Kayaking the Peace River, Florida

Location: Arcadia, Florida
Date: January 13, 2016
Distance: 5 miles

Kayaking on the Peace River

We reserved kayaks (rather than canoes) with the Peace River Canoe Outpost in Arcadia, Florida. They offer numerous numerous trip types from a 5-mile day trip to a 31.5-mile three day trip. On most of their trips, they drive you upstream to the dropoff point, and you kayak back downstream to you parking place at their office in Arcadia.



Because we drove from Fort Myers Beach that morning, we only had time for the 5-mile trip that departs at 12:30 on weekdays (this is the latest day trip departure during the day). We were the only ones on the trip, and after a short bus ride to the dropoff point at Oak Hill, we kayaked out of a backwater area and began the journey downstream. The Canoe Outpost's website describes the trip as 1.5-2 hours of leisure paddling, which I thought was an accurate description.

The backwater area at the start of the trip

On the Peace River

There was a decent current in the river, but it wasn't very strong. You could easily get by with very little paddling, only doing so to correct your course to get around bends and stay away from the banks of the river. We encountered only a few other people on the river who were part of a paleontology course. It was a cool and cloudy day, so there wasn't much wildlife aside from a few birds, an alligator, and a goat.

Seminole Gulf Railway bridge near the end of the trip


© Copyright 2017 Matthew Pintar. All rights reserved.







Stock Photos from 123RF

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