any one want to go for a boat ride sunday at lone cabage

[c chardt]

ME and mood food are meeting at lone cabage on 520 around 9:30 or 10 on sunday jan 15 and rideing north any one can join

 

[SwampMatt]

We're gonna explore the spots - Possum bluff, Pawpaw mound, the shacks and pole homes at Baxter Point and so on.... on our way to lunch at Loughman Lake Lodge. And then back down for dinner probably at Lone Cabbage.

It's a restaurant tour of the St. Johns River! :lol:

Any and all are invited.

matt.

 

[Aces over 8s]

I got confused last night in the chat I thought you guys were doing a south ride??? Sorry I think I'm going to stick to plan A and hunt the marsh on Kiss. You guys be safe.

 

[Dakota]

Just so we don't confuse anyone. This ride is this coming Sunday the 15th. If you would like to go please let us know.

 

[swampjet]

Dakota, Is there B-B-Q involved :lol: . I'm trying to talk Janis into it, I need your help. It's been a long time since she was on the boat, I think she needs a ladies plea.

 

[Dakota]

I am not sure. I think we are riding from Lone Cabbage up to Loughman Lodge and having lunch. So there is food involved but I am not sure what kind of food because I have never been there. Tell her to come, me and Laura will be there.

 

[SwampMatt]

Swampjet, I'll give you the KEY.... Loughman Lodge has CLEAN RESTROOMS. :lol: No BBQ.... Restaurant food all the way around. Both Lone Cabbage & Loughman have very good restaurant food. Nothing to bring or carry on the boat which makes room for spare gas cans... it's a bit of a long trip.

You ought to come along! You've been to loughman, but have you ever arrived by water? Be sure to look at a map. We're launching where Hwy 520 crosses the river, going north, under the 528 expressway, north under Hwy 50, and Loughman is a little south of Hwy 46. North of 50, it's riding on mostly straight airboat specific trails. South of 50, its best guess to find the trails in the low water. We may have to ride the winding river. It's amazing that up in Jax they park aircraft carriers in the St. Johns. Down here it's sometimes too shallow for a jonboat with a 10 hp kicker. I'll have a map posted soon.

matt.

 

[cfth]

Hey Mood,

I was out there last weekend and the water was dropping like a rock. It always amazes me how it can go so slow for so long and then come down like it does. Anyways maybe I will see you there.

 

[SwampMatt]

Yeah cfth. I've been watching that guage website steadily plummet. We can always follow the main river channel though. Hope to see you at the Lone cabbage ramp around 9:30~10:00 on Sunday. It's dropped 3 1/2 feet since it crested after Hurricane Wilma. I wonder if the outflow makes a suction after a flood and draws it down a little extra low. But this is the dry season. The aerial photo linked below was taken during a January. (1/6/2004)

I'm not all too familiar with the river between the BeeLine and 520. Was out there in low water about 10 years ago in my kicker jonboat, and recently when it was all flooded out from Hurricane Wilma. But this will definitely be a voyage of exploration for us in that southern area near 520.

Question for you.... Just north of 520, it looks like there is an airboat trail or small levee ditch on the far western side of the river. About a quarter to a half mile west of the main channel. It looks like it ends by the power lines. At Hwy 528, it goes under a seperate bridge. Is that navigable? And the big question... is it navigable by an airboat that does not like to run dry? According to the scale of miles, it appears to be about a 9 mile long trail. Seems an interesting alternative to the twisty river.

I've put together a photo mosiac of nearly 200 aerial shots. As usual, this is a big file to load. The image (if printed) would be 9 feet long! (5.6MB file size) But it shows some good detail of the river and surrounding terrain between Lone Cabbage and Loughman Lodge.

http://homepage.mac.com/moodfood/.Pictu ... ughman.jpg

Here is a THUMBNAIL of the image at the above link...

I'm looking forward to this ride. Cold weather is alright.... I just hope it's not windy. The levee trail that runs from Hwy 50 up to Loughman will probably be dry near Hatbill Park. Same with the trails that cut thru the marsh just before Loughman. That means we'll have to cut across Clark & Loughman Lake - and that sucks in a stiff breeze!

If anyone else is going, let us know and we'll wait for you. Otherwise, me & cc will take off when we meet at the ramp.

matt.

 

[Croc1]

mood its an airboat trail, west of it is a walk only hunt area but I forget the name, it depends on the water if you can run it or not I run it alot north of 528. If you stay to the east after you go under 520 its a pretty straight run up to possum bluff if you look close at your map you will see most of the river has been straightend out by short trails .

 

[Anonymous]

I not sure of the river level north of 520 I been running the south the last 4 week ends. The south trails are or will be by now mostly dry.

 

[Dakota]

When we went out on Sunday we left from Sweetwater canal and went south all the way to the willow shelter. Man going down the trail towards Byrd Platt was dry in some spots. I am sure they are pretty dry now. We went from Byrd Platt to Bulldozer and we took a dry trail. Wow, even going from Spade Island to Bulldozer is getting really dry. We had to go slow around the Cypress trees because it was slippery. It was cold and lots of alligators on the banks sunning themselves. In the next couple of weeks it is going to be very hard getting anywhere out there.

 

[cfth]

Mood,

To answer your question yes when the water is up you can run it. When the water is down you can't. There is actually almost a road when the water is dry. The walk in area is Tosohatchee. There is a canal down some of it however, the FWCC came in an put up new posted signs on the East side of the canal so you now can not run it. From 520 to possum bluff you can bounce in and out of some of the trails but either way even if you run the river it should be a nice ride. Great map by the way. Hopefully I will see you guys there.

 

[rick]

That's gonna be a heck of a nice ride mood. Teresa & I took the same ride with passtime the same day his property was getting flooded in New Orleans.

The water level's at that point where you just don't know about the trails without looking at them first hand. That trail you mentioned on the northwest side of 520 is a cool ride, but it's also one of the first to dry up.

That's Tosohatchee State Reserve on the west side of the trail. I think they're doing some legal hog hunting (with dogs) in there this weekend, so don't be surprised if one don't jump out on the marsh ocassionally. Might be an added bonus for this trip.

I'll probably see ya'll out there somewhere Sunday.

BTW: Any chance of making that map of yours an ongoing project and get all the locally named spots listed on it? Sure is a neat map.

 

[SwampMatt]

Thanks for all the tips guys! I know when I ran it so many years ago in my jonboat with a 1968 Evinrude 6 hp kicker, the river was so shallow that even that little minature kicker motor dragged bottom a large amount of the way! So that means PERFECT riding in an airboat. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm not sure what you are asking about the ongoing project Rick. I think it is an ongoing project already! I really like making these things. My goal is to make these maps of all the good airboating spots in Florida! It does cost me though. It's $45 for a 3 month subscription to the aerial photo site (which expires on monday and will have to be renewed) and it does take a LOT of time to put those images together! (especially on my STILL crippled computer) But it's fun for me, sort of relaxing. I'd really like it to be a way to make a few extra bucks (since they cost me time & money), but if I tried to withhold information and SELL this info, fewer of you guys would be able to see them. I'm happier to just give stuff like this away. Besides, like anything else, it's relaxing now, but if there was profit involved, that prings pressure into it, and I just don't want to do it that way.

If I had my life to life over, I would have persued a career in surveying and map making. If I went into that field at this point, I'd be entering the job as a line cutter & hole digger. That's a job for a younger guy.

I'm working on a map of Swampjet's area. It'll be done soon. Sorry Bob - I've set that one aside to pop out this one (took 2 days to whip this one up) and I've got about 3 days so far into making one for Area 3a too. I'm still trying to recover the map files for one for Capt Dave too.

If anyone has points of interest to add to THIS or any of my maps, I welcome all suggestions!!! Feel free to drop me a note with your addition.

I can double the resolution and halve the size - which makes these things nice posters. Hi rez / large format printing is not cheap though. But I'm willing to share with anyone for the cost of having them printed. Currently I use http://www.bigprintshop.com (in Seattle) to print and laminate these things.

I'm glad you like the maps, and I hope to run into you out there somewhere on Sunday Rick. Keep your ears tuned for the train horn. I'll blow it from time to time to try to let you know where we are. We will definitely be at PawPaw for a little while. Laura & I want to scope it out and see what it'd be like for a wedding location.

matt

 

[SwampMatt]

I whipped up this map, from the Frappr Map website of the same area, expanded just a little to help put it in perspective.

I question the boundry area on this map of the Tosahatchee Preserve area though.

I'll be adding GPS numbers to my map of the area. And a few more names and stuff. If there is other stuff anyone wants added, let me know. (for instance, I do not know the name of that shack that Diamondback uses in their advertisements... sort of across from Possom bluff, and another shack/shelter painted blue up near Pawpaw.

Someday, when Soughern Airboat has a monthly run in this area, the map of it will be already done!

 

[Anonymous]

You can get allot of information off teraserver and Google Earth. The air photos of the old trails are still being used. We did that run before archery
when the water was high. Have fun

 

[Aces over 8s]

Matt I've stolen about 3 so far,, well that's all I'm going to confess to. :lol: If you can receive pay pal let me know what I owe you. :shock:

 

[SwampMatt]

Aces - You just made my day! You owe me nothing at all and I owe you
a THANKS for taking them and using them! Glad to see they are getting to good use. They
probably make good hunting maps because it shows all the different tree lines and stuff. AND
THEY ARE RELATIVELY CURRENT PHOTOS. Microsoft's Terraserver & Google Earth
are good, but you are looking at 10 year old photos. And most places you can't zoom in
very close. (That's why I subscribe - I can zoom right in there)

One of these days I'm going to get around to making a post with links to all the maps
in one place. They are and always have been free to anyone who wants them.
Now, hmmmm.... if you go printing them and making a big profit... I'd still not ask for a cut,
but I'd want to have some words with ya.... about going into business together!

Check out that place called BPS (not BlackPowderScout) http://www.BigPrintShop.com
Email them the file and they fedEx you the printed copy. And if you want to do that, let me know,
and I can make them higher resolution and they'll look a LOT nicer.

Still putting together the everglades map. Stand by.

matt.

 

[wade]

Mood, Gonna try to make it out there on sunday. Gotta help my son with a project for school, so I'll be ready to get out Sunday. Won't be making the run from 520 but I'll be around Loughman if I go. Maybe put in at the Jolly Gator.