We had a great time, good water levels, and perfect weather on our five-day GCA camping and paddling trip to South Georgia . All trips were on black water in cypress and tupelo swamps rife with flowering plants and swamp critters. We had numerous sightings of gators, deer, raccoons, beaver, herons, ibis, turkeys, owls, ospreys and egrets.

From April 22nd to the 24th Priscilla Dixey and I (OC-2) and Katie O’Neill paddled overnight trip #8 in the Okefenokee Swamp. Trip 8 traverses the most beautiful part of the swamp and allows one to put in and take out at Stephen Foster State Park and to camp on terra firma where campfires are allowed. The first day we paddled 8.8 miles up the Middle Fork of the Suwannee through Minnie’s Lake and a towering cypress forest to Floyd’s Island . We spent the night inside the 80 year-old Hebard cabin, which was saved in the devastating 2006 swamp fires. Everywhere we saw evidence of extensive burning, but most of the large trees seem to have survived and we found the swamp green and flourishing.

The Red Trail has been closed since the fires, as all four of its platforms burned. However, a larger day-use platform at Minnie’s Lake has been rebuilt, and the National Wildlife Refuge staff is allowing it and the Coffee Bay ( Suwannee Canal ) day-use areas to be used for some permitted overnight camping. Also the Big Water overnight platform had just been rebuilt near its original site, but work had not yet started on a relocated Maul Hammock Wilderness Canoe Shelter.

We very much enjoyed our overnight stay on Floyd’s Island , where we feasted, sipped wine, visited in front of a roaring fire, and played cards till late at night. We were able to view at close range a docile herd of deer foraging nearby and enjoyed our hikes about the island.

Our second day took us the 4.1 miles to the campsite on the berm at Canal Run, where we set up our tents on the new, much larger covered platform. We then explored the general area, which is within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge’s day-use boundaries but where we saw only one other canoe. Again we stayed up late feasting, talking and enjoying the swamp noises and the myriad of overhead stars. The bull alligator that has lived for many years at Canal Run watched us most of the time but only grunted once and for only a few seconds. During my last overnight stay there he had bellowed continually for a half hour beginning about 3 a.m. !

Our third and most demanding day took us down the tight, serpentine East Fork of the Suwannee 7.6 miles past Billy’s Island , which we explored, and back to Stephen Foster SP. After having lunch together in Fargo , Katie and Priscilla returned to Atlanta and I drove to Reed Bingham State Park on the Little River near Adel, where I camped the next two nights.

The next morning ( April 25, 2009 ) I met GCA members Howard Hall and Allan Wadsworth at Reed Bingham SP for our trip on the Little River, which was full and coffee latte colored, running 5.16/509 cfs on the USGS Adel gauge. We ran upstream of the park 6.7 miles (by GPS) between Welander’s access points A ( Kinard Bridge ) and B ( Roundtree Bridge ). The going was tight and technical for the first couple of miles, and we had to carry around two small logjams and squeeze under or around several others. After Warrior Creek entered on the right after about two and a half miles the stream was open and unobstructed. The riparian forest was beautiful and seemingly completely natural with the exception of one small streamside cabin. We saw no one until just before the take-out.

I also paddled up Warrior Creek about a half mile and found it unobstructed and with considerably more flow than the Little. One could access this headwaters section of the Little River by putting in at Vickers Bridge on Warrior Creek to avoid some of the deadfalls on the Little upstream of their confluence.

As in the Okefenokee, we saw many large aquatic birds, but the gators on the Little, and also on Spring Creek, were much shier and we generally heard them fleeing before we saw them.

Howard paddled a touring kayak, and Allan and I used 16- foot open canoes. In the tight places Allan used a singlebladed paddle, but in the open areas he used a doublebladed paddle and paddled his ABS Mohawk as a kayak. (Contrary to popular usage and traditionally according to the International Canoe Federation, what makes a canoe a kayak or a Canadian canoe (O-1, C-2, OC -1, etc.) is not its design or outfitting but the way in which it is paddled.) Our trip took about 3 hours.

Later the same afternoon I explored the nearby Withlacoochee River just east of Adel, Georgia, paddling about two miles upstream and about a mile downstream of Georgia Highway 37, Otey, Sehlinger and Welander’s access point A. The McMillan Road gauge registered 6.03/315 cfs, an ample but not high level. Highway 37 was well chosen as the highest practical access point for paddling the Withlacoochee , since I found the river open and unobstructed downstream and quite the opposite upstream. Upstream the river was small, very winding and densely wooded. I had to squeeze under or around numerous deadfalls and haul over four in two miles. Farmed fields were often near to the west, from which direction recent strong winds had felled many trees across the stream. Nevertheless, the difficulties I encountered paddling were well worth the effort, as I was treated to frequent wildlife sightings, including large flocks of turkeys and ibis and three surprised alligators, and the river was truly beautiful.

On Sunday, April 26th, Allan Wadsworth and I met Bainbridge native Dale Brock at our take out, the U. S. Hwy. 84 bridge (Access point D) over Spring Creek, whose Iron City gauge read 7.23/721 cfs, a fairly high level. Dale had run Spring Creek several times and noted that during the summer the creek was usually crystal clear, exposing its many limestone springs. This day it was somewhat stained but still very beautiful. We put in at Lane’s Bridge (Access C) and enjoyed an easy, seven-mile paddle back to Hwy. 84.

For our final mile, after a railway bridge, the otherwise pristine stream was lined with many large upright pilings near the right bank. Dale advised that these were used by a now defunct timber mill, which had logs dropped from the railway bridge and kept them for extended periods tied in bundles to the pilings to season them in the creek waters.

After I lunched in Colquitt with Dale, I explored the upper reaches of this beautiful creek and went to the Miller County Sheriff’s Department. I learned that a large river left landowner downstream of White’s Bridge ( Access Point B ) had posted the land there and for a few miles downstream of that bridge and had been attempting to excluded paddlers from this portion of Spring Creek. The deputy with whom I spoke did not think anyone was trying to stop people from paddling the creek between Access Points A and B or from two miles upstream of Access C to Lake Seminole . I later viewed no trespassing signs at White’s Bridge and barbed wire which had been stretched across the stream downstream of it but had been broken, no doubt during a flood. I also visited in Colquitt a riverleft park just upstream of the Hwy 91 bridge ( Access Point A ). A Miller county deputy had told me that boaters used this park and its large parking lot to access the creek at this point, as there is no parking allowed at the Hwy. 91 bridge.

On my drive home I explored a mile of Chickasawhatchee Creek upstream of Ga. Hwy. 37, where the Elmodel USGS gauge read 2.92/463 cfs and the current was very fast but the water quite clear. I was anxious to put in, as the stream was very beautiful, the afternoon was waning, and I had a long drive home. I made the mistake of forgetting to use insect repellent, perhaps because mosquitoes had not been a problem on any of the other streams during my trip. I found Chickasawhatchee Creek teaming with wildlife, such as ibis, little green herons, and very hungry mosquitoes. I had to work hard against the swift current to paddle upstream in my sleek Sawyer Oscoda, and with my slow headway I was an easy target. On the quick trip back downstream, however, I mostly outran the hungry insects.

The creek drains Chickasawhatchee Swamp , the second largest wetland complex in Georgia . Since 2000 The Nature Conservancy has purchased more than 20,500 acres to protect this pristine wetland and has then transferred much of it to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The DNR now manages it as the Chickasawhatchee Wildlife Management Area, which encompasses most of the streamside land between Georgia Highways 62 and 37. The rest of the creek in this stretch is protected through conservation easements. This WMA is home to bald eagles, wood storks, gopher tortoises, and many other rare plants and animals and should offer a wonderful extended paddle. (Bring your Off!)

by Roger Nott
From The Eddy Line, September 2009

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