This Florida Paddle Notes category provides a list of all the Florida canals that have been explored by Florida Paddle Notes
We spent President’s Day on the Dora Canal down in Tavares. It was my first time on the canal and I found it to be a quite pretty place to paddle, though very busy with tour boats, fishing boats, and pleasure craft. I would highly recommend doing this on a day other than the weekend or on a holiday…James
The Buckman Lock was constructed in the mid to late 1960s as a part of the Florida Cross Barge Canal project. The project’s goal was to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico with a canal across Florida. It didn’t go well. The on-again off-again project was first conceived by King Phillip II of Spain in 1537! Throughout centuries, the project was started and stopped and in the end, it was Marjorie Harris Carr who helped bring about the official cancellation of the project in 1990.
After a nice break, we headed back through the canal, into Lake Alto and our launch site. Santa Fe Canal is not what you call an outstanding Florida waterway, but it is one to do just for the trip into the history of this area. This paddle ends another chapter of Florida Paddle Notes…James
The Santa Fe Canal in Alachua County, connects Lake Alto, East of Waldo with Little Lake Santa Fe, north of Earlton. Both lakes comprise the headwaters for the Santa Fe River. Due to a lack of decent roads after the Civil War, the canal was dug to connect Waldo with Melrose…James
