Rainbow River Float Trip

What a great day to be on the river!  We had perfect weather to take 44 of our Boy Scouts for a 4-hour float trip down the crystal clear water of this first magnitude spring system.   The Rainbow River is a true Florida gem and is kept clean with strict laws about what you can have on the river; only reusable materials for packaging our lunches and refillable bottles for our water.  This river is beautiful and a clean up day was in process there today to keep it that way. 

We put in at KP Hole, a Marion County Park, that rents tubes and other watercraft.  We had 12 adults in the kayaks and canoes to shepherd this crowd of boys down the river.  We had a lead canoe that held all the lunch boxes and a follow or "sweep" canoe to corral all the straglers.  One of the adults commented that "the Vikings didn't have this much food when they crossed the Atlantic!"

The boys splashed and played all they down the river. Some had water guns. Others had beach balls and swim goggles.  They all had fun.  I paddled past one boy and asked him if he was having a good time. He replied "Yes!  I have never done this...not even in a theme park!"  I laughed at his reply and thought about all those kids who have ONLY done this kind of thing in a theme park. This natural setting is SO much better!

As the resident naturalist in the troop, the ecology education usually falls to me and I really enjoy this.  Of course the boys know me well, and their responses reflect this.  When a damselfly took a rest on my big toe, I pointed at my foot and said "Look!  A Dragonfly!"  A scout quickly replied "I got it" as he pointed his water pistol my way!  He grinned at my shocked look and we both laughed when I realized that he "got" me!

There were so many birds out today and we saw osprey, ibis, cormorants, anhinga, red-winged blackbirds, woodpeckers, ducks with ducklings, and so much more.  A red-shouldered hawk called loudly overhead and I challenged the boys to "name that bird."  "Jeffrey" was the first reply I got; they were pulling my leg. "You told us to name that bird.  I named it Jeffrey."   

We are now camped in an oak hammock looking forward to dinner. Rain may come our way tonight but it won't matter.  We will all sleep well after a wonderful day outside.

"B-E-A-utifal!"