The Global Paddling Community

Sea kayakers can now paddle around the entire state of Florida on the 1,515-mile Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail. Highlighting and educating paddlers about Florida's rich history and fragile coastal environment, the circumnavigational trail traverses 20 national parks, seashores, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries, 37 Florida aquatic preserves and 47 Florida state parks, along with numerous local parks and preserves. This is the first printed guide for the trail. It includes information on launches, campsites, campgrounds, motels, points of interest, and the many public lands along the route. A trail data book, equipment list and trip tips and planning instructions are also included. complementary color maps can be downloaded for free from www.floridagreenwaysandtrails.com.

Tourists visit popular islands of the Caribbean by the planeload. What they don't see from their resort hotels are the hundreds of out-of-the-way, uninhabited islands sprinkled along the West Indies from Florida to South America. This alluring archipelago, strung with beaches accessible only by boat but spaced temptingly close together, led Mississippi adventurer Scott B. Williams to embark upon an open-ended quest to see how far south he could go in a seventeen-foot sea kayak. No one was willing to accompany him. He spent months working his way down the west coast of Florida, through the Bahamas, and on to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, his narrative of this journey of a lifetime, describes the wonders of discovery as he makes landfall on pristine cays. Relentless headwinds, dangerous surf, countless beaches declared off-limits to trespassing, and aggressive sharks that ram his kayak and snap him out of his musing remind the adventurer that this paradise is far from perfect. Every day of the journey required constant vigilance. With no one to depend on and often no one even knowing where he was for weeks at a time, Williams learned what...

This new paddling guide to Florida's 10,000 Islands and Big Cypress region features trips for canoes and kayaks. This new guide features saltwater paddling tours in the northern and central 10,000 Islands, as well as a handful of freshwater tours in the Big Cypress Swamp. Trips emanate out of multiple put-ins and take-outs, including Rookery Bay Estuarine Reserve (Marco Island), Goodland, Port of the Islands, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Everglades City, and Big Cypress National Preserve. Each trip described in this new guide will include information on distance, difficulty, recommended charts, and navigational features, as well as discussing winds, tides, and safety issues. The author also discusses natural and historical features, estuarine and mangrove ecology, and local wildlife. Finally, he provides information on equipment, outfitters, supplies, rentals, and recommendations for low-impact paddling. 35 black & white photographs, index.

A decade ago, Johnny Molloy spent months canoeing, kayaking, and camping in Everglades National Park, paddling more than 500 miles in one season to research the first edition of A Paddler's Guide to Everglades National Park. Last year he returned and did it all again in order to comprehensively update this ultimate authority to the park's designated paddling routes.

Spanning the 200-mile stretch of the Florida Keys, this field guide to the entire island chain highlights 50 paddling adventures, many for canoeists as well as kayakers. Trips include short paddles suitable for beginners and children, half-day trips as well as day-long and overnight excursions. Kathleen Patton provides an overview of the region's environment, describing its terrestrial and marine habitats. She covers equipment needs, safety concerns, weather patterns, and adapting tide tables for specific areas. Trips are arranged geographically, beginning near Miami at the top of the Keys in Biscayne National Park and stretching 73 miles past Key West to Dry Tortugas National Park. Each profile includes directions to the launch site, estimated paddling time, kayak rental availability, a detailed itinerary, and a route map. Icons mark each route's particular strengths: for example, great snorkeling, historical interest, camping, and appropriate trips for canoeists and for children. Patton also directs paddlers to the best reefs, swimming holes, and pristine sandbars for wildlife viewing--birds, manatees, dolphins, tropical reef fish, coral heads, sponges, sea stars, and huge spotted eagle rays. Clear, concise trip descriptions and detailed maps make Kayaking the Keys the most complete guide for paddlers...

An all-new guide to sea kayaking trips throughout Florida's celebrated Keys. The region from the southernmost point of the Florida peninsula, stretching south and west to the Dry Tortugas National Park, is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the continental United States, and there's no better way to explore it than by kayak. Here the freshwater temperate latitudes meld with a tropical marine environment to create unique paddling opportunities. In the nearshore waters, secret mangrove tunnels, unending beds of turtle grass, and colorful sponge flats contrast with the vibrant coral-studded waters found offshore. Bill Keogh is your guide to this paddler's paradise. Each trip in this new guide includes a chart, route suggestions, information on distance, tides, and winds, and safety tips. You'll also find information on the wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems that will be encountered, as well as historical and natural features of the area. 30 black & white photographs, index.

A detailed color atlas of the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West designed for kayakers and other water enthusiasts interested in shallow water exploration.

Let world-renowned sea kayaker Nigel Foster guide you through one of his favorite kayaking havens. In "Guide to Sea kayaking in Southern Florida," he leads kayakers of all skill levels on 40 trips, with many additional route alternatives, in some of the most spectacular and wildlife-rich marine habitats on the planet. Designed for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced kayakers, this guide gives detailed descriptions of the routes, including prominent landmarks and interesting sites along the way. Detailed maps as well as overviews of Southern Florida's weather, tide, and current patterns add to the thorough coverage of paddling this spectacular coastline.

You love to paddle. And you love to eat. So why are you still slurping soggy ramen out of a grubby coffee cup, when you could be reveling in a luxurious camp meal? "The Paddling Chef" was written for people who paddle, but who no longer want to be penalised for their love of the outdoors by lifeless meals. Paddler Dian Weimer shows hungry readers how to pack, carry and cook outdoor meals that help make water borne trips memorable - for all the right reasons. In "The Paddling Chef", you'll find well over 100 tried-and-true recipes for your favorite ingredients, as well as valuable planning and packing strategies. International in flavour, this cookbook contains tasty snippets from Indian, Chinese and Japanese foods, and section on wild foods.

Jim Payne follows the waterways of America, living a Tom Sawyer life, getting scared, soaked, and bailed out of trouble by Samaritans he discovers along the way. His escapades span the country, from the Hudson River to the Columbia, from the Mississippi to the Erie Canal. He's entrapped by security guards at Mount Vernon, loses his rudder off the Florida Keys, and sleeps in Franklin Roosevelt's bed. Across 1,600 miles, this middle-aged runaway often loses his sense of direction, but never his sense of humor.

Outside Books introduces a unique series of international sport/travel guides: your favorite adventure sports, our top picks--worldwide--of where to pursue them. Twenty-five of the most spectacular coastlines spanning the seven seas from the Northwest Territories to Baja, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Everglades, from the Greek Isles to Tierra del Fuego, from the Red Sea to Fiji. These are just a few of the prime waters author, naturalist, and sea-kayaking guide Jonathan Hanson has explored over fifteen years. Like no other adventure sport, sea kayaking takes you to secret places rarely seen by humans, though often teeming with wildlife. Readers will learn how to see powerful orcas off the coast of British Columbia, dolphins racing across the Sea of Cortez off Baja, beluga whales cruising the Arctic Ocean, gray seals and puffins sharing the cliffs of Scotland's Hebrides. For nearly thirty years, award-winning Outside magazine has been bringing together the best in adventure travel, sports, nature writing, and photography. Now, W.W. Norton and Outside come together to bring that same excellence to an exciting new line of books. The first three Outside Adventure Travel Guides describe the...

All about Canada's oldest and most famous provincial park.

Thirty-seven of the best paddling routes to be found from sea to sea to sea. Some of Canada's finest canoeists relate first-hand accounts of their favorite canoe trips -- lake and river, freshwater and saltwater, wild and urban, peaceful and harrowing -- in each province and territory. This unprecedented collection also features 24 profiles of such paddling luminaries as James Raffan, the legendary Mason family, Claudia Kerckhoff-van Wijk, Mark Scriver, Wally Schaber, George Luste, Alex Hall, Ken Madsen, Kevin Callan, Gary and Joanie McGuffin, Hap Wilson, Kirk Wipper and others. In addition, three noted conservationists outline plans for protecting our wild waterways.

This sequel to our popular Canada's Best Canoe Routes offers 31 more prime paddling trips, encompassing British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador, and north to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. All described by Canada's foremost paddlers, this canoeing and kayaking compendium has it all: freshwater, saltwater, flatwater and whitewater paddling, weekend trips and epic adventures. It also features profiles of 20 noteworthy paddlers, takes the reader on a tour of the Canadian Canoe Museum, and offers up a plethora of paddling maxims by canoe guru James Raffan, author of Summer North of Sixty, Fire in the Bones, Bark, Skin and Cedar, and Wild Waters: Canoeing North America's Wilderness Rivers.

Explore 37 of the best paddling routes found from the Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic. Some of Canada's finest canoeists relate first-hand accounts of their favorite canoe trips - lake and river, freshwater and saltwater, wild and urban, peaceful and harrowing. This unprecedented collection also features 24 profiles of such paddling luminaries as James Raffan, the legendary Mason family, Gary and Joanie McGuffin, Kevin Callan, Hap Wilson, Kirk Wipper, and others. In addition, three noted conservationists outline plans for protecting North America's wild waterways.