Paddling Juniper Springs

Alice Platt

Juniper Springs is one of the best and most popular canoe runs in central-north Florida. Located in the heart of the Ocala National Forest, it is easy to imagine that you are canoeing through a great wilderness. Alligators, turtles, many birds, and even deer have been spotted while canoeing this delightful run. Following is one Sierra Club member's story about a day on the springs.

It is a very quiet day on Juniper Springs; a weekday, with only a couple of other paddlers seen so far. It's shaping up to be a lovely day. But you can never relax too much while paddling down Juniper!

Paddling around a sharp bend in the creek, I see with alarm that a solo paddler has managed to catch himself between a low overhanging oak limb and his canoe. Apparently, he opted to hang onto the thick branch as he negotiated his way through the small space between the limb and the water. Now he lay prone, clutching the tree for dear life with both hands, keeping hold of the canoe with his feet as the swift current tried to sweep it out from under him.

“Whoa!” hollers my companion, Ed. We paddle to the rescue. Fortunately, on Juniper Springs, his position really isn’t dangerous at all. The clear stream’s waters rarely get deep enough to cover your head. However, I’m always happy to save a fellow paddler from the embarrassment of wet clothes. “Let go of the tree,” we tell him.

“I can’t!” He lies there helplessly, afraid to move.

Ed steps out of our canoe into the cool stream. The water swirls around the hem of his cargo shorts. He pulls the canoe toward us so the stranger’s body is centered over it. “You can let go,” he tells him, and the stranger gratefully lets go of the tree and picks up his paddle from the floor of his canoe. “Don’t grab the trees when you go under them,” Ed instructs. “Just bend over and center yourself over the canoe. This current will rip it from underneath you if you’re not careful.”

“Yeah, I figured that out,” the stranger said, embarrassed. He paddled ahead, banging against the low muddy bank as he negotiated the next turn.

Such events are common among novice and expert paddlers on the Juniper Springs run, located in the Juniper Springs Recreation Area in Central Florida’s Ocala National Forest. The narrow creek makes sharp twists and turns for much of the seven-mile run. The forest’s trees often fall across the stream, creating a natural obstacle course for paddlers. However, the tall oak and pine trees also offer welcome shade from the Florida sun, making the trip a cool respite from the heat. There is almost always a good way to get through the obstacles without porting, and the swift current makes paddling almost unnecessary.

It is a quiet Monday afternoon in September. On weekends, the stream is popular with locals, tourists, and Boy Scout groups, but during the week, or often on weekends during the off months of May and September, you can pretty much have the run to yourself. Today, we’ve seen more wildlife than people. Once in a while, we catch a glimpse of deer in the thick woods. Turtles sun themselves on short fallen limbs that reach over the banks of the stream. Birds flutter among the treetops, and insects buzz happily in the underbrush. Fortunately, we’ve remembered our insect repellant, so they aren’t bothering us.

After a couple of hours, we pull up on the bank to enjoy lunch. I set my seat cushion on a large fallen oak and settle in to enjoy my sandwich. Disposable containers such as cans of soda are not allowed on the run as a method of litter prevention. A few times on the run we’ve seen some beer cans on the creek bottom (though alcoholic beverages are also prohibited) but for the most part, the stream remains unspoiled, with little evidence of human activity.

About three-quarters of the way through our trip, the stream opens up to a lily and grass-covered savannah. The navigable portion is still narrow, as most of the water is consumed with lilies on the surface or thick tall grass growing up from the creek bottom, but the line of sight generally extends much farther. Feeling confident, we turn a corner around a sand bank and almost run smack-dab into an alligator’s nest. Several tiny alligators no larger than my hand scramble around in the mud. Their mother, who had been sunning herself on the bank, silently slips into the water. My heart thumps in my chest. I absolutely do not want to upset the mother alligator, but even after growing up in this state, I’ve never seen babies this small. We pause a couple of yards away to admire them before paddling away, back into the woods.

The take-out is directly past the highway, part of the Juniper Wayside Park. Trucks rumble above us on Highway 19 as we lean over and paddle under the wide, low bridge. There is a swimming-hole here that is often crowded on weekends, but today there are only a few local folks sitting in lawn chairs set up in a shallow portion of the stream. They look relaxed, enjoying the 72-degree water swirling around their ankles. “Know what time it is?” one hollers across the stream.

It is nearly five o’clock. The sun is dropping lower in the sky, but there is still plenty of light left to enjoy the rest of this late summer afternoon – late summer, where almost everywhere else in the country, the sharp breath of autumn is beginning to exhale. Here the air is still warm, fresh and clean, and even here on the wayside, it feels like we’ve stepped back in time, back into the wilderness that once characterized most of Florida.

Outing Information

Juniper Springs Recreation Area is located on State Road 40, 22 miles east of Silver Springs. The park opens daily at 8 a.m. Canoes are available between 8 a.m. and noon. There is a park entrance fee. Canoe rentals and a park shuttle are available. If you have your own equipment, the shuttle service is $5. Canoe reservations are available two weeks in advance. For information, call (352) 625-3147 or (352) 625-2808.

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