The Aucilla River

Our put-in point at the South Salt Street bridge.  It was a narrow,
rocky walk down to the water carrying the kayaks...but well worth it!

I first became intrigued by the Aucilla River when, as a boy, I would fish a friend's pond in Boston, Georgia, where the Aucilla (Creek at that point) ran through it.  The fishing was really good back then as I remember anchoring our boat at the mouth of the creek and using crickets as bait, we would pull in red belly bream one after another.  Years later longtime family friend R.C. Balfour wrote a book titled, 'In Search of the Aucilla.'  It traces the origins of the river in Thomas County and traces its flow down to the Gulf of Mexico.  A few weeks ago, I talked a pilot friend into taking me up in his plane to scout the river in the Monticello, Florida, area.  Once up in the air, we would plainly see the path of the river and its surrounding vegetation as it wound its way to the Gulf.  After scouting the area out on Google Maps, we headed for Lamont, Florida, to put in next to the bridge on Highway 27.  Much to my disappointment, the road to put in there was much narrower and not conducive to pulling a kayak trailer down into.  We retraced our steps back into Lamont and with the help of our smart phones we followed South Salt Street out 7.6 miles to a bridge with a decent dirt path to get the kayaks near the water.  Once offloaded, we had to carry each kayak down a narrow, rocky path down a steep bank into the water.

The effort was worth it.  With the sunlight racing for the horizon we had to make good use of our time and paddle quickly up stream.  We were rewarded with my favorite kind of water...no ripples and smooth as glass.  At this point the river has a good number of turns to keep things interesting and we went as far as a set of shallow rapids that kept us from going further.  Turning around, we headed downstream and marveled at the high banks lined in areas with beautiful palm trees.  The water level was obviously down this day as this area is in need of rain.

Late afternoon in December on the Aucilla River near Lamont, Florida

There were times on our journey that we stop paddling and just listen to the perfect peace and quiet.  That's something that is rare for us to hear these days, but we found it that day!  I can now understand Mr. Balfour's love of the Aucilla.  We plan to traverse it closer to the Gulf in the future, but nature lovers would do well to make the journey to this semi-remote area of north Florida for a getaway.  To view a brief video of the Aucilla River trip, click on the following link http://youtu.be/NK1y7t5giq8
The Vitals
Gas:  Get it in Lamont, FL, if you are low.  One convenience store in the middle of town on Highway 19.
Food:  See above
GPS Location:  30.273267,-83.856837