We decided to take our first trip of the year on a section of the Peace River we haven't traveled yet. The put-in at Paynes Creek Historic State Park is less than an hour from home for us. We checked in at the ranger station, drove past the Visitor Center/museum and made our way to the dirt road that would take us to the river. It was a bit of a drive down the dirt road until we reached a locked gate that we also had to lock behind us until we finally made it to the river.
It was overcast and in the upper 60's. Not ideal weather for me but with pants and long sleeves I managed. The river was flowing swiftly. We ran into a couple other paddlers who were heading downstream but we only had one vehicle so we decided to go upstream. The Peace was...peaceful. Not much out there except a few Little Blue Herons, a glimpse of a hooded merganser and a Great Blue Heron or two. We passed a couple fossil hunters standing in the water not even up to their knees sifting through the rocky riverbed looking for Megalodon teeth perhaps. The River is a bit dry now and fossil hunting is excellent; a really fun activity with kids and no kayak or boat needed at the Gardner boat ramp.
Limestone formations are abundant on the river bottom and it is also present in certain areas as cliffs or shelves on the riverbanks. We came upon what looked like a giant slab of concrete but turned out to be a natural giant slab of limestone.
We passed under a bridge, Lake Branch Rd in Bowling Green I believe. We ran into some shoals that I was not able to cross in the water. There was a small island to the right with a very narrow rivulet of water running beside it; also not possible to cross as it was not deep nor wide enough. The shoals were an intense swirl of rushing water down some limestone formations crashing into a jutting palm tree at the base of the shoals. I was nervous already thinking about going down them on the way back. My husband did try to cross over them in the water on the way up but didn't make it either. I had tried to cut across them to get to the island on the other side of them and it was the first time I nearly tipped my kayak. When I hit the rushing water jetting towards me I counterbalanced on the wrong side and my cockpit dipped rapidly into the water scooping up a bucket full or so. I got my balance back but the water was cold and my seat was pretty wet the rest of the trip despite my constant sponging efforts.
Crossing the island. I can't really carry my kayak by myself but I can drag it. This is the view of the calm side of the shoals.
Not much wildlife on the River, at least not what we are used to seeing when we go out in the Real Florida. It is still a nice trip with plenty to look at. The twists and turns of the Peace are interesting as you wonder what lies around each bend. Don't forget to bring a screen or shovel though as we paddled over some really shallow water that I wanted to grab and sift through to take some shark's teeth home to the boys. The current was going a little too swiftly and the water was a little too cold for me to dip my hands further than my elbow from the cockpit though and I missed my chance a couple times just grazing the rocky bottom.
What's around the bend?
A waterfall in Florida? This reminded me of Gatlinburg, TN and is across the shore from the second bridge we crossed under and stopped for lunch. There was absolutely no pulling the kayaks over this and even if we managed to go in the woods and get them over we still had to deal with it coming back down. There was a narrow creek winding off to the left of this shoal that my hubby went to explore. He said it did connect back to the river but was so overgrown we could not get through. We stopped on the bank and ate our packed lunch sitting on a large limestone shelf.
The ranger gave us a map, you really don't need one but I did use my Garmin Dakota to track the distance we actually went. One way was 2.3 miles which is really not much for us. We turned back at the 'waterfall' and I didn't take any more pictures because I had secured the camera tightly in my dry bag for fear of the thrilling shoals ahead. I got through that shoal so fast I didn't even have time to say 'wheeeee' like I normally do :) I was too afraid of crashing the front of my kayak into the sharply angled palm tree with accompanying cyclone of water in the River. Back at the Visitor Center we checked out the small 'museum' like interior about the Fort and Native Americans in the area in the past. We also took a small walk out to the Fort site (just a site with Golden Asters experiment and an American flag, no fort) which was a nice, short walk.
Peace River Paddling Maps:
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