Outdoors & Nature Insider

Great Calusa Blueway Marker Credit: Kevin Mims

Whew, I've been doing a ton of paddling lately -- not that it's a bad thing! Recently, I spent a couple of days on the Suwannee River with the Paddle Florida folks and this past weekend I made the trip down to Matlacha to attend the Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival. Doing these two events back to back reminded me of how diverse Florida is, with different areas of the state having incredible history. Both areas are rich with Native American culture -- the Timucuans called the Suwannee River valley home, and in Southwest Florida the Calusa Indian civilization lived for thousands of years, developing an intricate and complex society.

Our paddling options are just as diverse. On the upper Suwannee River, the steep banks create a closed-in feel. Down south, the Calusa Blueway features coastal paddling at its finest. Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, let's get back to the Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival. Now, this event goes on for a whopping 10 days, with tons of seminars, group paddling trips, fishing tournaments, music, food, races -- you name it. Depending on the day the activities are held in different places around Lee County, which is great because it gives you an opportunity to explore a bunch of different places.

I spent two days at the Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival, attending a couple of seminars. One was put on by Bill Richards on the Paddle Florida trip that I had went on the week earlier, and the other was a great presentation from 21st Century Kayaks on how to build a skin-on-frame kayak in a week's time. Great stuff. I also got the opportunity to go along on a very informative walking tour of the shell mounds at Randall Research Center and learn more about Calusa Indian history.

Since I knew this was going to be an outstanding event, I had arranged for this to be one of my VISIT FLORIDA videos, which I know all of you are watching and clicking the "I like this video!" button, right? Stay tuned. The Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival video will be incredible!

Have fun!