|
Outside Magazine's 2002 Family Travel Guide
Pick Your Paddle
Canoeing
By Todd Scantlebury
Intro | Rafting | Sea Kayaking | Canoeing
Paddle-perfect paradise: the calms of North Florida's
Sante Fe (EyeWire)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEGINNER / CONNECTICUT RIVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE
A 12-mile leisurely paddle on the Connecticut River,
beneath New England's birches and sugar maples, recalls
The Wind in the Willows, when novice boater Mole learns
"there is nothing—absolutely nothing—so
much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
Beginner families can relax on the wide and peaceful
water, where kids can find their balance and learn
about the business end of a paddle.
Start a weekend trip in Lyme, canoeing downriver
past woods, farmland, and quiet towns to a cabin just
above Wilder Dam and just below Dartmouth College.
Overnight at the rustic Titcomb Cabin, a spruce-hemlock
log building with a deck and bunks for four people,
where you can mess around in the river and then warm
yourself by the fireplace. From May and into the fall
colors of October, Dartmouth's Ledyard Canoe Club
(603-643-6709; www.dartmouth.edu/~lcc/) rents canoes
for $15 to $25 a day, gives lessons, and manages Titcomb
Cabin, $10 a night per person.
INTERMEDIATE / SANTA FE RIVER, NORTH FLORIDA
It might come as a surprise, but Florida has more
underground springs and rivers than any other spot
on the planet. Tea-colored rivers like the Santa Fe,
north of Gainesville, are fed by springs that bubble
up from caves along the banks, adding a dimension
to a canoe trip: When you've had it with paddling,
you can snorkel in the springs, where clear and cloudy
water mix, and camp under dripping cypress trees—all
the time mingling with gators, screech owls, snapping
turtles, and other swamp critters. It's a primordial
catharsiS—if accompanied by bug spray.
For a three-night, 32-mile trip, start outside the
town of High Springs. Rentals and shuttles are available
from Santa Fe River Canoe Outpost ($28 per day per
boat, $27 to shuttle four boats; 386-454-2050; www.santaferiver.com).
The first day, paddle three miles upstream to River
Rise State Park, where the Santa Fe River bubbles
up out of the ground. Then retrace your paddle strokes
and return downstream to a private campsite that Canoe
Outpost will help you choose. Eight and a half miles
down from your put-in is iridescent-blue Ginnie Springs,
where divers can explore underwater caves (hiring
a guide is required), and you can camp in the 200-acre
private campground ($14 per adult per night, $6 for
kids 7-14; 386-454-7188). In the 14 and a half miles
between you and the takeout at the U.S. 129 bridge,
keep an eye out for a manatee—they're rare but
there.
ADVABCED / SAN JUAN RIVER, UTAH
For hundreds of years the San Juan River was the heart
of the Anasazi civilization; people drank its waters
and farmed its banks. Today you can float through
history and paddle 26 miles of the Utah river in just
a few hours, but count on at least three days if you
want to explore the abundant remains of this culture
that began blossoming 3,500 years ago. Poke around
areas with petroglyphs resembling helmeted spacemen,
a football field's worth of intricately painted pottery
shards (some with the potter's fingerprints), and
ancient homes and rock shelters such as the River
House. But don't forget the rapids. These Class II
rides—like Eight-Foot Rapid, whose name billboards
the distance you'll drop—offer plenty of fun
as you work your way from Bluff to Mexican Hat, camping
on sandy beaches at night. Along the way, you'll paddle
through a geology lesson that gets especially interesting
when you reach the 1,300-foot limestone canyon walls
known as the "Gooseneck of the San Juan."
Here the river makes 12 miles worth of snaky oxbow
turns, in a distance covering only three miles as
the crow flies. Centennial Canoe Outfitters charges
$400 per person for a three-day trip, no discount
for children (877-353-1850; www.centennialcanoe.com).
|
