Things I Want to Do

This is the Florida-list of paddles I want to do and doesn’t include U.S. or world trips.

7-Mile Bridge

I’ve always found it a bit strange that for all the time I’ve spent in the Keys I’ve never paddled 7-Mile Bridge.

(view in Google Earth)

I’ve paddled a lot of the areas around it, but for some reason never just did the paddle from one bridgehead to another.  There’s nothing particularly special about the route, it’s something you do just to say you’ve done – and I haven’t yet.

Suwannee River

I’ve paddled portions of the Suwannee, including Florida’s rapids, but paddleflorida.org has an annual trip that sounds like an absolute blast.

View Suwannee Music Camp to Manatee Spr in a larger map

Eight days and 123-miles of paddling and camping.  Breakfast and dinner catered with sandwiches at the lunch stops.  And a shuttle for the beginning or ending of the trip.

In my younger, more foolish and less achy days, I might have scorned this sort of trip, scoffing that rehydrated eggs were the only breakfast a real camper needs, but as I’m now older, and ostensibly wiser, catering and the occasional shower doesn’t sound so bad.

This is a trip I may take this year, as it’s upcoming in October … of course, I’ve said that the last three years and not made it. :(

And the popularity of their trips seems to be growing, with five other paddles on various waterways planned for the next year. 

The Florida Circumnavigational Trail

I’ve written about this before.  Obviously completing this journey is more than one trip, but if I want to do it, I need to start soon, I think.

Because of the distances involved, though, I need to find a crazy person partner willing to undertake it with me – arranging this number of shuttles over these distances would be problematic.  Two cars and a paddling partner would be preferable. 

Hopefully a partner able to take a long weekend every couple of months and paddle a segment – four years, maybe, to finish the whole thing at that pace?