Loxahatchee River in Florida

Trip Overview

After hearing about this trip, watching a little video that someone posted and talking on the phone to a local outfitter we decided that this would be a fun afternoon trip. I printed off a map from the outfitter and off we went.

We started at the launch site at the picnic loop in the park. Very easy launch site, even had a clean porta-john.

The first part of the paddle was easy even the little bit that was against the current. There was a short portage just after being on the river. After the portage the water got shallow, there are markers on the paddle trail but they are sometimes hard to find... this led to a few false trips that we had to backtrack on to get back to the trail.

We saw a couple of alligators, lots of turtles, a variety of flowers, a few fish, and many many birds. One of the spots, the South Pond, was very grassy and somewhat difficult to get thru. As we were getting to the last part of our paddle we came across an impassable section with cypress elbows sticking up above the water about three or four inches. We paddled around for a few minutes but were unable to find where the trail went around and we ended up taking our kayaks out portaging over a hiking and biking trail and going down a slippery embankment to the river. Got a little muddy but nobody went in. Was then a short paddle back to the launch site.

All in all a fairly nice paddle even with the problems we encountered. In hind-sight we should have gotten better directions and found out about water levels.

Accommodations:

Many places to eat and stay in Jupiter

Fees:

When we went there were none.

Directions:

From Jupiter take W Indiantown Rd.(706) west. About a mile and a quarter west of I-95 is the entrance to River Bend Park then follow signs to launch site.

Launches:

Loxahatchee River Bend Park

Resources:

Used a map from Canoe Outfitters of Florida