridge that was supposedly ahead of me. But...


When I got there, the central portion of the park was underwater (there's a bridge somewhere under there...), and I couldn't make the drive to the launch/campsite that I needed to start from thanks to a small tree that had fallen across the only dry road. I tried pulling the tree out of the road with my car, but in the end, all I managed to do was snap one of my 2000lb test straps while being assaulted by yellow flies.

So I packed up and headed back east to try my luck on the Aucilla.



distance .................... 11.0 miles
confirmed miles to date ... 1773


a generally narrow river with very steep banks


and man, was it flowing...

Paddling upriver against the current was a challenge in several places. On this particular day, there were several groups of canoeists making their way down, and all of them let me know that I was definitely going the wrong way.




the turnaround - a pipeline cut-through

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