On this St Johns paddle trip, I was hoping to traverse into Salt Lake to try and locate the loading docks where the small paddle boats would tie up and unload their cargo of people and cargo from about 1850 to 1892. From there a 7-mile tram road ran to Sand Point in Titusville. Before Flagler’s Railroad came thru, Salt Lake and Rockledge landing off Lake Florence were Brevard county’s only life lines. Although Colonel Titus had built an almost impassable wagon road to the west side of Lake Harney called Tuskawilla landing, it was used only when the water level was to low to go any further South.
We made it thru Ruth Lake into Clark Lake but the river channel into Loughman Lake and then to Salt Lake was impassable due to low water. Although our plan was negated, we headed to the north east side of Clark Lake to find the channel into Silver Lake. Of the five lakes in this furthest eastern quadrant of the St John’s it’s the only lake that’s secluded. Although the channel to Silver was also impassable, I knew we could hike the mile or so to the lake. This entire area of five lakes has a salinity about 1/3 of the ocean some 15 miles away. Here pockets of prehistoric salt water lie deep beneath the marshes of the St John’s bubbling up as salt springs.
Although we didn’t make it to Salt Lake it was another incredible day on the St John’s. With my good friend Jim Durocher.
