Boiling Creek - Upper
Sunday, January 8, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Following a short cold snap Friday night, we are back to warm sunny days once again. For less than an hours drive from Spanish Fort, Boiling Creek is just a great little hideaway to sneak off to. It is a swift, narrow, crystal-clear, white sand bottom creek, deep in the middle of a cypress and pine forest. It is full of pitcher plants and plenty of other flowering water foliage, waterfowl and other critters on the Eglin AFB firing range.
With an Eglin recreation permit in hand, head out on I-10 to exit 31 in the Milton, Florida area and turn south on Hwy 87 to the Yellow River bridge. I met seven other lucky souls, and we drove the last few miles on dirt roads to the put-in, near a low one-lane wooden bridge. The temperature at 11:00 AM was about 66 degrees, with partly cloudy skies and a southerly breeze, which did not affect us deep in the woods.
We started out heading upstream against about a 2 mph current through twists and turns, deep pools and flowing underwater grasses. A great blue heron led us upstream to the split where Little Boiling Creek joins. Several of us took the right fork up Little for about 400 meters until we came across the first small fall. We returned and met the rest of the group and continued up the main channel for another mile to the landing on the left. This turned out to be the border to the red zone, so we decided to stop for lunch. There had been a burn about a year ago and the underbrush was coming back strong, but there were still alot of blackened trees and branches you didn't want to touch.
While on the way up, we noticed a burn was going on with a large smoke cloud and odor coming out of the southwest. As we sat around eating lunch, the cloud began to cross the sun, creating an eerie sunset and then darkness. Once we started back, the wind changed directions slightly and the smoke no longer blocked out the sun. We saw evidence of several beaver, who were helping keep the stream clear and had not begun any dam or house work, at least along the route we took.
The return trip only took us about 45 minutes with the nice current downstream. It is definately worth the trip to paddle the upper section, as it is quite a bit different from the stream on down to the Yellow River. I would like to combine both sometime and make a full day viewing one of the nicest, cleanest inland streams along the Gulf Coast.
Following a short cold snap Friday night, we are back to warm sunny days once again. For less than an hours drive from Spanish Fort, Boiling Creek is just a great little hideaway to sneak off to. It is a swift, narrow, crystal-clear, white sand bottom creek, deep in the middle of a cypress and pine forest. It is full of pitcher plants and plenty of other flowering water foliage, waterfowl and other critters on the Eglin AFB firing range.
With an Eglin recreation permit in hand, head out on I-10 to exit 31 in the Milton, Florida area and turn south on Hwy 87 to the Yellow River bridge. I met seven other lucky souls, and we drove the last few miles on dirt roads to the put-in, near a low one-lane wooden bridge. The temperature at 11:00 AM was about 66 degrees, with partly cloudy skies and a southerly breeze, which did not affect us deep in the woods.
We started out heading upstream against about a 2 mph current through twists and turns, deep pools and flowing underwater grasses. A great blue heron led us upstream to the split where Little Boiling Creek joins. Several of us took the right fork up Little for about 400 meters until we came across the first small fall. We returned and met the rest of the group and continued up the main channel for another mile to the landing on the left. This turned out to be the border to the red zone, so we decided to stop for lunch. There had been a burn about a year ago and the underbrush was coming back strong, but there were still alot of blackened trees and branches you didn't want to touch.
While on the way up, we noticed a burn was going on with a large smoke cloud and odor coming out of the southwest. As we sat around eating lunch, the cloud began to cross the sun, creating an eerie sunset and then darkness. Once we started back, the wind changed directions slightly and the smoke no longer blocked out the sun. We saw evidence of several beaver, who were helping keep the stream clear and had not begun any dam or house work, at least along the route we took.
The return trip only took us about 45 minutes with the nice current downstream. It is definately worth the trip to paddle the upper section, as it is quite a bit different from the stream on down to the Yellow River. I would like to combine both sometime and make a full day viewing one of the nicest, cleanest inland streams along the Gulf Coast.
posted by brint @ 11:34 PM
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