You might want to consider a paddle trail through mangrove tunnels since your kayaks are 9.5. Easy to do twists and turns with those yaks. A couple that that come to mind are located Florida’s central gulf coast- Caladesi Island State Park and Weedon Island Preserve. Neither offer camping, though. Both in Pinellas County and both tide sensitive. If you want to paddle more of the gulf coast the Chasshowitzka River is beautiful!! Private campground located on river…Towns nearby are old Florida. The Wekiva River (part of the Wild and Scenic River System) is 16 miles long and you can paddle a beautiful section north of Orlando. Wekiva Springs State Park offers camping nearby.
My brother and I spent a weekend at the Chasshowitza . You don’t have to worry about paddling too far. Like other Gulf Rivers it is short. When we were there a group of manatees were in
a cove just around the corner from the ramp. The young ones would come right to the boat.
Someone had been feeding them cabbage.
The Chas is not short if you poke around down toward the Gulf. I spent a couple of days ferreting around there a few years ago. ( day trips) The Baird River however is just a short paddle from the campground. Google that with the Crack. I also loved Potter Creek off the Chas for its birdlife.
You do have to get from NY to FL or where ever - So NJ and DE have lots of good paddling. I tend to head for National Forest lands for camping; Francis Marion has lots of paddling around in SC, and I’ve also stayed and paddled in one I can’t remember the name of in NC. I’ve gotten some really good 'gator photos in Florida; don’t think I want to swim with them, but they often don’t do more than open one eye as you pass. Juniper Springs one of my favorites, and Alexander Springs, maybe? I’m not good at names of things! Enjoyed Big Cypress Preserve; gators more shy there. If you want to wander back through my blog (kayak2016blog.wordpress.com) you have to go back to before Covid, but I’ve been going to FL and points between VT and there for years, and nearly all kayaking is documented there. Also, the Go Paddling section of Paddling.com is invaluable. Have a great time!
Two places that I recommend. Lake Eufaula, Alabama. Apx. 30 miles long..Many launching spots
on both the Alabama and Georgia sides. A large population of gators, Some are very big. This time of
year you probably won’t see then due to cold. If you do they are sluggish and unlikely to be a bother.
The second lake is Merritt’s Mill pond down in Marianna, Florida. apx. 6 miles long. The best place to put
in is at the North end. Unfortunately closed this time of year. The camp ground on Highway 90, South
end is always open. The lake is spring fed, maps will point out spring locations. The water is almost
always clear and apx 70 degrees. No gators, almost no snakes. Beautiful Cypress stands and Spanish
moss. There is always Crystal River with it’s Manatees. Google hit up for info. Good luck. Robin.
Plan your State Park visit for 2021. Bookings can be made 11 months in advance and they were all full for this winter by September. Juniper Springs or Silver Springs is really the most central to the most paddling and then you don’t have to move camp … Your trip is really short. Also plan on bad weather. We have been doing a winter trip since 2005 and there always is a snowstorm either coming or going.
You’re taking me down memory lane here…
In '01 I did a late autumn trip on the Edisto River in SC. Had a wonderful time. It was the first trip with the group that later formed the Pnet (now Pcom) Ozark Rendezvous group. That river hasn’t yet been mentioned, so I thought I’d float the idea.
Being a northerner myself, I don’t have any other experience paddling in the south east (though I did a little motor boating on the Suwanee as a kid with the family) so have no other suggestions. But that is a really nice paddling river as I recall. I’d recommend at least considering it.
I don’t know how cold is too cold for camping to you. It might get down to freezing at night lately but, at least by my standards, that’s not too cold for camping around a nice camp fire. Days were of moderate temperature and the water wasn’t prohibitively cold… We base camped at a State Park near the town of St.George (Colliton(?) I think it was called) and did shuttles to sections of the river from there.
Black water, Spanish Moss, petrified coral shores, Palmetto palms - an otherworldly sort of place to a guy more used to Wisconsin, and probably to a New Yorker, too… Just a thought.
I missed my annual Edisto paddling trip this year. Now I’m . About the only time I don’t care to paddle it is January and February. Typically rainy and chilly.
Long distance paddling trips are usually planned well in advance. It can be cold in the Southeast sometimes. I would not commit to a trip in winter in SC, Georgia or some other similar place, even north Florida. I would go someplace warmer like south of Orlando.
I planned a winter trip once to Big Bend NP in Texas on the Rio Grande. We hit it all wrong and the weather forecast was for snow. In a deep canyon with low winter sun that sounded crummy so the trip never happened.
I have done only one winter canoe trip for a week on the lower Colorado R on the AZ/CA border. It was unseasonably cold in desert at 250 feet. We had frost every night. The days were short. It was hard to find fuel for a fire. I will never forget it though.
On our first winter trip to Suwannee River State Park, we had frost on the car the first morning. We were on the river by 10am.
On another we were hiking along the river and my sister in law came within 6" of stepping on a 6’ Eastern Diamondback. Thanks to a frosty morning, the snake had no interest in moving.
Texas, usually more north than Rio Grande, sometimes gets a “Blue Northern” storms. I’ve known of times when it froze concrete cooling tower pours. But north Florida may have frost in the morning after a freeze warning and 75-80 degrees in the afternoon.
St Marys River flows eastward from the south end of the swamp. YOu can’t get through from the swamp. Too much dead fall and shallow water . The Suwannee flows through the swamp NE to SW and leaves the swamp at the Sill. You can paddle it all the way to the Gulf, 241 miles…except at the Big Shoals SP, portage.
The Suwannee River is my go to Zen paddling adventure. You should start in White Springs Florida. There are Class 3 rapids about 8 miles before white springs that you will have to portage around ;). There are either VERY nice river camps (with screened cabins, toilets and hot showers!) or a state park every 12-18 miles along the river. The reservation system has changed to a first come first serve basis for the river camps (usually 5 cabins and then outside camping). We went again in October and just showed up (our normal). We only had an issue at the last camp being booked so we just paddled down to Branford and took out. We have paddled the river at over flood stage with our teens (March) and as low as 51 ft. scraping the bottom a couple of times in our wooden kayaks, but had fun on the many little rapids at that level. It is Florida, but we have never seen a gator and have only seen one coral snake when we got out to play at one of the old springhouses.
. About the only time I don’t care to paddle it is January and February. Typically rainy and chilly.