Kayaking North Florida
PLEASE PARDON THE CURRENT BARE LOOK OF OUR WEBSITE.
WE SUFFERED A MAJOR CRASH AND LOST MOST OF THE FORMATTING. WE’RE WORKING ON A NEW VERSION WITH THE SAME CONTENT ON A PARALLEL SITE AND HOPE TO HAVE THE NEW SITE OPEN BY THE END OF JULY.
Welcome to the 5-Star Yak Pak. We’re an informal group that first began kayaking together in 2008 in the Gainesville, FL area. Most of us were kayaking newbies when we joined the group but we have learned from each other on every trip and we now paddle the springs, streams and rivers all over North and Central Florida on a monthly, if not weekly, basis.
This website was started in 2013 when we decided that we wanted to encourage more people to get out to enjoy the natural beauty of our Florida waters by kayak. We held a couple of Kayak 101 seminars, but not everyone can get to Gainesville to attend and not everyone enjoys “lessons”, even though ours were informal and, we think, fun. We started with sharing some of the tips and tricks we’ve picked up about kayaking – things to consider when choosing a kayak and paddle, basic techniques of paddling, what to wear to paddle in all types of weather, and some info on kayaking-related gear. You’ll find all this information in the section Kayaking 101.
As we started camping from our kayaks and gained some experience there we added a page called Touring with lots of info on packing, selecting camping gear, and tips we had to learn the hard way.
Some of the things that we had to learn by trial-and-error or through much research and talking with other paddlers were: where is it possible to paddle?, what is the water like?, what will I see there?, what precautions should I take to paddle there?, and where are the access points? So we added a section to share that information so that you don’t have to do as much work as we did. Check out Places to Explore to get our take on the local rivers and spring runs. Each river description includes an on-line map for general info, a mileage table with hyperlinks to Google maps for all boat ramps and launches so you can print out directions, and a downloadable .gpx file that you can use in your GPS unit or on GoogleEarth.
Along the way we’ve also taken loads of pictures of the things that are the reason we go out – to enjoy natural Florida. So we added a section called Things to See which includes our photos of some of the animals and plants we have encountered. We hope you will enjoy them as well as use them to learn more about the life along the waters you paddle.
On the page The CT you can learn about the 1515-mile Florida Circumnavigational
Saltwater Paddling Trail and our attempt to paddle it section by section over several years starting in 2020.
In our Resources section you will find links to other websites, webstores, outfitters, shuttle services, etc. that we have found particularly useful.
On our Videos page we’ve posted a few short videos we have taken, mostly so we can link to them in a blog.
And in our Blog we post short descriptions and pictures taken on our paddles, usually within a few days of the paddle.
As we learn more and explore more, we’ll share the adventure with you here.