These Sweet Adventures: Suwannee River Paddle Dec. 18: Day 4: Dowling Park River Camp (rm 113.2) to Suwannee River Rendezvous (rm 91.8)

Left at 9:17 AM. It was really cold this morning. Plus we needed to deal with the items from last night that were wet. We weren’t able to pack up last night because of that and so we had to pack up this morning. So that took a while. Before we left I called the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail office and canceled our reservations for Peacock Slough and Adams Tract River Camps. One benefit of the late start was that by the time we got on the river the sun was up and even though it was still quite quite cold, the sun shining warmly on us.
We had quick stops at Charles Spring (rm 106.5), Lafayette Blue Springs State Park (rm 103), and Telford Spring (rm 97.5). It is amazing how different each spring of the river and its surrounding limestone are.
In the afternoon we pulled into Peacock Slough River Camp for a bathroom break. This camp was the easiest to get to of all the river camps so far. It was also super, super clean and decorated really adorably for Christmas. The camp hosts came out to greet us and we let them know that we had canceled our reservation for that evening because of the cold weather predicted for that night.
Further downriver we recognized the Drew Bridge at rm 93.6. Many years ago we had a canoe trip with my sister that began at this bridge and ended at Suwannee River Rendezvous (SRR). Shortly afterwards we saw the first person on the water besides us of the trip so far. It seemed to be a local person out fishing in a canoe.
This section of the river is really beautiful with several springs. The limestone along the edge is lower than upriver, but still really interesting.
Everyone was on the lookout for Bathtub Springs as we got closer to SRR. The grandparents of Edon’s kindergarten friend purchased SRR when he was in kindergarten, so we visited it a few times when the kids were little. Bathtub Springs is really close to SRR, so it was a place we had made sure to go to every previous visit. We found the spring and enjoyed getting out of the boats and walking around it.
A short paddle later we arrived at SRR. Showers, dinner, and doing laundry took place. Then, we went to the office area for the wifi. Checking the weather forecast was a total disappointment. Tons of rain was predicted for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We didn’t know what to do. John and I explored several different options, but since he has to be back at work on the 26th, most of them aren’t great.
I contacted a friend in Gainesville. Rain is supposed to start around 1pm Saturday. She said she could pick one us up at Hart Springs (rm 43.3) on 10am Saturday and bring us to the car parked in Gainesville. We were going to have to cut the trip short.
Today was a 22 mile day that took approximately 7 hrs and 20 minutes total (6 hrs 3 minutes of it was spent paddling). 22.03 miles paddled.