07/30/10, 08:04 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Posts: 2,031
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I canoed the Okefenokee swamp a couple of years ago. You can get a permit and with that, be assigned an "island" out in the swamp. I went the 2nd week of March. I left from Stephen Foster Park, the island was 9 miles out and it was via the "brown" trail. The trail is just a splatter of paint on the trees and you really have to be careful about getting off the trail because they don't appear as a well traveled thouroghfare. A map and a compass is a must......the ability to use them as well. No motorized craft are ever allowed in these parts of the swamp. Once you get out of the public areas you are on your own. No alcohol allowed (but they didn't check), only biodegradable soap and paper products. At our destination island we found a privy that must be used and a small pier. My party had 4 canoes.
Once out of the public areas, you truely go back to primevil times. There are gators and lots of them. There is every type of bird imaginable and species so distinct they appear foreign. Once on the island, which was about 1/4 mile wide at the big end, and way narrow at the small end, which was about a half mile away, there was an abundance of wildlife. White tail deer, raccoons, squirrels, 'possum, bobcat and bear were the critters I saw. The folks at Stephen Foster had photos of the Florida Panther which was a medium sized lion, but we never caught sight of one.
The trip for me was a really good one, and I've canoed a lot in my lifetime. Going along the trail you may all of a sudden break out into a lake that may be 40 acres large or 200 acres large. We measured depths of some of the lakes and they were all very deep, say 100 ft and more, but then in the middle of one large lake, we couldn't find the bottom. Of course the swamp has a peat bottom. In ancient times when that portion of the swamp would go dry, lightning started a fire and the peat burned for years actually burning out the lake bed.
It was early March, and the weather was cool. I didn't get bitten by even one mosquito, and I saw no poisonous snakes. The 'gators were everywhere but mostly non-responsive to our presence. Upon entering a small lake, we'd look around and check for gators lying on the logs. If none of them moved into the water after a few moments, we jump out of the canoes for a swim. Of course we left a lookout posted in one canoe and if a gator slid off into the water, we'd come out asap. Some were very large and the biggest I saw was about 15 ft. Oh yeah, you also need to know the technique of getting in and out of a conoe in a lake without tipping over, before you try to swim in gator infested waters. Makes for less anxiety.
My partner and I arrived at the island just before dark. The rest of the party had fallen behind and so we unloaded our gear and built a campfire. All of a sudden we heard them plainly yell our names. We answered back, and asked them if they were still on the trail. They affirmed this by saying "we're at mile marker 8" which was a mile from us. We could plainly hear them that far without really shouting to the top of our capacity. A bit strange to me.
The sights and sounds are fantastic. March is gator mating season and the bull gators bellowing, the countless birds of all descriptions calling, the other wildlife you see and all in the entire scene impressed me because of my own insignificance in the scheme of things. If you go down out there, don't expect help right away. They don't have a helicopter standing by to pull you out. One of the best trips I've ever been on, if not at the top of the list. But then, I haven't gone there in the heat of a Georgia summer and probably won't if I go back. Oh yes, we planned our trip during the full moon, which made it much more enjoyable at night.
Last edited by foxfiredidit; 07/30/10 at 08:08 PM.
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