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Shades Of Old Florida

Photo by Rick Folstad

Kayakers such as Ben Conger of Tampa can see wildlife such as turtles, blue heron and alligators along the Hillsborough River, where a kayak ride is a step back in time.

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By RICK FOLSTAD, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 27, 2007

Updated: 12/27/2007 07:55 pm

TROUT CREEK PARK - This isn't one of those pet-friendly rivers they go tubing on in Ohio and Wisconsin. You don't float this river on your $4.95 Kmart raft with Sparky splashing alongside it.

This is the Hillsborough River. You don't dangle your feet in the water too long, you don't go wading at night and you don't toss a stick into the river for your dog to fetch.

In ways, the Hillsborough is like the Amazon River, only with amenities. It's a quiet, mostly slow-moving, mystical river bordered by sweet gum, ferns, cabbage palms, red maples and huge oak and cypress trees draped with thick moss. It looks like something out of prehistoric times. You keep waiting for a triceratops to raise its huge head out of the brush, chewing on what's left of a wild hog.

Like the Amazon, the Hillsborough River is a place to see wildlife you won't see floating down the Apple River in Wisconsin. The Hillsborough is home to animals such as great egrets, ibises, roseate spoonbills, cormorants, blue herons, bitterns, ospreys, anhingas, limpkins, deer, otters, wild hogs and cooter turtles the size of serving trays.

And alligators. Lots of them.

The first one we saw was a slumbering 7-footer that had found itself a sunny spot along the easy bank of the river just 10 minutes from where we put in.

Minding its own business, the gator appeared happy to just catch a quick snooze while it was warm and the sun was still high. That's when one of those annoying kayakers saw the gator and quietly, slowly, deliberately floated in its direction and started snapping photos as he closed in on the gator's private space. It wasn't long before the disturbed gator lifted itself slightly up off the ground and slipped into the river, a recluse trying to avoid the maddening crowd.

With no other way to go, the gator started swimming in the general direction of the annoying kayaker, who, by that time, had put his camera down, picked up his paddle and was somewhat hurriedly paddling back out toward the middle of the river. But give the guy a break. Kayaks sit pretty low in the water.

It's not that I'm afraid of alligators. I've lived in Florida for almost 20 years. It's just that I didn't mean to provoke this particular 7-footer by getting so close. I wanted a few photos. It wanted to be left alone. I shouldn't have bothered it. This was his home, not mine.

After swimming a short distance, the gator suddenly ducked down and disappeared below the surface. It was gone, at least out of sight.

Still, the gator was probably used to being rousted. If you kayak the Hillsborough River away from the city, you're going to see alligators. And they're going to see you.

In the span of a four-hour paddle from our put-in spot at Trout Creek Park, just off Morris Bridge Road, my son, Ben, and I saw six gators measuring at least five feet. All were sunning themselves on the bank.

Seeing resting and not-so-resting gators up close and not-too-personal is just one of the reasons kayaking the Hillsborough River is special. It's so wild so close to the city.

Though you can hear the distant drone of traffic in some areas of the river, the place still has that "old Florida" feel to it that everyone talks about.

Though it's more crowded on weekends, we went out on a Friday and saw only one kayaker taking pictures, and a group of five paddlers heading back to the easy launching site at Trout Creek Park.

Though there are some areas of the river where kayaking or canoeing can be a little tough getting around obstacles, it's smooth floating here. Known as a blackwater river for most of its length, this stretch of the Hillsborough flows very slowly so kayakers can paddle upriver without much of a problem. At times, you can barely tell which way the river is flowing.

After more than an hour of paddling, we tied the kayaks together in the middle of the river and, while slowly drifting, made a couple sandwiches and had lunch. It was hard to tell if we were even moving in the water.

When we were done eating, we continued up the river for another half-mile, easily paddling past basking turtles and an assortment of gators. And there were large wading birds and shore birds everywhere we looked.

In all, the Hillsborough River flows 54 miles from its headwaters in the Green Swamp north of Tampa to its mouth in Hillsborough Bay.

With several parks on the river, including Lettuce Lake Park, John B. Sargeant Park and Hillsborough River State Park, there are several places to put in.

A fair number of small creeks drain into the river, including Cypress Creek, Trout Creek, Flint Creek and Blackwater Creek.

It's so shallow in some places you can easily dip your paddle down and hit bottom. And the wildlife viewing is some of the best you'll find in the state.

As for getting lost, it's hard to do on a river. But you almost wish it wasn't.

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