Upper Manatee River Just One Of Tampa Bay's Wild Places

Wilderness is supposed to be wild.

To be truly outdoors is to be, of course, out of doors, away from city people.

It's also to be alone with some eerie — and potentially dangerous — creatures.

And people.

If it's wild you're looking for, head away from the Gulf and bays, back where the jungle begins. A mix of saltwater and freshwater fishing gives way to pure freshwater habitat, and with it, some of the strangest animals and Homo sapiens you might meet.

Bearing names such as Homosassa, Alafia, Peace and Myakka, the Bay area rivers are teeming with adventure. On Monday on the Upper Manatee River, east of Rays Canoe Hideaway, gators as wide as a linebacker's shoulder pads and river people as country as sausage gravy were winding down their St. Paddy's Day weekend.

An outdoors writer intended to fish. But as gator after gator slipped or crashed from the muddy banks to the water, the plan changed to gator chasing. One of at least 10 feet in length was spotted along the banks. (See the attached video — albeit a raw one — for details on the gator chase that ended with one sighting about two miles from the Lake Manatee Dam.)

Turns out that tales on this river are taller than the cabbage Palms that predominantly line its banks. There were numerous fishers on the river, but on a return trip form the dam, one lady, dressed in white shorts with an army green tank top and hat cocked backward, claimed a 4-foot shark just broke through her steel cable.

“Had him right by the shoreline,” she said.

Believable enough.

But that's when things became ... deep.

“I hear there's anacondas in this river,” she said. “With 19-pound catfish running around, I bet there is.”

Suddenly "The Singing River" legend came to life, something out of a movie shot in South America.

A man in camouflaged pants and shirt with a brown cowboy hat slid down the bank and joined Ms. Army Hat. As the conversation shifted to the mammoth gators that had been spotted on the river, the man saw an opportunity to embellish. Got to love river folks.

“I just swim out, cut the tail off a gator and come back,” he said. “Me and my buddies do it all the time.”

Native Americans, so they say, used to swim out in a lake or river, come behind the tail of the gator and secure its neck, then use a knife to dispatch the beast.

That is believable.

This was not.

And this man was no Native American.

“He's just running his mouth,” the woman said.

From Ray's Canoe Hideaway to the dam, it's a 5.5-mile, one-way ride or fishing trip. The brackish-to-fresh water invites species such as redfish, snook, bass, mangrove snapper, sheepshead, bluegill and jack crevalle. Bull sharks and manatees swim together. Gators sun on the banks.

Just as pythons have overrun Lake Okeechobee, there are a few stray snakes in the Manatee River.

Ray's Canoe Hideaway owner Mark Stukey said a few months ago he was waiting for customers to return form the bathroom when he saw the head of a snake and about a foot of its body protruding from the water, swimming and cutting a wake. Stukey said he then watched the snake bolt for the bank and disappear into the thick brush.

“Now that was a snake,” Stukey said. "It was a python."

To think, many swim this river.

To which Ms. Army Hat said: “They're just slap crazy.”

Rye Bridge lies 2.6 miles east of the hideaway. Its name has historical value. According to “The Singing River” by Joe Warner, Erasmus Rye started a settlement along the Upper Manatee River in 1861 when he acquired 39.8 acres from Florida's Internal Improvement Fund. Log cabins and boarded houses sprung up. The residents wanted navigation hazards, such as overhanging trees, cleared.

In 1897, Captain J.P. Sharp, Master of the U.S. dredge “Florida,” headed a crew that removed 500,000 cubic yards of snags and overhanging trees.

Thank you, Capt. Sharp.

Little did he know, some 100 years later, there still would be tangles of wild creatures. And anacondas. And grown men who can singlehandedly snatch the tail off a gator.

Got to love river folks.

IF YOU GO:

What: Ray's Canoe Hideaway

Where: At the center of the Upper Manatee River Canoe Trail from Mill Creek to To Rye Bridge

Directions: From I-75 South, hit Manatee Avenue (State Road 64) in Bradenton and head east. Turn left on Upper Manatee River Road. Turn left at Hagle Park NW. Follow the signs to the hideaway.

Information: Call (941) 747 or visit www.rayscanoehideaway.com

OTHER PLACES IN TAMPA BAY FOR KAYAK/CANOE RENTALS

Siesta Key Bike & Kayak, 1124 Old Stickney Point Rd., Sarasota, 34242; 941-346-2580

Alafia River Canoe Rentals INC, 4419 River Drive, Valrico, 33586; 813-689-8645

Sail Honeymoon, 61 Causeway Blvd, Dunedin, 34698; 727-734-0392

Wind-n-WaterSports, 4154 U.S. 19, New Port Richey 34652; 727-736-8663

Lake Rogers Park, 9010 N. Mobley Road, Odessa, 33556; 813-264-3917

Canoe Outpost on the Little Manatee River, 18001 U.S. 301 S, Wimauma, 33598; 813-634-2228.