April 4, 2010 [ Back ]

Haulover Canal and North Indian River

The weather forecast was for a sunny day, highs in the 70's and little or no wind. 5 Trekker paddlers met at the west end of Haulover Canal on the Indian river. We explored the north end of the river for potential campsites and shortcuts between the islands. Saw a lone rosette spoonbill in flight. The waters were very shallow near the islands and we had to keep our distance from the shore. Ken and Michael worked with us on our skill during the 10 mile paddle. It was a beautiful spring day on the water with Ken, Michael,Jimmy, Patty and Rich. Hosted by Ken.

Hosts: Ken Knapton

December 20, 2009 [ Back ]

Some history, a favorite of Ken's, we launched at Allenhurst which was once a major city in Brevard County. At that time, AllenHurst had a post office, a 2 story Hotel and houses along the canal and the oldest orange grove in Florida. In the early 50's, NASA acquired AllenHurst to build America's space port. Today, all that remains is just a canal.

We started paddling to Bid Island in Indian River, we saw Rosette Spoonbills, white pelicans and brown pelicans, ospreys, and oyster catchers. Bird Island is a nesting sanctuary you can look but you cannot go ashore.

We paddled the canal to enter Mosquito Lagoon. The air was cool but with an extra layer of clothes, we were quite comfortable, water was indeed cold, we chose not to roll that day. The wind ended up to be milder than the 15 knots forecast. We covered about 8 miles on a beautiful clear and sunny day.

Hosts: Mariam Mohsenin and Ken Knapton

More history on the landscape of Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral pre-NASA days, visit this website on Allenhurst