The paddle takes us in a southwesterly direction about a mile to Beecher’s Point. It was a basically calm day on the river with not much head wind to deal with, which is always a welcomed treat when on that river. The St Johns River is about a 1/4 mile across at the launch on Palmetto St.
We all had our water blasters for cooling off later when the temperature starts to rise…and it did! BY 10.30 am we were all the the water and heading out following the eastern shoreline of the St Johns River. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and we had a pretty good size group from Putnam Blueways and Trails. There is a larger boat ramp 1 street south on Elm and is used for the larger boats with trailers. The kayaks were staged on the grass to the right of the public boat dock and that is where we also launched. We arrived around 10:00 am at Bryant’s Wharf Boat Dock at the end of Palmetto St. The Paddle Route… Mud Spring Paddle Map ( click to enlarge )īryant’s Wharf launch… Readying for Launch – Bryant’s Wharf Rest Areas: There are restroom facilities at Mud Spring. Mud Creek starts out at 300′ wide and quickly tapers to 50′ at the spring.Ĭurrent – Tidal: The current along the St Johns River is below 1 mph as it is called a lazy river, dropping only 30′ in its entire length of 310 miles! The flow out of Mud Spring is minimal. Width and Depth: This is an open expanse on the St John River, which is 1/4 mile across at the launch site. Can be a bit tiring if you have to fight the wind on the St Johns River. Paddle Distance: One way to Mud Spring is 3.15 milesĭifficulty: Easy. Launch point: The launch for this paddle is at the Bryant’s Wharf Boat Dock, located at the end of Palmetto St. Location: Mud Spring is located in the Welaka State Forest, 1.5 miles south of Welaka Fl. Mud Spring is the head of Mud Creek which flows southeast for just under a half-mile into Mud Creek Cove, part of Little Lake George which is part of the St Johns River. An average depth of the spring is about 4′ deep.
Mud Spring is a 4th magnitude spring, surrounded by the palms and palmettos of the Welaka State Forest. The boil is in the center of an oval-shaped pool roughly 85′ x 65′.
The next Mud River project work team meeting will be held on TBT.
Due to the insulating nature of the organic material, dense layers of frost remained a short distance from the surface.Ī flood damage reduction project work team was assembled to begin an official process of planning a restoration project. At the upstream end, soil borings maxed out at about a 5 foot depth and Shells and coarse material were found in soil borings near the downstream (west) end of the old channel path. Watershed District collected transects of soil boring information along the old channel of the Mud River to aid in planning a restoration project. In June of 2021, a team of six staff from the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the Red Lake The need for soil borings was discussed and plans were made to gather equipment and a team of staff from partner agencies to collect some data in the early summer of 2021. More meetings were held in the spring of 2021 to discuss the Mud River Restoration project and the next steps that were needed to continue planning the Meetings began in the winter of 2020 kicking off the project and discussing initial surveying, which was completed by HDR Engineering in January of 2021.