Trails Peace River, but we have never paddled it. We have never been here when we were with other paddlers who could help us run a shuttle. Arbuckle Creek is frequently paddled by members of the Florida Sport Paddling Club, usually as an overnight trip. John and Susan had paddled the creek previously, but were very agreeable to paddle it again. On Sunday we decided to paddle the section from East Arbuckle Road to the bridge at Arbuckle Creek Road, a distance of about 12 miles. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. We drove about 30 miles east through Avon Park and unloaded the boats at the put-in. 
Susan and I ran the shuttle, and then we anxiously put onto the creek.The creek was gorgeous, but the highlight of the trip was the wildlife. We saw numerous examples of the usual water birds. We saw many raptors including red-shouldered hawks, ospreys and a barred owl. We saw a herd of turkeys. We got a good look at an American bittern, which I'm not sure is rare, but I don't recall seeing one before. We also saw several raccoons on the banks of the river and in the live oak trees. However, the highlight of the trip was a great sighting of a Florida panther! John saw it first; its head was sticking up from behind some brush. At first we thought it was a huge house cat, but it was quickly obvious that it certainly wasn't a house cat. Then we thought it might be a
bobcat, but it just didn't have the tufts or the ears or the shape to be a bobcat. Then it ran, and we could see it clearly, and we were sure. It was a panther. It had a full tail and was bigger than I expect a bobcat would be. After some research and after viewing some photos on the internet, we confirmed it was a panther. We believe the cat was not yet mature. He showed a few stripes on his face and some spots on his body, indicative of an immature cat. Dorcas got a pretty nice photo of his head, but she was unable to get another clear shot as he bolted from behind the brush and loped up and over the creek bank. This was a very fortunate and rare sighting. Most visitors and even native Floridians will never see a panther in the wild. After the paddle we returned via Sebring and enjoyed a muy grande dinner at Don Jose Mexican restaurant.Dorcas and I decided to paddle on Arbuckle Creek again today. Unfortunately John and Susan had left Thousand Trails
Peace River and moved up to Thousand Trails Orlando, so we were on our own. We decided to put in at the same place we had put in on Sunday, but paddle upstream instead. We would paddle up as far as we could go or until we reached Lake Arbuckle, whichever came first, then turn around and return to our put-in. We found the current was not very swift and we made good time. After about 1.5 hours we arrived at the head of the creek at Lake Arbuckle. We paddled out into the lake and around to the right where we found a very nice paved canoe landing with a dock and a restroom. While Dorcas was in the restroom I walked over to what looked like a ranger station. There I found an armed uniformed
guard who informed me that I was on military property and had to leave. He was actually very polite, but we quickly finished walking Matilda and left. We paddled back the way we came enjoying the fact that we did not have to fight the current. We saw a number of alligators on the paddle. Several gators were apparently recent mothers and had many baby gators on their backs. I wanted to pick up one of the babies, but Dorcas thought it was a bad idea and wouldn't let me.We arrived at the put-in/take-out after a 6.2 mile round trip paddle. The only house on the creek was at the take-out where we saw a man in the yard just as a red-shouldered hawk swooped down towards him. It turns out that a pair of hawks were nesting in a tree in the yard. The man had been feeding them turkey necks, so they kept a close watch whenever he came out into the yard. He went back into the house, got a fresh neck and threw it into the air. The hawk dived for it and caught it in mid air and returned to his nest. Cool!
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