We booked a 2 hour kayak tour of Blue Spring State Park and got great email directions on how and where to meet up with our guide. ( note to Verizon GPS uses... the guidance took us to the wrong end of the road and gave us a 2 mile dash to get to the launch point on time. When we got there our guide, Greg who owns the business was there. The other couple who booked for this tour had cancelled so Greg to the tour himself to let our scheduled guide get ready for a longer trip elsewhere.
The kayaks and PFDs where in great shape and comfortable and Greg had bottled water for us to take along. This was the 9:00 am tour which meant we had time to paddle to the headwaters of the Blue Spring. Along the way we crossed into the State Park waters which have limited kayaking hours to make way for the raft fleets and snorkel swimmers. Once you cross from the "river" water to the Spring water the clarity to the bottom is amazing to see. Gar, Tilapia and turtles galore, but alas, no Manatee. Later we heard that they had crossed out of the Spring and into the river earlier in the morning. No worries we trekked on to the main river channel and them to a side branch back into the river forest.
Greg is a great conversationalist, story teller, and advocate for a "Florida" view of the world. He has had a wide range of avocations in his life and this guiding river tours seems to be the prefect fit. We are from the Northwest so we share a love of the outdoors and wildlife and while we don't agree on much in the world of politics the conversation was informative and always friendly.
In the back channels we saw so many great vistas and narrow tree shadowed passages. What was to be a 2 hour tour flew by in a enjoyable 4+ hours explorations. Lots of birds of all sizes and colors and a few GATORS! Made of an exciting and alert trip! Plenty of sun so take the SPF. We highly recommend it!