Canoe Outpost–Peace River

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Canoe Outpost-Peace River has been putting people on this river since the 1970s and is now in its third generation of the same family. The stretch of the Peace between Zolfo Springs and Arcadia, about 31.5 miles of it, is the part suited to canoes and kayaks: slow current, tea-colored water, live oaks hung with Spanish moss and cypress along the banks. It steers easily and forgives a beginner, which is why families use it. The outpost runs its own buses, so a paddler can be dropped upstream and take out where the vehicle is waiting. Day trips come in runs of about five, eight and twelve miles. The eight-mile run from Brownville down to Arcadia takes three or four hours and is the one most people ask for. Longer routes, such as Zolfo Springs to Gardner at about 19.5 miles, are done as overnight trips, camping on the sandbars, which are plentiful and already have fire rings on them. Gear can be hauled to a reserved bluff campsite at Oak Hill for those who would rather not carry it. Alligators, herons and kingfishers are the usual company, with deer and wild hogs on the upper sections, and fossil hunting fills the stops along the way