View topic - Florida's Withlacoochee (South)

There's a Withlacoochee that comes down out of Georgia. Was going to paddle it but high water, up in the trees, doesn't look like fun.
There's another Withlacoochee in central Florida. Looks like a pleasant paddle I can stretch out to a week or more. Anybody done it? I'll be needing a place to park and a car ferry. Any recommendations?

https://floridadep.gov/file/9217/downlo ... n=kupZk5yG

South Withlacoochee Paddling guide

Its over a hundred miles long and has many accesses.. Now you need a shuttle. There are some but most seem geared to short trips.
Nobleton Canoe Outfitters is on the southern end

Rainbow River Canoe and Kayak handles the downstream ( southern ) end.. We paddled a bit of the With S last month.. but did not use a shuttle. We were staying at Rainbow Springs SP and did a day trip on the With of about 16 miles round trip and another on the Rainbow of 9.. The Rainbow is a spring fed blue river run.. just gorgeous.

You might consider just putting in at the place of your choice and paddling to Dunellon and leaving your boat and gear and grabbing an Uber back to your car. If you leave it at the marina or Stumpys your stuff ought to be fine.

Thx lrc. Was hoping you'd respond.
You should write a book!

Google Maps is instructive. The restaurant is Swampys ( not Stumpys) on Pennsylvania Ave.. Shares a parking area with a kayak and canoe livery. Since they mostly do pickup and delivery to KP Hole ( a local park up toward the headspring on the Rainbow River) they probably cannot shuttle you back upstream on the With.. but they are a friendly bunch and as Rt 41 and 98 are major travelled routes an Uber shuttle from Dunellon ought to be quite doable. Dunellon has about 10000 folks but is not a hurried town.

Swampys is on the NW side of a bridge.. A very cool canoe launch is on the SE side of the same bridge. It is called Blue Run of Dunellon
https://www.dunnellon.org/facilities/fa ... lon-Park-1

this is on the Rainbow River about a mile north of the Withlacoochee.. there is a marina at the junction but it is way too busy and exposed. The Rainbow is worth a run. Round trip about 9.4 miles from Swampys to the Headspring. Often used for race training.. While one side has houses the other is preserved land and full of wildlife. Its beautiful water.

We were stymied by too fast water to paddle up and down in Feb in North Florida.. We were hoping to do the Ocklawaha in a ten mile segment out and back and the darn thing was in flood at 7 mph. Yet south of Tampa everything was dry. Fisheating Creek in Palmdale has a good three day trip but no water. We did do a short upstream and back trip.. all sandbars but water was below a runnable level further up.

Eating:
Swampys is outdoor covered roof and excellent food that is not all fried
The Front Porch on 41 just south of town has the best fried chicken I can remember in at least 40 years. But no beer.. The chicken made up for that lack

We did not do as much paddling as we wanted on the Withlacoochee as I got sidetracked. There is a cool bike shop in Dunellon and I bought a town cruiser that I love.. We spent time on the Dunellon and Withlacoochee bike trail system.

Though I have not been there I have heard of paddlers being misplaced in Gum Slough for hours.. Consider taking a GPS.

Lrc, you are a treasure, a true gift to the community. Thank you once again.

So I put in at the With. RV Park and went upstream past High Bluff towards the Green Swamp. Then drifted slowly downstream stealth camping to I75.
If you go remember to ask Jacqui, the proprietess, about that older but still good looking Canadian fellow who was the first person since she took over the place 13 years ago to make it solo upstream past the R1s.
Yeah, despite not being able to get on my knees for the past decade I still have good core and upper body strength but.... really? I personally know a few of you reading this could have done it on an "if he could do it so could I" basis. Still makes me chuckle.