Okefenokee Swamp _ 5 day paddle

Page 2

 It was about 10:30 by the time we headed into that canal. Though this canal did not have nearly as much hydrilla, it was shallow most of the way __ When we reached Mile Marker 14, we turned hard left into a small canal which had a slight current running with us. The paddling was now much better and we were now able to move without so much exertion. We came up on several small 'gators who were sunning themselves and they refused to go in that cold water. Every one of them stayed put while we passed close by. Didn't move a muscle. It seemed the farther we went down this little run, the better the paddling got.

              
                                                                                                        Note the depth of his paddle- on bottom

We had just passed Mile Marker 19 a little ways when we came on what Judy, at the Admin. Headquarters, had called "the Stump Farm." She had warned us about it and that it was a bad place, full of cypress stumps and knees and we would have a problem here. She was sure right. They were thick and everywhere. I think I found 8 out of 10 . . .  a pretty good average . . .  as did the other guys. Chuck and his Pirogue seemed to have less trouble than the rest of us since he was flat bottomed, much lighter and draws less water than the rest of us. John in his Mad River didn't have near as much trouble as Mac and I. Not only did we get hung up on many of the stumps, we would no more than get off and then come to a underwater log barely visible . . . only a few inches under the surface and all the way across the creek. It took lots of rocking and poling to get over those. I estimate there must have been at least 6 or 8 of those. THOSE __ were really a bear! We each had a workout to get over them. There is NO WAY a tandem canoe would have been able to get over them without getting out of their canoes. . . and the water under those slick logs was much deeper than what we had experienced so far on the trip. Probably deep enough that it would not have been a safe situation . . .  not to mention the slick logs and the cold. But we finally made it.

   Stump Farm . . .  Didn't take more here, too busy dodging and trying to get off stumps.
The Stump Farm is approximately a quarter mile of stumps, logs and cypress knees, all just under the surface enough that you cannot see the majority of them in the coffee colored water. You know they are there when you hang up on one of them, which is often.  The logs are easier to see.  Many of them go completely across the water so there is no way around them.  They are a bear to get over in shallow water.   I'll speak more about this later on.

 After M/Marker 20 -- it was wonderful paddling. Absolutely superb . . .  Big Water Lake was the best paddling we had on the entire trip.

   The canoe trails are well marked.  Mostly with tall white stakes, and every mile there will be a mile marker so you know where you are at all times. However, at junctions of trails or turns, there usually will be a sign such as this.  However, on one other trip in the lower swamp, the water was so high, many of the white markers were submerged.  That presented a real problem, but with a little searching we were able to find our way OK.

 The Big Water Shelter is shown on the map as being below Big Water Lake. We found it to be still on the lower part of the lake, and just a couple blocks east, up a small canal. Big Water Lake by the way is not only beautiful, deep, wide and superb paddling, it is HUGE! About half way down the lake, on the east side, we came to a nice "Day shelter" where one can stop for a snack or a break. We did not stop but it looked to be in very good shape.

   John follows me into the Big Water Shelter canal.

We found Big Water Shelter to be an excellent shelter . . .  however, the platform where you pull out  was so high, it took us a longer than normal to unload  and even longer to load the next morning. The water must have been at least 36 inches (and maybe more) below the lower platform level.  

   Compare the height of the lower platform here to the "Day Shelter"  BIG difference!

It's a good thing there were four of us. A solo paddler would have difficulty unloading from this height since the canoe moves around -- even if tied off at both ends. A floating platform -- riding on steel poles here would be a God's send to future paddlers. OR -- at least another lower step level. My guess is . . .  that even if the water was up a full foot, it still would still be a very tricky load and unload.  

Next morning, we were up early and John made ham and eggs while Chuck made his great hotcakes. After a good breakfast and lots of hot coffee, we hit the water.



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