I took my kayak to Callalisa Creek in New Smyrna Beach. I launched my kayak from Callalisa Park, located right off A1A, and headed deep into the mangroves.
Once in the water, I headed left under the A1A bridge. It was early in the day, but the shade from the bridge was one of the few escapes from the sun I encountered.
Callalisa Creek is affected by tides. I was here close to low tide, so the water was very shallow. Much of my paddle involved dodging sandbars to avoid beaching my kayak. I'd guess the average depth during the paddle was about a foot deep.
Originally, my goal for the paddle was to get all the way through the creek into Brown's Bay. Being that it was a very hot, sunny morning, I decided about two miles in to switch course down a side branch of the creek and head towards the Indian River. There were lots and lots of exposed oyster shells here. I had an incident here a few years ago where I accidentally cut a slit in an inflatable kayak on an oyster shell, so these mounds of shells made me nervous.
When they were close enough to the water, I enjoyed the shade of the mangrove trees.
Eventually, I made it to almost open water. I left Callalisa Creek with an island separating my kayak from the rest of the Indian River. My thought was to paddle down up the Indian River and back to the Callalisa Park boat ramp at the opposite end of Callalisa Creek, but the tide was so low that I was surrounded by sandbars on all sides. Rather than dragging my kayak to the eventual deeper water, I took a break on the sandbar and watched the hermit crabs who occupied it.
I then turned back and paddled back into Callalisa Creek, retracing my steps. During my paddle, I left my GoPro on filming a timelapse of my trip. Here's what it looks like going from Callalisa Park to the sandbar where I turned around with a frame taken every two seconds:
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