Saturday August 6th 2016

The day started with heavy cloud cover that slowed the temperature rise from the overnight low in the 70s. There was a brief period of sun in the late morning, followed by a return to cloud cover as the stationary low pressure system to the west of here rotated. The weather is predicted to be very cloudy and wet over the next few days.

I took advantage of the morning weather to go for a walk. The location I picked was in the community of Palm Coast about 35 miles south of St. Augustine. Palm coast is a planned community that has been in development for about 40 years. It still has a great deal of open land available for development. The good thing about planned communities is all of the recreation opportunities they incorporate.

Looking north at Waterfront Park. The birds in flight are metal sculptures of Blue Herons.

View across the river from the walking trail. A boat is pulling a tube with 3 kids in the river.

Another view of the river.

I parked at the Waterfront Park on the Matanzas River. The river is part of the Intercostal Waterway in this area. It separates the mainland from the barrier island. The walking and bicycling trail goes north from the park to the Hammock Dunes Bridge over the river. Piecing together the various distance signs, I’d guess I walked north about 1.5 miles. With the return walk added in I walked about 3 miles over the course of an hour. There were several stops for pictures and just watching the activity.

There were many people out walking and riding bikes. Everyone was very friendly. Good mornings were exchanged with everyone and a few additional brief conversations were also conducted. It really was surprising how chatty people were this morning.

I plastered on the sun screen even though I was starting the walk in cloudy weather. It is a good thing I did, because the sun came out during my walk. By the time I got back in was sunny in the 90s. I finished off my bottle of water on the home stretch of the walk. The walk is primarily along the river. Following the paved path you go inland to cross the feeder creeks on wood bridges. The brief inland sections are shaded, but the rest of the path is open.

Boat slips on the left (west side of the river). The Hammock Dunes Bridge in the background.

The northern part of the walk passes in front of condominiums and beside the boat docks for the condo residents. Most of the slips were full and all of the boats were out of the water on lifts. There were signs that the water level is very changeable. I’m not sure if the water is tidal or if the level is controlled by run off.

Kayaks and large cruisers sharing the river.

Kids riding on tube pulled by boat.

I enjoyed the walk. There were Saturday morning boaters and fishermen to watch. A couple of bigger wading birds made an appearance to keep me amused. Both an Egret and an Ibis were along the bank searching for lunch.

Egret swallowing a morsel of food.

Ibis on the shore

After the walk I returned to my RV home. I watched the Olympic coverage on the TV. I haven’t reached my Olympic saturation point yet. My frustration level with the commercials and the sometimes lame attempts at human interest back stories is growing. Usually, by the second week of coverage I have moved on to other programming.