Suwannee River Paddle Dec. 15: Day 1: Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park (rm 168.3) to Woods Ferry River Camp (rm 159.3)

Today we woke up around 7:15am in Gainesville and started packing up to leave my sister’s house. John realized the Tesla needed charging and he needed coffee, so he went to Butler Plaza to take care of those things. We didn’t really plan for breakfast, but the kids had some Lara Bars in their bags so we ate those for breakfast while we waited for John. Edon and Ezi went and filled my car with gas, John arrived and we set off at 8:45 am. It was 45 minutes later than I would have liked. I (mistakenly) thought we planned to paddle 19 miles today and kept hurrying everyone. It took a little less than an hour to get to Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. We unpacked the cars at the canoe launch and saw a sign saying the Woods Ferry River Camp was just 9 miles away. Relieved that I had got today’s paddle mixed up with tomorrow’s, I calmed down a bit.
John and Edon took both cars and headed to Bill’s Fish Camp near Anderson's Landing (rm 4) to drop the Fit off. They needed to stop and charge the Tesla again, this time in Lake City. Then, they continued to Bill’s Fish Camp. We should be able to leave the car there for $5.50/night.
Next, John and Edon plan to drive to my sister’s in Gainesville again (and charge the car again). My sister, Alee, will drive John and Edon back to Stephen Foster where we will eventually start our trip. Alee will take our car back to Gainesville and we will pick it up at the end of our trip. Most likely, John and Edon will fetch it while Ezi and I watch our stuff at Bill’s Fish Camp.
If time allows this evening, we will paddle the 2.7 miles to the Hwy 41 Bridge/White Springs Wayside Park before heading downstream to the River Camp. It is the official launch site of the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail.
While John and Edon were driving around Central Florida, Ezi and I hauled all of our stuff down to the river‘s edge. We ate some granola. Then, we organized everything as best as we could in the boats. Ezi did parkour and watched 6 Underground, which is a new show on Netflix that features a bunch of the parkour artists he follows. I worked on the blog post.
The weather is nice and warm and sunny. I am enjoying it while I can.
We want to arrive at the River Camp before dark, so we may need to skip the upstream paddle.
Ezi and I were expecting John and Edon back around 2 PM. However, at 1:45 PM I spoke with John. He had gotten caught in standstill traffic on his way to Gainesville from Suwannee. They probably won’t make it back to Ezi and I until closer to 4 PM. So, we will be heading straight to the river camp. There are definitely less beautiful places and days to be left all day waiting.
The river camps are supposed to be amazing, with electricity, hot showers, and raised screen enclosures to sleep in.
We arrived at Woods Ferry River Camp around 7:15 PM after setting off around 4:15 PM. It was a little stressful trying to find the river camp in the dark. The river camp has a gigantic ramp running down to the river, so it actually wasn’t hard to find even though we were nervous it would be. The stars were beautiful as we floundered down the river in the dark. John and Ezi each saw a shooting star.
The screen rooms with lights and electricity are awesome. Each camping platform has a picnic table and fire pit near it. We bought a bunch of firewood for six dollars. We cooked up dinner and went to go shower. John and Ezi had hot showers, but Edon and I only had lukewarm. That was a disappointment for sure. By 10 PM we were all in the tent and most of us were asleep.
9.45 miles paddled.