We Missed Outdoor Boys… So I Took My Grandsons Canoe Camping

In short: One night canoe camping the Suwannee River with our two grandsons, Brantley and Gavin, starting at Roline Ramp. Gavin rode the bow of the canoe and Brantley paddled his own kayak. We saw gators, found the first limestone shelf, hung three hammocks, cooked steak fajitas and honey butter bread over the fire, and the boys both started fires with fire strikers. It began as a tribute to Outdoor Boys and turned into a trip of its own.

Why we made this one

Outdoor Boys is the channel the grandsons used to pile up on the couch to watch. This trip started as our tribute to it: a sandbar, good food over the fire, and honey butter bread the way Luke makes it. The plan was simple. Put in, find a good place to camp, and take the boys down the river together.

Roline Ramp and the first stretch

We put in at Roline Ramp. The Suwannee starts fast: one minute you are standing on the ramp and the next the current has you. It was 92 degrees and the river was still moving like it had somewhere to be. A dead battery in the first stretch had us pulling over to swap it out, and then we were paddling, Gavin in the bow of the canoe and Brantley in his own kayak right alongside.

Limestone, tupelo trees and the first gator

The river looked different from the St. Marys. Big tupelo trees with those funny trunks, and then the first white limestone shelf we had seen, the kind of rock this whole river is carved from. Brantley said he hoped he would see a gator and then spotted the first one before I did. I put it at about eight feet. From there we kept seeing them, along banks with caves worked up underneath and cypress knees all around, and we counted several in one stretch of the river.

Picking the camp

The list for a camp was flat ground, a place to swim, a place to fish, and pine trees. I put Gavin in the bow with the job of finding it. We settled on a spot with room to hang three hammocks under the trees and stretch tarps over camp, then waited out the afternoon heat. The boys fished off the bank and caught catfish.

Fat lighter and fire strikers

I went looking for fat lighter and came back with an armful, and we pulled birch bark for tinder. Then the boys learned the fire striker. Gavin got the first fire going that evening, and the next morning it turned into a cotton ball challenge, Gavin against Brantley. Both of them can now say they started a fire with a fire striker, and I asked them to imagine doing it with no lighter at all.

Fajitas, a blessing and honey butter bread

Supper was steak fajitas over the fire. I said the blessing and thanked the Lord for the chance to bring my grandsons out on the Suwannee. For dessert we made honey butter bread. The key, I think, is plenty of honey butter. By about nine the boys were zipped up in their hammocks. Around four in the morning it got cold, just like I told them it would, and Gavin admitted he had been scared an alligator was underneath his hammock.

Pancakes, sausage and April Outdoors

Morning was pancakes and sausage. April Outdoors came by on his way down the river. He told us he was headed all the way to the Gulf and planned to take 21 days to do it. We wished him well and finished packing up.

The pack-out

On the way out we found snakes crossing the road, a pygmy rattler and a good size timber rattler. Tina was waiting for us at the take-out, and the boys said it was a good trip. One grandfather, two grandsons, one canoe, one kayak and one night on a wild Florida river.

Questions about this trip

Where did you put in on the Suwannee River for this trip?

We launched at Roline Ramp on the Suwannee River and took out at the same ramp the next morning, where Tina was waiting. In between we paddled down the river with Gavin in the bow of the canoe and Brantley in his own kayak until we found a sandbar to camp on.

How can you tell how big a gator is when only its head is out of the water?

The way I showed the boys: measure from the tip of the nose to the eyes. Every inch is about a foot of gator. Six inches from nose to eyes is about a six foot gator, and nine inches is about nine feet.

What do you look for in a campsite on the Suwannee?

We had four things on the list: flat ground, somewhere to swim, somewhere to fish, and pine trees. We found a spot with room to hang three hammocks under the trees and put a tarp over camp.

More from this river: the Suwannee River guide and every Suwannee film.