Day 9

Wow! Some crazy views today. What do you picture when I say "Dead Lakes"? It doesn't seem like a very appealing image does it? Well, I'm happy to say that the Dead Lakes we visited today were gorgeous. To get to the Dead Lakes we had to take a bit of a detour. We paddled 22 miles in total going from the Apalachicola River to the Dead Lakes (via the Chipola Cut), and then down the Chipola River to meet back up with the Apalachicola. It was a tiring day but well worth it. The Dead Lakes were stunning. I never thought dead trees could be so beautiful but they truly were. When looking across the lakes all you can see is stumps sticking out, like some other worldly chainsaw chopped down a whole forest filled with water. We got some awesome shots of us paddling through the natural phenominon which I'm really exited to review when I get a chance. As we paddled towards our camp site for the night along the Chipola River, we met almost a dozen friendly people who seemed genuinely interested and impressed with our trip. Each new "oh my goodness" or "wow" gave us inspiration to continue on. Around mid-day it started to rain. This rain cloud was no ordinary rain cloud, this rain cloud was out to get us! Obviously I don't believe that this rain cloud had a mind of it's own but bizarrely it did seem to follow us. In all directions there were clear skies except for right above us.  For about an hour we paddled through the rain, thinking that it would eventually pass over us until we relented and pulled underneath the cover of a boat dock and waited for it to pass. It took about an hour for the storm to finally move passed us. Luckily, the sun came out with a vengeance as soon as it was gone and ended up drying out our clothes before we got to camp. Tonight we're staying at Hickory Landing, a National Forrest Campground with lots of other people camping out just like us. Hopefully we can make some new friends by the end of the night!