Great ride on the Kissemee today. 90 miles worth.

[Coastiejoe]

Thanks to Spim and Idol3 for making the drive. We saw alligators, cows, a snake, and lots of birds. Like riding in the local zoo.

Resting at Jacks landing (Idol3 is Jack). You can ask him how it got the name.


Going through the lock.



One of the side trails where we ran out of good water. Did a U-turn.


The riders on the trip minus myself.




One if the small gators. Saw some that were 12 foot or so.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

Great ride... thanks for taking some pics...

Enjoyed every minute !

 

[Coastiejoe]

One of the higher speed runs.

https://vimeo.com/127399102

 

[Red Rocket]

That water looks amazing! Have you ridden the Caloosahatchee Canal from Fort Myers to Okeechobee?

 

[Coastiejoe]

I have not, but certainly willing to. Let's set something up.


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[Coastiejoe]

@Spimorhy Leary. I need you to set up another Kiddimee run. Have I laws that moved into the area. They want to go riding.


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[Red Rocket]

I would love to but being I'm in Texas with no vacation time available this year it's going to be a bit tough. I have a couple of friends that want to make a trip to Florida but like I said it probably wont happen this summer. If and when we do head east I'm not sure if we'll go back to Navarre or head down towards Tampa.

I have not, but certainly willing to. Let's set something up.

 

[Coastiejoe]

I would love to but being I'm in Texas with no vacation time available this year it's going to be a bit tough. I have a couple of friends that want to make a trip to Florida but like I said it probably wont happen this summer. If and when we do head east I'm not sure if we'll go back to Navarre or head down towards Tampa.

I can see you coming for TX being an issue,,,,


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[Spimothy Leary]

< not getting any @ messages, need to check my settings I guess.

The run up the Caloosahatchee is a nice run, but far from a "technical" ride, pretty straight and boring, I do it all the time mainly because its convenient for me to launch 5 mintues from home and run up the river for a leisurely ride vs heading out to the gulf/salt/waves. I wouldn't recommend it as a top choice for anybody more than a half hour away, the peace river is a better choice, more scenic, more technical, generally more enjoyable.

I'll see what I can do on the K, a few of my buddies were just there over the weekend, but my seat's are still at the upholstery shop so I was unable to participate and this weekend i'm taking a noob out who is definitely not ready for the K, actually i'll probalby run him up the Caloosahatchee just because its a safe, easy run with a little bit of scenery and give him a chance to experience riding a PWC in a controlled environment.

 

[Coastiejoe]

< not getting any @ messages, need to check my settings I guess.

The run up the Caloosahatchee is a nice run, but far from a "technical" ride, pretty straight and boring, I do it all the time mainly because its convenient for me to launch 5 mintues from home and run up the river for a leisurely ride vs heading out to the gulf/salt/waves. I wouldn't recommend it as a top choice for anybody more than a half hour away, the peace river is a better choice, more scenic, more technical, generally more enjoyable.

I'll see what I can do on the K, a few of my buddies were just there over the weekend, but my seat's are still at the upholstery shop so I was unable to participate and this weekend i'm taking a noob out who is definitely not ready for the K, actually i'll probalby run him up the Caloosahatchee just because its a safe, easy run with a little bit of scenery and give him a chance to experience riding a PWC in a controlled environment.

I will PM you my days off over the next two months.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

good idea, best to plan a bit ahead on the K since I think its best with an experienced guide (Eric) with GPS, trust me its a lot easier to get lost or make a wrong turn into a truly dangerous situation out there than you think, I learned that the hard way about 2 yrs ago, when the 1st and 2nd ski both made a wrong turn and ended up 6 feet up into some nasty waist deep muck, I pulled both of them out with my XP. Since then I personally haven't made that run since w/o Eric in the lead.

I have a healthy respect for Gators, mud bogs and getting lost in the middle of nowhere, I want no part of any of that mess

 

[Seadoobuddy]

good idea, best to plan a bit ahead on the K since I think its best with an experienced guide (Eric) with GPS, trust me its a lot easier to get lost or make a wrong turn into a truly dangerous situation out there than you think, I learned that the hard way about 2 yrs ago, when the 1st and 2nd ski both made a wrong turn and ended up 6 feet up into some nasty waist deep muck, I pulled both of them out with my XP. Since then I personally haven't made that run since w/o Eric in the lead.

I have a healthy respect for Gators, mud bogs and getting lost in the middle of nowhere, I want no part of any of that mess

....and other nasty critters living in the bogs/muck areas. We have some knee/thigh deep muck in our canal within 8 feet of the shoreline but the worst we have is a frog, turtle or maybe a carp....at least we get to keep our legs and arms.

 

[Coastiejoe]

For June. I am off on Fr/Sat, 26,27. July Fri/Sat. 3,4. 10,11. Then switch to Sun/Mon July 12,13 (that is a 4 day weekend for me), 19,20. 26,27 and Aug 2,3.

That is as far out as I can see for now.


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[Spimothy Leary]

semi related update...

I accepted an invite and 4 of us decide to head out and ride the Peace River Saturday, there's a section north of Arcadia that has some nice K-river type twisties. It was a good idea for me, not so good for one of my ride buddies.

Everything was going well, even some of the shallow trails that we normally avoid were wide open and 5' deep. We're all smiles and giggles until...

I was 2nd in line as we rounded a corner and the well defined river turned into a 20 acre lake, lead ski makes his best (and wrong) guess as to the path we need to stay on and sure enough we slow down and look around 360, and we're riding over a cow pasture, we make a quick u turn and try to head back the way we came, in front of me I see a steel fence post sticking up about 6" and make a last 2nd brap to swing around it, lead ski calls me forward and I say "man I just missed a fence post !" he replies with "I hit it hard". We quickly move over near the shore, his bilge pump is on full pumping water out the back, we tip the ski onto its side only to find a tennis ball sized hole right smack in the middle of the hull.

At this point we're about 30 miles from the ramp we launched at.

Option 1 was really not an option: leave it there pulled up on shore and find a way to fetch it, it was a cow pasture and no roads in sight, everything flooded, difficult if not impossible to come back with a trailer.

Option 2, put the seat back on and haul azz back to the nearest boat ramp, about 6 miles, which we did at 60+ in an attempt to make it there before the ski sinks, he barely made it and we pulled him up on shore to wait with the ski, phew...

The remaining 3 then did a speed run (always fun) the last 25 miles to the launch ramp, and ski #1's buddy put's his ski on the trailer and begins the drive back to the ramp where we dropped him off, (about an hour round trip)

Just a reminder that river riding can be a bit treacherous after a couple weeks of heavy rain, or even no rain if you make even the simplest mistake, and find yourself 30 miles from your tow vehicle with a ski that might not make it back. We were very fortunate that the hole didn't completely disable the ski, and that a ramp was only a few miles away.

a $1,000 lesson learned, be careful out there !

 

[Coastiejoe]

yeah,, riding in a cow pasture probably isn't the best thing to do..

Glad no one was hurt,,, And that you got the ski back to a ramp. Fiberglass is repairable...

 

[Seadoobuddy]

Duct tape??????


Glad everyone made it back safe and sound. That answers my question if I really want to replace my pump.
Vince C. I'll be visiting you on my next trip south.

 

[Mickirig1]

I carry a roll of Gorilla tape in my Ski and regular duct tape in the other Ski. Electrical tape and trash bags in both. One of the Ski's had a Welch plug pop on the pipe. Duct taped it and finished the day.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

we briefly discussed trying some kind of makeshift patch, but fortunately in this case the whole was towards the middle/front so at that point the plan was changed to "ride fast, lean back and try to get the hole out of the water"

RE: Makeshift... Not quite sure if its possible to patch a hole with a rag/tape/whatever and have it hold even for a short ride of 5-6 miles. Is it ?

 

[Coastiejoe]

we briefly discussed trying some kind of makeshift patch, but fortunately in this case the whole was towards the middle/front so at that point the plan was changed to "ride fast, lean back and try to get the hole out of the water"

RE: Makeshift... Not quite sure if its possible to patch a hole with a rag/tape/whatever and have it hold even for a short ride of 5-6 miles. Is it ?

I saw a guy patch a hole with some sort of grey tape and it held great. His buddy hit a buoy, they beached it, dried the area and taped the crap out of it. I suggested to have the last layers of tape run verticla, start above the water line and run over and past the hole. Rode about 20 minutes to the dock and the hull was fully dry...

 

[Spimothy Leary]

interesting, well, it wouldn't hurt to add some strong adhesive tape to my small collection of "on the water" tools which is quite meager at this point: rope/knife/spark plugs/wrench and a couple bandages. (needs updating, probably rusty/moldy by now) My storage bin is about the size of the x4's so I don't pack much in there. I'll poke around re: tape, but the gorilla tape might be the answer, or maybe this stuff.

Stay Afloat is a non-toxic, putty-like material that instantly plugs leaks in boat hulls and marine fittings by hand molding into any shape. It will cling to wet or submerged substrates.
Used by first response emergency marine rescue operations, Stay Afloat stops water immediately. Use it on through hulls or hull punctures to instantly stop water ingress in emergency situations or apply it to that pesky portlight dripping on your bunk far out at sea.

Stay Afloat works immediately with no cure time. This thick, wax-like consistency putty conforms and clings to any shape and substrate to prevent flooding. Its universal application is used extensively by emergency rescue personnel