Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Florida's Forgotten Springs

Tucked into a deep limestone ravine near Mt. Plymouth is Droty Spring.  Sublime. . .and completely forgotten.  

The spring now has its own road (Droty Spring Road), but there is no maintenance of the spring area and no signage to direct visitors to the site.  It appears that the spring is owned by Florida in a little carve out of the Seminole State Forest mostly surrounded by private land.  No one currently maintains the spring area.

I visited Droty on a recent afternoon in July 2022 and found that the spring boil area is now completely inaccessible due to vines having completely choked off the area around the bluff above the spring boils and a mass of vines hangs over the boils themselves.  See video of my trek in and out, below.  It took me about 6 minutes to scale the ravine, look around quickly, and make my way back up, falling once or twice along the way.  I did not have on special protective gear (mostly to protect against ticks and chiggers) so I made it a quick trip.
The barbed wire fence around the spring has been trampled so its easier to get into the spring area but as you can see from the video it is still a treacherous journey down the steep limestone cliff toward the spring run, and back up is no fun either.

I can find no historical information about Droty Spring.  The St. Johns River Water Management District rates the springs as magnitude 4, or about 100 US gallons per minute.  That flow rate seems a bit generous at the moment but I had no way of calculating flow on my recent visit.  The spring is located at about 28.8280474 N, 81.510349 W at the end of Droty Spring Road (the old SR 46 A).  With construction of the dreaded Wekiva Expressway complete, Droty Spring is now more isolated at the northern dead end of what used to be 46A. It is also more threatened by future development that will surely follow the road. 

For exact coordinates of the images on this page you can access their data by clicking on the image to enlarge.
Follow Phillip
It took me a while to find this spring even with reasonably good directions and maps.  It appears that the place wishes to remain forgotten.  There is a lot of construction in this area as the Wekiva Superhighway continues to carve its way through the forest.
The way I finally found this spring was looking for this grove of banana trees and smelling for sulphur.  I had seen the banana trees in old photos when I was researching Droty.  The spring is located in a rather arid sandhill flatwoods to oak hammock transition ecosystem so one doesn't expect to encounter a grove of heavily water dependant banana trees.  Also, the spring emits a very strong sulphur odor.
The site is completely overgrown and undistinguishable from forest all around it.  My truck sits along the old Lake County CR 46A (now Droty Spring Road) at the northern dead end of the road. This is the top of the cliff leading down to Droty Spring.
DIRECTIONS
Driving west out of Sanford on SR 46 you can no longer access this area from the Southwest.  You have to follow SR46 around the Wekiva Expressway until you reach Droty Spring Road. The road is only about a mile long and dead ends at the gate you see below.  The spring is on the other side of the road opposite this gate.   There is a large, unidentified (no signage) communication tower on the gated property.
Directly across the street from 27020 is an unmarked, overgrown, locked gate that leads to Droty Spring.  If you walk 50 yards west along the fence line you'll find the barbed wire has been trampled and from there it is a direct line into the ravine.
GET A PERMIT
This appears to be a disconnected parcel of the Seminole State Forest.  One that is rarely visited.  The land around the spring to the east, west and north is part of a vast 5000+ acre privately-owned land parcel often referred to as "Seminole Woods."

Note that I obtained a permit to take photographs in Seminole State Forest so I felt completely at ease jumping this locked gate.  The forest is semi-open to the public.  You need a permit to use the forest so obtain one of those first, then. . .

To get to the spring you have to scale the locked gate of jump the trampled barbed wire, then head into the forest-swamp opposite the fence.  There's an old trail to the right that leads down to the spring run but it is really rough going.  The trail to the left, which doesn't appear to have been used in years, leads down the steep ravine more directly to Droty Spring's multiple vents.  There were stairs here at one time and they are slippery when you happen to catch one under all the debris.
From gate to spring is probably less than 300 feet.  When you see the tops of the banana trees, head in that direction.  Note that you will be going down a heavily ferned, steep hill with lots of limestone outcroppings.  Tread carefully.  The ferns and grasses are waist high. When you reach the bottom of the hill you come to the main spring pool which has at least 7 vigorous vents.  Looking uphill you see other less robust vents discharging down the sloped face of the limestone cliff.

Here around the spring vents it is very humid and warm, a completely different atmosphere than that on the forest floor above.
Based on my original observations in November of 2019, when it hadn't rained in months and spring flow would be expected to be reduced, I would guess that Droty Spring is a 3rd magnitude spring, discharging 1-10 ft³/s of warm (70°+), clear, sulphur-laden water.
In the spring run sulphur-reducing bacteria turn leaf and tree debris light blue-white with their trailing mat colonies.  The run itself is barely passable due to multiple downed trees, vines, other debris.  As with all the springs in Seminole State Forest it is best to explore with knee boots as you never know when you're going to step in quicksand like muck near the spring or spring run.
On the property appraisers map below I've marked the exact location of Droty Spring.  Parcel 1679320, just north of the spring, is part of the vast Teresa Rodriguez Partnership land tract (aka "Seminole Woods").  Its worth noting that the Teresa Rodriguez property does not appear to have been visited in years either in this area.  There is a sand road that leads down to a little pool in the Droty Spring Run about 500 feet downstream from the main spring vents.  That road disappears into the Teresa Rodriguez property.
As the new Wekiva Expressway nears completion in this area (2022 completion date) all of this land will be vulnerable to development.

Also, this section of CR 46A has been removed and is now "Droty Spring Road"  beyond the spring to the east CR 46A has been completely removed.

Click on the map below for a larger view.  

The Teresa Rodriguez property is labeled "Seminole Woods" and Droty Spring is in the vicinity of the 46A symbol just below Seminole Woods (top center).
One last look at the main spring vents as I prepare to climb the hill. 
I couldn't help thinking that based on the vigorous flow of this spring, what a nice pool it would make if a little dam were erected downstream, and a real trail was blazed, removing some of the obscuring vegetation.  Then others could enjoy this peaceful site.  That doesn't seem to be the plan for Droty based on the development plans I've seen.  With the expressway being constructed less than a mile south of here, this area will likely end up bulldozed for housing development, like so much of Florida.
As the early winter sun dips below the tree tops I'm half way up the hill, looking back toward the spring, there is no indication there is anything here, except more nearly-impassable jungle.  The banana trees are a clue to the springs past and a good indicator that its still flowing.  Banana trees are not native to Florida.  Someone had to plant them there.
I came back up a slightly different route and ended up directly in front of my truck.  One last push through the tall broom grass and I was out.  Until next time.
Bad Bunny
Gets the GQ Treatment
Photos by Roe Ethridge for GQ
In the 6 years since he quit his job bagging groceries, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio has become the most streamed artist alive, a pro wrestling champ, and a whole new kind of sex symbol.  Now the Puerto Rican superstar is poised to make his next big jump:  To Marvel leading man.  
You're probably more accustomed to seeing Bad Bunny like this, 
in Tití me preguntó

While we cannot see anyone reasonably wearing this ensemble, Bad Bunny pulls this one off.  The shirt and pants are Tokyo James; shirt $896, pants $919, meaning you won't see many people wearing this to the beach this year.
Bad Bunny is in a good place.  Fresh off a long-delayed 25-city tour for his third solo album, the most streamed artist of 2021 on Spotify is comfortably ensconced in a waterfront house in North Miami, just across Biscayne Bay from flashier Miami Beach, finishing his latest record.
I'm not sure this sheer GCDS shirt would work on anyone.  With a price tag of $795 we probably won't be seeing it on anyone anytime soon, so there's that.

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