{"id":10708,"date":"2022-02-03T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes-2\/?post=rivertrek-2021-five-days-on-the-apalachicola-river"},"modified":"2022-02-18T18:26:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T23:26:10","slug":"rivertrek-2021-five-days-on-the-apalachicola-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2022-02-03\/rivertrek-2021-five-days-on-the-apalachicola-river\/","title":{"rendered":"RiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of RiverTrek 2021, we kayak 107 miles down an iconic wild Florida river: the mighty Apalachicola This river system contains a top biodiversity hotspot, an extensive forested floodplain which is the center of tupelo honey production, Florida’s largest geological outcropping, and a wealth of plant and animal life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of us are sitting around a campfire, the Apalachicola River twinkling before us under a half moon. Many of the others have gone to their tents, experiencing that pleasant tiredness that comes from paddling twenty miles a day for three days, and a 6 pm sunset. It feels like midnight, but it\u2019s probably closer to 7:30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we joke and tell stories, bright spotlights shine onto us from the river; a passing boat has become curious about the tents and kayaks littering the sand bar. A couple of us return the curiosity, wading out into the shallow water for a closer look. Soon, I hear Doug Alderson call out, \u201cRob, bring your camera!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you take a trip like RiverTrek more than once, you pass all the same places. Alum Bluff, Sand Mountain, Owl Creek. And yet, every RiverTrek is different. Weather this year forced us to postpone the trip for a month, and so we\u2019re much deeper into the yellows, reds, and oranges of fall than usual. Some years the river is lower, in others it\u2019s high and flowing fast. We can never know what animals we\u2019ll see or hear, though a few sights and sounds are common on the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there are the people, both the paddlers and the ones we meet along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flint<\/a>
Flint Norris holds up an invasive flathead catfish caught on the Apalachicola River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two local fishermen in the boat were out checking their trot lines. Earlier, they\u2019d caught some of the largest catfish I\u2019ve ever seen up close. Two are invasive flathead catfish, the other a native blue. \u201cReally good eating,\u201d says Flint Norris, holding up a flathead weighing, he approximates, about fifteen pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They invite us to a fish fry tomorrow night, but by then we\u2019ll be over twenty miles away at Owl Creek. We talk about river stewardship, and RiverTrekker Cameron Barton finds she and Flint have a friend in common. We chat for ten or fifteen minutes, and head back to dry our feet by the fire. Another RiverTrek memory made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is RiverTrek?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nine years ago, I was offered the opportunity to kayak down the entire Apalachicola and document it for the Ecology Blog. Back then the blog was called In the Grass, On the Reef<\/strong>, and it focused largely on salt marshes and oyster reefs. I would spend five days following fresh water as it made its way from Jim Woodruff Dam to Apalachicola Bay; there, the fresh meets the salt, creating the mix that gives us the world famous Apalachicola oysters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Click here to read the rest of this article on WFSU’s Ecology Blog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of RiverTrek 2021, we kayak 107 miles down an iconic wild Florida river: the mighty Apalachicola This river system contains a top biodiversity hotspot, an extensive forested floodplain which is the center of tupelo honey production, Florida’s largest geological outcropping, and a wealth of plant and animal life. A few of us are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[136],"tags":[52,974],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2022-02-03\/rivertrek-2021-five-days-on-the-apalachicola-river\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As part of RiverTrek 2021, we kayak 107 miles down an iconic wild Florida river: the mighty Apalachicola This river system contains a top biodiversity hotspot, an extensive forested floodplain which is the center of tupelo honey production, Florida’s largest geological outcropping, and a wealth of plant and animal life. 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