Canoeing in Norris Dead River

My wife and I canoed the Norris Dead River this week. We used our 16' Mad River canoe.

We put in at Ed Stone Park which is located where FL Route 44 crosses the St. John's River. Ed Stone Park has 10 or so boat ramps so there's rarely a wait to launch. It has a quick outlet to the river. We saw a couple of bald eagles shortly after setting out. Norris Dead River is about 1.1 miles downriver (northwest) from the park.

Why is it called Norris Dead River?

A dead river is a natural waterway with almost no permanent current in either direction. The Norris Dead River connects Lake Woodruff to the St John's River. But the elevation difference between them is almost zero. The river flows very slowly to Lake Woodruff, but most of the time you can't really tell which way it's going. As you enter Norris Dead River you are entering Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge.

The goal of the trip was to make it to Lake Woodruff, about 15 miles round trip. We've made it all the way to Lake Woodruff exactly once and have stopped short several times. This was our first trip this year and the temperatures were hotter than we usually attempt this one. We knew the odds of making it all the way to the lake weren't good.

My what a big nose you have

We saw several alligators on the river. A couple were pretty good size. With experience we've gotten pretty good at spotting alligators. We see many more than most people see. However there's no doubt that we only see a small percentage of what's actually there.

We also saw an incredible number of little blue herons. We usually see a large number of the usual Florida wading birds but this time we saw very few of other waders. We only saw 1 great blue heron, a couple of egrets, a few ibises, but it seemed the little blue herons were everywhere. We probably saw 20 of them. I'm not sure why there were so many compared to the other birds. Probably just caught a good day for them.

One of many little blue herons

And that's one thing that makes hiking or canoeing over a well-known track interesting. The wildlife will be similar each time but also different. Next time we may see lots of great blue herons and only a few little blue herons.

Probably the most interesting thing we saw were the manatees. We a group of about 5 manatees munching on some spatterdock along the river. There was a mom and small baby as well as about 3 other adults. We were never sure exactly of the count. But it was interesting to watch them eating.

Manatee at a spatterdock buffet

We made it as far as Blue Peter Lake, about 2.5 miles short of Lake Woodruff. It's very shallow and covered with spatterdock and a few other plants. I looked on the internet to find how Blue Peter Lake got its name but didn't find anything. If anybody has any word on the history of that name I'd be interested. At that point we decided to turn around and head back. Lake Woodruff will have to wait until next time.

The other interesting thing we saw was when we were almost back to Ed Stone Park. A huge, dilapidated riverboat was trying to dock at St. John's Marina. It looked like it was a tour boat back in better days. Somebody told us it was bought in Palatka and driven down to the St. John's Marina to be refurbished. It was large enough it stopped traffic on the St. John's River as it tried to maneuver to the dock. But they finally made it.

A very nice day on the river.  A little hotter than we like, especially considering there's little shade along the Norris Dead River, but still a nice day out.