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Canoes Transport Families to the 'Real' Florida
This is the wild Florida, the real Florida, the Florida before theme parks and housing developments, and I've never seen a more stirringly beautiful Florida. These were my thoughts during our Canoe Escape experience in Thonotosassa, very close to Tampa and Busch Gardens.
It took a couple of years to convince my family (and a full hour to extract our 11-year old out from the hotel), because wild, real and water in Florida means you will be up close with alligators whose habitat this is. But with a bit of cajoling and imagining we were native Floridians (who think nothing of sharing the waterways with these reptiles), I was able to get everybody over to Canoe Escape (813/986-2067), in Thonotosassa, just 12 miles from downtown Tampa and 10 minutes from Busch Gardens. It proved to be the highlight of an amazingly wonderful visit to Tampa, which surprised us with its diverse and fascinating family-friendly attractions, from the incomparable Museum of Science & Industry to Busch Gardens theme park, notable for being both entertaining and interesting with a European village motif.
Canoe Escape may sound like a theme park ride, but "escape" is apt: from the moment you push off from the bank and enter the magnificent and gentle Hillsborough River, beneath a canopy of great cypress trees and oak, you feel you have escaped the pressures and worries of modern life. You may as well have been transported 100 years back in time. I don't recall ever being so serene and so excited at the same time.
Canoe Escape
Joe Faulk, the owner who started Canoe Escape over a decade ago after a career in hotel management, personally guided us down the river. Joe Faulk has almost single handedly created a canoe destination out of Tampa which out-of-towners could enjoy (65 percent of his business are visitors), dividing the river into trips that can be done in 2 ½-3 hours time utilizing the Hillsborough County's park system, so there are lavatories, phones (to summon the bus back for a pick up) and parking spots at the beginning and end of each segment. He, along with his son Brian and wife, Jean, run an outstanding, and efficient operation--you feel cared for, looked after, even if you go out on your own.
The trip segments, which each range from 4 to 6 miles in length, can be easily self-guided. Canoe Escape provides a handy map and excellent directions; what is more, it is hard to get lost since there is only one river, you flow downstream, and you will soon realize if you have inadvertently taken a tributary. You also can arrange for a guided tour. What I like best is that the outfitter didn't just dump you at the launch; their trip notes are very complete and address even the obvious (do not feed alligators; no dogs--"we love em but so do gators"; bring all trash back, etc.). Other "no-no's": glass, styrofoam, firearms, chainsaws, loud music.
Joe gives us paddling tips--used to canoe at camp but found his tips very helpful (though I was focusing on a great blue heron just a dozen yards away). Joe, who was the President of the Florida Professional Paddle Sports Association, clearly respects the sport which seems somehow quaint and artful in this era of extreme sports. He is very patient and encouraging. We soon see why canoeing is an ideal activity corporations and couples can use to build teamwork. Joe tells us that it takes three or four times paddling together to really get into sync, but you don't have to be so polished to have a great time on the river. (If you prefer, you can rent a kayak, which would bring you even closer into the river.)
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