Back to the big mound of dirt...

On Saturday, I led a paddle out to the Bottle Creek Indian Mounds. "Led," isn't exactly accurate as it was a pretty self-propelling group, but I can still take credit for it. We met at the Stagecoach Cafe at 9, waited the obligatory 10 or 15 minutes for late-comers and then headed for Rice Creek Landing. The water was very low, but we found a Lexus with two empty kayak racks already at the landing...evidence that (a) there was enough water to paddle, and (b) I'm not the only yuppie-kayaker in the deep south.

We launched into Rice Creek without incident and made a pretty quick trip through Rice Creek, across Briar Lake, behind Larry Island, and into Bayou Jessamine. Jessamine was also very low, but it looked like the State Lands folks had been through recently to clear the logs jams and we made it through without any real problems. We stopped to watch a couple good-old fishermen attempt to jump their 125hp john-boats over a fairly significant log. Not sure how it went, but we didn't see them again.

The Indian Mounds were as expected...about 40 ft high and heavily overgrown. I won't repeat the information here, but click this link to read more about this historical (and undeveloped) site...Bottle Creek Indian Mounds.

After a brief stop for lunch we paddled back towards Rice Creek with a quick diversion into Jug Lake to show several newcomers the platforms available for kayak/canoes to reserve for camping (click here and follow the overnight trails link on the right to get to the reservations page).

We didn't see any 'gators on this trip, although we did hear one inside Jug Lake...similar to a distress call found at the Florida Natural History website. We also saw an interesting bird we couldn't identify...similar in shape to a cormorant in flight, but with an all white head and neck...juvenile maybe?

Anyway, it was about a 9-10 mile paddle and the weather was about perfect...warm, light breezes, and not humid. Possible one of the last days of good paddling weather until October!