11/07/00 Paddling Billy's Island:
The Stephen C. Foster State Park is 17 miles from Fargo, GA, up GA 177 where it dead ends. I don't think there's anything in Fargo. The nearest gas station was 40 miles away in Moniac, which was a cross roads with a single gas station. The closest town with a store was Macclenny in Florida and that was 60 miles away. The western part of the Okefenokee Swamp is in the boonies. I'm glad had a full tank of gas and plenty of food. This is also where Pogo, the old comic strip character & friends live as well as the green, moss covered swamp monster.
Taking a break after setting up camp I was treated to a fox trotting (fox trot, get it?) down the road. That's the closest (30 feet) I've ever been to a fox. It's body was mostly gray while it's head and legs seemed reddish so I don't know if I was looking at a red fox or a gray one. A minute or so later he came trotting back up the road.
After taking the short nature walk I came out on the docking area and there was a four foot alligator floating on the surface, my first of the season. He'd been there a while because his head and back were dry. Unfortunately the docking area also included 20-25 John boats for rent. I don't imagine the relatively narrow waterways are much fun on the weekends. 55 canoes were for rent too.
Walking back to the campsite a yearling deer trotted past me on a bank on the other side of the road. If this is an indication of the wildlife in the area I'm going to have a good time here in the swamp. Talking to a couple who had just returned from a day canoe trip supported this hope. They had seen lots of alligators, turtles, birds and a couple of deer at the water's edge drinking. My evening walk turned up two more fox sightings and 5 more deer. The next morning's walk netted 20 deer, only one of which might have been a buck.
The Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is approximately 600 square miles (20X30 miles). It claims 15,000 alligators, 5-9 feet long on average. These gators can grow to 15 feet and 500 pounds. They're also supposed to be harmless? Hmmm. 15 feet long, 500 pounds, a mouthful of big teeth, harmless. Unless, of course, someone's been feeding them. :-( A little note on the nature says alligators can run 35 miles per hour but move much better in the water. Other signs in the park warn of the presence of (the harmless?) alligators. The swamp is also supposed to be home to 300-500 black bears.
The 25 miles of day trip waterways have road signs on them for the navigationally challenged. Wilderness tripping outside these areas are limited to 2-5 days and require a permit from the Wildlife Refuge (912) 496-3331.
The morning started off with a fairly heavy fog but that soon burned off. At 9am the temperatures were in the mid-70's on this early November day with the sun poking its way through a hazy sky. Launching from the boat ramp behind the park office I followed a 20 foot wide channel of very dark water, bordered with lily pads, out to what I take to be the Suwannee Canal.
The first road sign was at the junction of the canal. I turned right towards Big Water Lake and Billy's Island. The canal is 100+ feet wide here. I had no sooner turned east than I watched a large log drift away from a larger log with a couple of big black turtles on it. My guess is an 8 foot alligator had been trying to sneak up on the turtles when my presence screwed things up.
Lots of smaller to mid-size cypress lined both sides of the canal, most draped with some amount of Spanish moss. The needles on most had also turned from their normal green to reddish brown or a golden brown.
The glare from the sun on the water prevented me from watching the southern shore so I kept my attention on the north shore. Shortly, I made a detour up what I thought was a river on my left. Lily pads spread across most of it. As I paddled through, clouds of little bugs rose off the lily pads. Fortunately they weren't the biting kind or at least they didn't want any parts of my stringy butt and left me alone.
I paddled a little ways in this direction but paddling through lily pads is kinda difficult and I really didn't want to disturb them so I turned back when I found myself in less than a foot of water. On the way back out to the canal I passed a couple of 4-5 foot alligators floating at the edge of the lily pads. I stopped to watch them for a minute. When I picked up the paddle and turned to plant the first stroke a big swirl of water startled me. My guess is another 4-5 footer had just surfaced and had been checking me out.
I passed a couple more alligators drifting across the river and 45 minutes later I was at the turnoff for Big Water Lake. It was 10 miles away. I didn't sleep too well last night so I headed for Billy's Island, just a short distance away. The canal narrowed back down to 30 feet and lines of cypress stood guard like so many sentinels on either side.
I passed a dock that looked like it was there for a tour boat. Just passed the dock was a sign indicating permits were required past that point. It all looked overgrown with grass and would probably be pretty heavy going so I had no problem turning back.
They did a lot of cypress logging in the early 1900's in the area. The island was used as a large camp, much of which still remains. Most of the cypress trees I'd seen in the swamp were fairly small. If it took 90 years for them to grow, it must have taken hundreds of years for some of the larger ones I've seen in the Florida backwaters to have reached that size. I wandered around looking at rusty metal for a little while, found a fenced in cemetery and traded stares with a deer on the . Bored with all that I went back to the dock for lunch.
While digging my lunch out from behind my seat I found the spray skirt I lost last week. I 'know' I looked there. After looking everywhere else, I had to buy a new one. I'm now the proud owner of two expensive spray skirts, two expensive paddles, two expensive and one cheap PFDs. I wonder if I need a spare kayak?
Lunch made me drowsy and I decided I could sleep very nicely one a hard wooden dock. And I could have but a lot of fish were jumping. The first one jumped right beside me by the edge of the dock and I had visions of swamp monsters draped in moss and green slime rising out of the muck of the canal. After that all I could do was doze a little.
On the way in, all the alligators I saw were in the water. I also only saw a blue heron and a couple of American egrets. On the way out I immediately saw a large white heron, my first. It's much larger than the American egret. Then I spotted a white Ibis and two mostly brown ones (youngsters), also my first of the season. Then I saw six more white Ibises with an American egret in the middle of them perched at the top of a dead cypress.
Turtles seemed a lot less nervous and tolerated my presence a little more readily. They probably saw me as an alligator and those were now pulled up on the banks soaking up the rays. I passed half a dozen 5-6 footers in one section and then didn't see any more for a while. Drifting over to the north shore I immediately spotted an 8 footer, then several more of varying sizes.
I had one more treat in store for me. When I got back to the concrete boat ramp it had been taken over by a five footer. Several people came over with cameras as I tried to get the darn thing to move. I finally was able to splash it from a distance with the paddle. That ticked it off a little and it got up and walked a few steps but then lay back down again. I finally docked the kayak and the grinding of plastic on concrete didn't both it a bit. By now a couple of the rangers were watching too. I went back to splashing and finally got it with a good one and it got up and hit the water. I maneuvered the kayak parallel to the ramp to get out. Before getting out I glanced around to see where the alligator was. For some reason everyone thought that was funny.
Two deer wandered by just across from my campsite as I was writing this report.
11/08/00 Paddling Suwannee River Sill:
Here it is the day after elections and I still don't know who the president is. All I've heard so far is Florida is doing a recount and Hillary won New York. After a bad night of fighting with raccoons and listening to barred owls I didn't get much sleep so I decided to skip my morning walk and get and get an early start. About midnight I had heard some scratching at the tent. It was a persistent raccoon trying to get in. I chased it away 5-6 times before I realized it had already worked the lateral zipper at the bottom of the tent door open, had pulled a Cheeze-Nip box over and yanked the bag out of the box. The noises I had heard weren't it trying to get into the tent but into the tin foil bag. (11/9: It did the same thing again the next night too).
The shoulder feels really good so I thought I'd give Big Water Lake a shot, a 24 mile round trip. The middle fork of the Suwannee River was two miles away. If I could get there in half and hour and Minnie's Island, five miles away in 1.25 hours I'd have a good shot at making the whole trip since you have to be back by 5pm. Four miles an hour would get me there in three hours leaving me plenty of time to loaf and gawk on the way back.
At 8am I signed out from the Stephen C. Foster State Park office. It was in the low-70's (a deer is wandering around just across from my campsite as I write this) and a pretty clear sky as I hit the Suwannee River canal and turned east again. Smooth water reflected the Spanish moss dripping from cypress trees on both sides of the canal.
I passed several alligators floating in the canal as I powered my way along. A half a dozen turkey vultures watched as if they were willing to take anything left over from an alligator feeding frenzy.
25 minutes brought me to the juncture of the Suwannee River Middle Fork. Turning north a king fisher flew back and forth across the 75 foot wide river. The river narrowed to 40 feet in a short distance with several cypress trees growing in the middle.
Eighteen white Ibises and a single egret were chowing down among some lily pads. These were probably the same ones I'd seen yesterday. I had seen several canoe signs. I suppose they are for the wilderness paddlers, not for the day trippers. The state park sells several books on paddling the Okefenokee Swamp as well as one for the Suwannee River. Except for the clouds of bugs hanging out on the lily pads, bugs were not an issue yesterday or today. Mosquitoes in the campground were moderate.
20 minutes later the river was roped up with an 'Area Closed' sign hanging from it. Was I ticked? Do toads have warts? Making the return trip on the canal I noticed something white through the sedge grass. No longer being in a hurry I went to investigate and found a lone wood stork staring back at me through the grass.
A second trip from the state park is a 10 mile round trip down to the Suwannee River Sill, a levee across the canal. I think this is the headwaters of the real Suwannee River that flows 230 miles to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. I had planned on staying on another day and doing this tomorrow but with nothing else to do I kept on going when I got to the turnoff for the boat ramp.
The canal seemed a little wider down this way and the cypress trees seemed fewer. After 1.5 miles the canal split. The right fork looked a little more interesting so I went that way. Another king fisher got all excited and flew back and forth across the water several times. A couple hundred yards brought a narrowing of the canal and lily pads stretched from shore to shore. Off to the left was a dried up and roped off creek with an 'Area Closed' sign.
The park rates go up March thru June. It's reasonable to assume this is the prime season. Probably also the season when there's more water and the day use s are all open. Looking at the trunks of the cypress trees in or near the water it appeared the water was only down a foot or so. I also assume the six wilderness canoe s through the swamp would only be open during that time.
Back on the left fork I passed a couple of six foot alligators, one in the shallows and one on the bank. The canal was just getting pretty again when there was another 'Area Closed' sign. Dirty word! On the way back to the put in a couple dozen Ibises flew overhead. That always makes for a pretty sight.
Even with all the closed areas, this was still a trip worth making. The open s still provide a good day's paddle. If you like cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, alligators and peace and quiet it will be a good trip. I saw about 15 alligators today compared with 20 yesterday. I didn't see a lot of birds but I did see a wide variety; Ibises, egrets, blue herons, white herons, wood storks, osprey, turkey vultures, king fishers plus several foxes and 30+ deer. You just might want to call the state park to check on the water before coming (912) 637-5274.
While having supper, a fox came trotting down the road again, nose sniffing to see where those smells were coming from. It stopped and raised its leg to pee, just like a dog, probably marking territory, and trotted into the camp site and passed not 10 feet from me. Cool! It's body was gray with reddish borders so even though its head was mostly red I'd say it was a gray fox.
11/10/00 Paddling Grand Prairie:
I've moved around to the eastern side of the Okefenokee Swamp to Traders Hill Recreation Area & Campground in Folkston. My seven day park pass was still good when I pulled up to the gate this morning at 8:30am. The temperature was pretty chilly in the high 60's as a cold front moved into the area last night. A 10-15 knot wind came along with it but at least the skies were nice and blue.
Launching from the park boat ramp I was faced with a 1.75 mile long section of the Suwannee Canal. This section is very straight, 40-50 feet wide bordered mostly with black gum and bay trees, long needle pine trees and a few moss draped cypress trees. One section of water was completely covered with dead needles.
The swamp seems to have road signs for everything. I passed one saying I was leaving Charlton County and entering Ware County. I had only passed one 6-8 foot gator when 30 minutes later I got to the main junction. The Suwannee Canal proper goes off to the right while the left branch leads to the prairie lakes area. This is supposed to be the more scenic route and have more wildlife so I took the left branch.
As soon as I turned up this branch everything opened up. A prairie, at least these, are at least a few acres of short grass with clumps of trees here and there. Lily pads and some kind of water plant, exposed because of the lower water, had been grazed down to the ground, I would assume by deer. Here and there, lily pad flowers still in the water were in full early or late bloom. These were a bright white with a bright yellow interior and about the size of a 40 watt light bulb.
I soon saw three tall birds ahead. These were sand hill cranes. Almost four feet tall, they are a lighter brown with part of their head a bright red. These guys weren't too concerned by my presence. One stood watch while the other two fed. As I tried to take a picture, all I got was butt from the feeding pair. I waited and waited and finally clunked the paddle on the foredeck. That got their attention for a second and I squeezed off a quick shot before the butts went up in the air again.
The canal had narrowed down to 20 feet or so with lily pads taking up about half of that, leaving me a 10 foot channel to paddle in. Being out in the open on the prairie I got the full brunt of the 10-15 knot wind for a while as four Ibises flew overhead.
I soon came upon two more sand hill cranes. These guys proved a little spookier and took flight as soon as they saw me. They landed 100 yards upstream so I was able to watch them as I paddled forward. From a distance they looked like ostriches or emus moving through the short prairie grass.
I came across a branch that said 'Day use canoe '. It was overgrown with lily pads and had large gobs of peat floating near the surface. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided to continue along the main channel even though I didn't know where it led.
While I sat there making that momentous decision, another pair of sand hill cranes joined the first. They didn't stay long though and soon flew off. The first pair took flight too and flew directly overhead. I had to struggle to get the camera out and then I had trouble finding them in the view finder. Eventually I got a shot off and I think I got them both.
A little farther on I spotted an 8 foot alligator resting on the right hand bank. I got a good picture of him and then had to make up my mind what to do. He didn't seem to be too interested in moving and the channel was only four feet wide, flowing right past him. My concern was him panicking, hitting the water and panicking again when he felt trapped by my closeness.
So like a wimp, I decided to leave him be and go back the way I'd come. I'd no sooner turned around when I saw a canoe that had launched right behind me had caught up. These two guys had no hesitation in moving forward so I tucked in behind them. The gator simply slipped into the water and under their canoe. A few bubbles was all I saw of him.
They led the way for a while and another 6-8 foot alligator slid into the water at their approach. We stopped and chatted a while and then I went on ahead while they had lunch. It was more of the same through the little tiny channel so I turned back.
The first gator was back up on the bank but slid in the water as I neared. I had switched to the 220 spare paddle when the channel narrowed to four feet because the 230 was hitting the banks more than the water. When I got back to the wider channel I switched back again. I hadn't planned on doing that but it worked out well.
Traffic was picking up. I soon passed three single kayaks and a double. That's more than I usually see in a month. 50 or so Ibises could be seen roosting in the trees across the prairie. Back on the main channel canoes, john boats and a tour boat passed, going the other way.
I was still thinking about the encounter with the gator in such close quarters. Off to the right I saw a narrow inlet with some water behind so went over to investigate. I passed a clump of grass and was kind of coasting along when I saw the tail, then the body and finally the head of a 5-6 foot alligator. He was lying on the bank parallel to the water with his head facing me. The kayak came to a stop with us facing each other less than 5 feet apart. Fortunately (for me) at least three of those feet were water and he slid into it and under the kayak ing bubbles behind. The channel was only 4-5 feet wide and that was the only place either of us could go.
It might have only been 5-6 feet long but it seemed a lot larger. Such a close encounter with one of the oldest predators on earth in such narrow confines is certainly a unique experience. All last year there was a fair distance, usually 50 feet or more, between me and the alligators I paddled with. 10-15 feet is as close as I really want to be to those big bad boys. Here I was paddling over top of them in four foot wide channels that were only a few feet deep and I could see air bubbles rising to the surface reminding me what was down there. Shudder! I won't do that again.
But of course I did. I went right into the next little hidey hole I found, but I went in much slower and peeked around the corner before venturing forward. I saw a three footer later on. Then, I turned into a larger inlet at normal speed. Another three footer was perched on a stump right at the entrance. I got a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye as it leaped into the water. If I hadn't I might well have gone into cardiac arrest when it hit the water right beside me.
11/11/00 Paddling Chase Prairie:
The temperature dropped into the 40's last night. It felt like the 60's when I launched about 9:30am and didn't rise too much more than the low 70's in spite of a bright blue, cloudless sky. I wore a pair of fleece socks with the sandals and both a fleece sweater and a wind breaker.
Heading out the two mile channel from the boat ramp at the Folkston entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp to the main junction I passed a three foot alligator in the water and a six footer. Another six footer had pulled up with its head on the bank and most of its body still in the water. Kinda like it wanted a breath of cool fresh air but wasn't ready to commit its body to the chilly air just yet. A dozen turkey vultures watched from the branches of a dead cypress tree.
Yesterday I turned left to the Grand Prairie water and a lot of open plains. Today I continued more or less straight ahead towards the Chase Prairie. This is the Suwannee Canal proper. When they excavated and dredged the canal 90 years ago, they filed the debris along either side of the canal.
This created banks a couple of feet higher than the surrounding prairies. With this elevation, black gum, bay, cypress and long needle pine trees could take root. It also screens the prairies from view most of the time, producing a long, narrow tunnel like effect. This makes the canal much prettier with the heavily draped cypress, pines and even black gum trees or bushes. The prairies on either side of the canal can be seen occasionally through gaps in the trees and small inlets.
Shortly after entering this part of the canal I passed an outhouse on a platform. Can you picture a member of a group telling the rest of them, "excuse me while I go take a dump?" The platform had enough room for a tent but I think I'd prefer a spot a little less aromatic.
A total of a dozen, mostly black, ducks took flight. A pair of sand hill cranes flew overhead while a couple of red headed sap suckers or woodpeckers flew across the river. These guys were somewhere around six inches so my guess is they were sap suckers. After the cranes flew by I heard a tremendous racket out in the prairie. The screeching had that exotic jungle sound and made me believe it might have been the cranes fighting or mating. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes.
The Spanish moss had even attached itself to the predominant bushy trees which in turn hung out over the water. This really gave the canal that swampy feel, at least my preconception of a what a swamp looks and feels like. I passed a couple of channels that seemed good candidates for exploration on the way back. It's back in those areas I would expect to find all the alligators sunning themselves later on rather than on the darker canal filled with trees. Hardly enough room there for a gator to stretch out and relax.
I watched a small leaf drift across the canal. Sure enough, as I got a little closer I saw it was a baby alligator. I heard a little birdlike chirping off to my right and found four more little guys in the 12 inch range swimming around. I got my butt out of there in a hurry. I didn't want to be around if an angry mom came running in response to that call. I hadn't seen any alligators that small before.
I got up past the mile 5 marker around 11:30 and stopped for lunch. There I noticed a .5 knot current had been pushing me along and would be pushing against me on the way back. I also felt a 5 knot wind I would have in my face too.
Five Ibises flew overhead as I turned back. I was just thinking I'd passed the baby alligators when I saw three of them swimming around. I picked up speed to get by them as quickly as possible.
All of a sudden a whole armada of canoes, kayaks and skiffs came by. There must have been 15 or more boats, one after the other. It was as if someone had opened the floodgates and they all flushed through. I kinda lost interest in the trip after that. There wasn't much chance of seeing a mosquito after they passed, let alone any wildlife.
Surprisingly, I found a five footer floating across the canal. I saw a skiff approaching ahead and thinking that would be their only chance to see a gator I used a little extra caution so as not to disturb it. I told them about the gator and was further surprised when they pointed another one out to me they had just passed.
I poked my head into a number of small passageways on the way back. I did so very cautiously after yesterday's experience. I didn't bump into anything in those inlets. I'd guess I spotted 10-15 alligators on this day, none of them exceeding six feet.
Some folks told me the north entrance to Okefenokee was nothing but a tourist trap with concessions all over the place. They even wanted to charge them $16 to launch their own canoe. Looking at the map I could only see a couple of small streams. Comparing them to stuff I had already paddled I decided they probably didn't have any water in them anyway at this time of year. I think there's another entrance somewhere in the southeast corner of the swamp. The map doesn't show any creeks and I forgot to check it out.