Johnathan Dickinson State Park
Trip Start
Nov 19, 2007
1
109
170
Trip End
Ongoing
Hobe Sound,
Florida,
United States
Saturday, November 22, 2008
We pulled into Hobe Sound a couple of days earlier than expected and stopped into Jonathan Dickenson State Park to see if they had any open sites. The park has two camping areas, the Pine Grove and the River. We were able to get a couple of nights at the Pine Grove so we pulled in and went for a bike ride to check out the park.
The park shows signs of black burned scarring from a controlled burn that took place a couple of years ago. Some of the pine trees have black bark as far as 30 feet up. The controlled burning helps keep the undergrowth in check and prevents naturally occuring fires (from lightning)and man made accidental fires from becoming uncontrollable.
We came upon a 5' snake when we were out walking on one of the paths. It was surprising to see a snake that long just laying there, looking up at us. While neither of us are snake experts, we have both been looking at pictures of poisonous snakes for the last year. This one did not look familiar and we were close enough to the nature center to walk over and ask a ranger to identify it. She immediately said "that's a coach whip snake" and that "...they are super fast". As we had guessed, it was not poisonous and she told us that she runs into one every night when she locks up the building and checks out the perimeter.
Saturday, November 29th.
We launched the kayaks onto the Loxahatchee River and headed west against the current for Trapper Nelson's park. Trapper Nelson was a man from N.J. that came out here in the 1930s and set up a camp in the remote area up river from here. He became a local and somewhat national legend who survived by eating gopher turtles, alligators, fish, racoons and fruit that he grew on his land. People heard about him and went to see "Trapper's Zoo and Jungle Park" and to watch him handle wild alligators. His legend grew, along with his popularity until 1968 when he died "under mysterious circumstances".
The trip to Trappers' took about 2 hours and we only saw one gator along the way. But we did see a few ospreys and 2 of the biggest nests we had ever seen. Our paddle home was with the current and the tide and it only took 1 1/2 hours. This river differs from a number of the rivers we have paddled in FL. The banks are all heavily vegetated with mangroves that don't have any place to land a kayak or boat. So unless you turn around and go back to your starting place, you are staying in your craft until you reach your destination. With that in mind, steer clear of drinking coffee.
