No booths, just fun! | Coastal breeze

If you love the outdoors and don’t even cook / isolate for weeks and don’t mind canoeing with another paddle, this could be a mini outdoor adventure you’ll love and want to repeat.

Outside Arcadia in DeSoto County, about 2.5 hours from Naples, there is a beautiful and rustic outfit called Canoe Outpost / Peace River, where you can enjoy canoeing downstream along this picturesque, lazy river with nothing but blue skies, white fluffy clouds and fresh, new leaves of spring that will soothe your soul. Ah … can you feel it?

The process is quite simple. You enter and park, then head to the “office” to fill out the registration sheets and pay for as many boats as you need in the “fun”. You can bring your own refrigerators, strainer, strainer, shovel, tank, plastic bag, tube raft, fishing pole and sunscreen; shop at the souvenir shop, browse the country, watch other canoes return and wait your turn to board the bus. Wondering why you would bring a strainer, shovels, tanks and plastic bags? Here’s why!

The Peace River has long been a source of shark teeth, which is incredibly fun to find. They can be the tiniest, barely 16 inches by an inch. Some are whole and some are not, but it’s hard to describe the joy of finding them. On our last trip, we had a party of five and every time someone found a tooth, it was an event the group needed to celebrate. You could find her dig a shovel full of gravel and sand, toss it into your sieve or strainer, swinging it around to remove water and external debris, and then painstakingly inspect the remaining debris. I say “painstaking” because shark teeth are black and most of the pebbles included in the shovel are black! My eyes were not as sharp as my grandchildren’s, which found about 99 shark teeth up to my less than half in total.

Quiet aspect.

Sometimes the results of frowning are disappointments, and sometimes it’s a delight when the entire shark’s tooth sits in the colander and glows in the sun, waiting to be collected and appreciated. There may be a lot of small pebbles in the strainer and it’s a challenge to find a tiny tooth, but when you do, it’s a celebration, a delight and a miracle. How did these sharks get inland Florida and be sunk all these years for shark teeth trackers to dig them into the 21st century? This could be a research question to explore between going out in the open and continuous isolation during a virus.

After digging and meandering down the Mir River, stopping on the banks for more shovels and sifting, it is evident that some spots are better than others. What’s the difference? I haven’t figured it out yet, but the fun is in the discovery, no matter where you find your tooth cache and how many you can find, or even just one.

So, your trip down the river may include a trip, a stop to stretch your legs, swim and / or search for shark teeth, pieces of turtle turtle, and bone fragments. It is an adventure, especially in the spring of the year when the new cypress leaves are soft, pale green with new life, and the birds nest and sing affection to socialize.

A canoe is a metal, stepped and experienced river meander. It comes with lifejackets, paddles and back seats – optional – that can help relieve stress from your back by leaning on your paddle. There is a crew to help board all the equipment and the canoe and take you to where you put in the river. They unload boats, place them along the banks of the Mir River with lifejackets, oars and seatbacks – if you choose. Tips are appreciated and you know the basic pay for these workers is minimal, so help them. Take the rest of your equipment / belongings to the ship of your choice, board and take the “hunger hunt” like never before.

When we were there two weeks ago, the water was clear and at a comfortable temperature for stretching, standing and sifting, and even watering, if for some reason it overturned; because we are! But it wasn’t awful, so we were able to break in without injury or losing things – long story for another article!

The nice thing about going out and about in nature is the feeling of relief. Outdoors, most of us keep ourselves at a distance from others, not only because we respect personal space and do not want to impose ourselves on someone else’s beauty price, but because there is plenty of space! So, without anyone entering your area, there is no need to worry about who is near you, so virus contamination is reduced. You can paddle, hike, explore, and enjoy the large exterior door with less worry – like, “Did I bring sunscreen?”

I can’t persuade you enough to take advantage of great outdoor activities, whether it’s kayaking, paddle, canoe, hiking shoes or your boat, the freedom of recreation is … just that – freedom. Not to mention shark teeth!