Kayaking the Loxahatchee River

The weekend after the 4th of July Rachel and Derk came down for a visit with kayaks in tow. We did a day trip down the Loxahatchee River which is famous for being one of the only rivers in Florida that has not had the natural flow altered. It starts inland and flows all the way out to the brackish waters of the intracoastal in Jonathan Dickenson State Park.

It looks pretty calm in these pictures, but it was a pretty exciting trip with periods of heavy rain and thunder, a fast current around the bends, and lots of downed logs and vines blocking our path. We had to stay single file for most sections of the river and get out to portage a lot. The naturalist at the Trapper Nelson interpretive site (where we stopped for lunch) said we were one of the hearty few that had paddled the whole length of the river that week.

It was definitely an adventure!
It is always nice to have a self portrait of the photographer every now and then.

Rachel is all smiles in this shot letting the current take her down river.

Jonathan designated himself the kayak mover and helped everyone lift there kayaks over the logs at each portage.

Derk's kayak is tricked out with all kinds of kayak fishing gear. He even attached a cutting board to the front for prepping bait and holding his GPS fish finder.
It also works well for holding his Heineken :-)