Good Reads
Paddling the Sunshine State's Waterways

A new guidebook explores the creeks, rivers, and springs of Florida.
- A Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to Florida
- By Johnny Molloy, Elizabeth F. Carter, John L. Pearce, Lou Glaros, and Doug Sphar
- $16.95
- Menasha Ridge Press
- 320 pages

The paddler who doesn't need a quality guidebook either already knows every river by heart and probably could write a guide, or is willing to spend way too much time scouring some desolate backcountry road for the right put-in point. For the rest of us, Johnny Molloy’s new book, A Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to Florida, serves as a reliable manual to throw into a dry bag when we go on our next adventure. The waterways of the Sunshine State have never had a better paddling advocate.

Combining and elaborating on the classic A Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to the Streams of Florida, Volume I: North Central Peninsula and Panhandle and Volume II: Central and South Peninsula, Molloy’s guidebook provides a new starting point for anyone interested in exploring Florida’s rivers, creeks, and springs. Divided into nine easy-to-navigate sections based on geographical regions (for instance, chapters on Northwest Florida’s western, central, and Big Bend areas feature a total of twenty-four rivers and creeks), the book profiles each waterway with introductory material, a solid description, and maps. It also includes data on river difficulty, length, time to float, gauge, level, gradient, and, significantly, a scenery rating from A to D based on the remote and scenic qualities of each particular run.

The guidebook’s introduction offers a complete overview of Florida’s watersheds, weather, river gauges, and other such background information useful to beginners and experts alike. For example, from the Alabama state line to the Gulf of Mexico, land elevations in Florida run from as high as three hundred feet to sea level in as little as fifty miles. Consequently, the steep grade and the numerous terraces and ledges left by a receding sea over the past few millennia make this area a haven for canoeists and kayakers. Combine that terrain with more than three hundred springs feeding rivers and creeks throughout Florida, and you have the perfect paddling environment.

Making it even easier to enjoy such a setting, improved access to accurate U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) real-time waterlevel readings is now available online for paddlers to check prior to departing on trips. Molloy lists the website for the USGS readings, saying, “This is the greatest thing for paddlers since dry bags were invented.” And the guidebook does not skimp when it comes to details regarding shuttle put-ins and take-outs, because a sullen five-mile hike back to civilization often can make the difference between a fun trip and relative disaster.

Other items include a quick map index—an obvious yet often overlooked component in many paddlers’ guides—as well as a thorough listing of canoe and kayak liveries and their contact information. Beginners also will appreciate the glossary of terms and the Safety Code of American Whitewater.

Perhaps the simplest, most important distinction of this new publication is its maps. Recently updated, they are both visually attractive and clearly superior to those found in most other guidebooks. Runs are broken into segments with mileage; and highways, interstates, and minor roads are clearly identified. This is one more detail proving that this manual was written by a paddler, for a paddler. And that is probably the highest compliment one could give such a book.

Editor’s note: For more information on kayaking in Northwest Florida, see “Floating the Backcountry,” on page 40.