Our plan for the Peace River was originally to start in Zolfo Springs, at Pioneer Park, and paddle the 31.5 miles south to Arcadia over three days. I liked the ide of starting in the same location that I had traveled over on horseback during the Florida Cracker Trail Rise across Florida last Feb. (see blog on that ride at mkspence.blogspot.com). Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not agree with my plans as we have had very little rain this spring and the upper reaches are currently not navigable. The river is currently 28" (2'-4") below normal. That makes for tough paddling with all the sand bars, but the fossil hunting just might be awesome!
Our revised plan is to drop our vehicles at Canoe Outpost Peace River in Arcadia and catch a shuttle up to Gardner. We will paddle upstream into the 19.5 miles of Wilderness section between there and Zolfo Speings, as far as the water will allow us and camp the first night anywhere we want. The scouts like hammocks, so they will have their eyes outlet for good trees to hang them from!
The next day we plan to paddle south past Gardner to the Brownsville Bridge where we can top off on water (we could pump it and filter it, but hey, it's clean and available there) before we head south to Oak Hill for the night. The last day (Monday, Memorial Day) will be the final paddle down to Arcadia.
We really like Canoe Outpost. They are helpful, friendly, and good to scout units. They run on time and are thus very reliable. Their prices are reasonable too. Becky and Diane are the ones to talk to there! They are both awesome.
One of my coworkers who loves the Leace River asked me about the water level. He said to check it again. Our River (the Hillsborough) has come up in the last few days. I got excited and checked the web site. No such luck. Still 28" below normal. This is a great teaching point about a concept I try to get across to the kids called a watershed. A watershed is defined as an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas. (It can also mean an event or period marking a turning point in a course of action or state of affairs, as in "the arrival of Spanish Explorers marked a watershed in the history of Florida".) rain has fallen in the Hillsborough River watershed this week, but not in the Peace River watershed. Watersheds affect our life. Sometimes it takes being closer to the water to realize that.
No comments:
Post a Comment