We got to the gear shed at 6:30pm and it was raining and very cloudy. We took a vote and everyone still wanted to go out regardless of the poor weather. We arrived at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park in Cross Creek where there is a public boat ramp to launch canoes. I was excited because it was alligator hunting season and I knew there would be hunters out on the water getting their limit of large gators. If anyone is interested just YouTube ‘alligator hunting’.
We unloaded our boats just as it stopped raining. We paddled for maybe 500 yards into the canal that leads out into the lake when we discovered that the canal was completely dry and had turned into a nasty mud hole in some places. We were forced to turn around and go to a different boat ramp with deeper water. Some had to get out and push the boats through the mud slick because we were getting stuck. As we were turning around a large air boat with gator hunters rolled past us and almost blew us all away. We got back to the ramp and re-loaded our boats (now caked with mud). We couldn’t resist taking pictures with the gator hunters and their big catch.
Now the sun had gone down and the sky was dark with no moon in sight because of the clouds. We got to the new boat ramp and the owner came out and seemed very surprised that we were going out in canoes this late at night. Some crazy old redneck lady was there telling us that we were all going to get eaten alive by the gators if we went out in our small boats. She told us the alligators in the lake were far bigger than our boats and we were either very brave or very stupid... or both. She did a good job of freaking everyone out (including me) but I tried to reassure everyone they’d be ok.
We took our boats down to the launch where we shined our lights onto the black water and revealed dozens of alligator eyes shining back at us for as far as our flashlights lights could illuminate. Off in the distance we could see the spotlights of the alligator hunters on their airboats looking for their catch. We took a vote and everyone was still up for going - even with the impending doom of being eaten alive by giant alligators or run over by speeding airboats.
I admit, I was a little freaked out but once we got out onto the water I calmed down a bit. Unfortunately the other people in my canoe were not=2 0as calm as I was (I will not mention any names but you can take a look at the pictures and make your guesses). We set out in the pitch black with alligator eyes all around us in all directions. One person in our boat was frantically taping on the side of the canoe in an attempt to scare the gators away. Another person touched ‘something’ in the water with their oar and screamed hysterically then refused to paddle after that.
Seconds later I heard the people in the boat behind us call out into the blackness "YOU GUYS! I can’t do this!" At that point I knew this trip was over. We turned around after only 500 feet of paddling and went back to the shore. We loaded up our things and left. I’m sure the guy that owned the place was laughing at us after we were gone.
On our way back to Gainesville it started raining again so it was probably a good thing that we left when we did. Even though this trip didn’t go as planned I think it was still very fun and exciting. I think I know now why our club doesn’t do night paddles. I would be very apprehensive about leading another one of these anytime soon. Full moon or not, it gets pretty scary out on the water at night. Being able to walk across the wa ter on alligators doesn’t help the fear factor at all either.
When I got home - believe it or not - I saw a small piece of the moon peak out from behind the clouds. It was the only time I had seen the moon all night long.
