more swamp notes

    More notes from the Swamp

Swamp catch up.

This is late getting written...

The Okefenokee was timbered from the mid 1800's until about 1930. They built elevated rial lines to transport the Cyprus and pine logs out of the swamp. There are several islands within the swamp and they were developed as company towns. The one near where I was paddling supported a population of 600 people at one time. The town contained a sawmill and a turpentine distillery, plus stores,churches schools.. Nothing remains today, except some foundations and two boilers from the locomotives. The swamp is slowly recovering from the logging. The Cyprus trees can take 20 years to add an inch of girth. The other factor is the periodic fires that sweep through the swamp. Two since 2007.

My first two days in the swamp were on the main water feed out of the swamp. (what becomes the Suwanee River) The last day I was comfortable enough to venture off into some of the smaller feeder streams. They were really magical, almost primeval. The light, filtered through the Spanish moss, the black water moving slowly, the wildlife and the cool, moist shade. The birds ere interesting, lots of Egrets and Herons. The juveniles and their changing plumage, make it hard for me to get a firm ID on many of them

I did have a second alligator encounter. This time I apparently bumped one on the back as I glided over him. He arched his back, flicked his tail and was gone. The back arch, brought his head out of the water, next to my right hand. The tail flick put an 8 inch scar down the hull of my kayak. I'm thinking of pasting a small Purple Heart on the spot...The whole encounter was over before I had time to react. .. This is the one downside to a kayak that can be totally stealthy. I guess I'll just start making more noise when when I'm in gator country...

Alligators and stuff

Notes from the swamp:

The Okefenokee swamp is not what I anticipated. Much of it is what I would call marsh, tall grass and Cyprus trees, interlaced with major and minor water courses and the occasional island. It's not a water filled jungle. We are lucky in that all of the land surrounding the State Park is Federal, and was closed due to the shutdown. As a result there was no people pressure on the wildlife. One ranger told me that he was seeing twice as many alligators as before the shutdown. (about the only positive thing I heard about it.) That said, this place is crawling with “nature”.We've had a flock of turkeys come through the campsite three times today. There are numerous little deer everywhere. I thought at first that the small deer were Key deer, but I'm told they are White Tail deer and are tiny because they have such a limited food source. At sunset every night, there is a Horned owl that lets us know that he is around.

The fun thing for me is learning new things, in this case it's Alligator craft.

It turns out that they are mostly a victim of bad press and their forbidding personal appearance. If you are bigger than they are and don't look like food, you're good to go. In a boat or kayak you are plenty big enough and look nothing like food. Alligators have a relatively small brain and work mostly on instinct. (about the smarts of a fluffy bunny, but with teeth and the muscle to use them). Don't however take Skippy (my term for small, barky dogs) on the water with you as they most defiantly look like lunch. They post signs about not taking pets in the water and the rangers say they get grief about it all the time.... I took the yak out for about two hours today, just to get a feel for the area. By count I saw 28 Alligators today. The most unnerving part of the paddle was getting down the cut to the river. The open water was only 6 -8 feet wide, with a few more feet of Lilly pads on each side. Come to find out that gators love to hide in Lilly pads, waiting for lunch to wander past...I passed three and they never moved,just watched me go by with those unblinking eyes that see everything. It was kind of like snakes. That first instant when you brain identifies the shape and color that your eye is seeing. I will say that they got my undivided attention. At the end of the cut I paddled up behind two that were moving the same direction I was. One of Jay's new rules of paddle craft is: when approaching alligators from the rear, they have the right of way and whatever speed they choose to go, that is the current speed limit. See pic below. By the end of two hours, I was comfortable (and respectful) sharing the water with them .

I will say that at one point my heart skipped a beat...I was in deep water just paddling along when my paddle struck a large underwater object, that reacted to being struck. I don't really know for sure what it was, but I have my suspicions

I plan on going out again at first light tomorrow on a photo recon .

We got off the Interstate at Montgomery, AL . and went cross country over to Waycross, Ga, which is at the top of the Okefenokee swamp. I wanted to get a look at the lay of the land and see what it was all about. Going across both states, I was fascinated to watch the fall crops being harvested. Cotton and peanuts, We're going to spend several days at the swamp and I hope to do a paddle or two..We've already seen several alligators....

       We're working on solving a mystery. I saw a digital camera laying in the road, so we stopped and picked up. The recent pictures show several people on motorcycles from Florida, touring TN and NC. I'm hoping to be able to track them down and get their camera back to them. I know that there is web site “I found your camera” and I'll try that as a last resort...after I exhaust my sleuthing skills. I'll let you know how it plays out.

   Below is cotton; in the field, being harvested, and ready for transport.

 

    October 19,  Wednesday

           Still moving southward. We are just below Birmingham AL in a wonderful State park .Yesterday passed south of all the fall color but I,m sure it will catch up with us later.Tuesday we stayed the night in Bowling Green, KY and that park will require a whole separate entry later.  Today's pics are from that campground and on the road yesterday.

on the road again

  

October 13 Day one. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to actually leave today. We stopped at the harbor for the required “leaving town pic”, and got trapped in the parking lot by two SUVs that were socializing in the exit lane. I gave them 5 minutes and then pulled up on their bumpers...Oh, were we holding up traffic??? (not that I don't regularly stop to socialize, on Main Street, South Shore, and any other road. But I always monitor my mirror...

After leaving town, at warp 9.5,

I wanted to stop and check how the kayak was riding on the roof. I chose the casino in Manistee, as they have a big parking lot. We went inside “for just a minute” and the “complimentary coffee”. We allowed $5. each...to make gas money. Anne doubled hers and I lost all of mine...Net 0...I was told that I had to pick up returnable cans, all the way to the Indiana line, to make up my shortfall...

I noticed several Adopt-A-Hi way signs that were marked “available”. The issue being that the original sponsor was “in loving memory of” whoever. Did they stop loving them, or just lose interest.....”seemed like a good idea, but it's too much work”.???...

We saw a newbie hitchhiker today. He saw us coming and stepped off the roadway (smart move) and continued to walk backwards (not so smart)... smack into a mailbox. The funny part was that, we saw it coming and, boy was he surprised....

     We spent the night at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana,near South Bend, a wonderful park. Lots of water, trails, woods, and prairie. We were a bit nervous approaching the park, as there were 8 or 10 RVs coming out the access road. We realized that it was Sunday of a three day weekend , late in the day, and there was probably no room... It seems they allow late check out, so there was lots of room. I was particularly happy as we had no plan B, at that point.