Monday, February 09, 2015

Day three, my final day in a three day solo paddle in the Okefenokee

Sage, on his last day in the swamp
I wake up around 3 in the morning on the last day of the year, shivering.  I’d gone to sleep to the sound of insects singing, an owl hooting, and fish jumping.  But now everything was quiet except the wind which had brought a change in temperature.  Instead of the lows being in the 60s, as it was yesterday, it mercury is moving down into the upper 30s.  Sleeping in a hammock with plenty of air below me and with a slight breeze isn’t working.  I get up and place a sleeping pad inside the hammock and crawl back inside.  The extra insulation helps and soon I’m back asleep. 

Canal Run platform








When I wake back up, I’ve been back to Michigan and had been to a farmer’s market where I brought some kale from a friend of mine and his wife.  He doesn’t’ look well, but I am glad to see him for I knew he’d been diagnoses with colon cancer.  I turn to pay his wife for the kale and when I turn back around, he’s gone and I wake up, a little disturbed as this friend really does have cancer, but I have never known him to grow kale or to sell anything at a farmer’s market. 

I crawl out of my hammock around 7 AM and bundle up with a heavy jacket and a hat.  It’s quiet.   The wind has died and light fog covers the swamp.  I build a fire and then heat water with the stove for coffee and oatmeal.  I eat my breakfast beside the fire and a read a few more poems by Burns, before packing everything up.  I was ten miles deep into the Okefenokee, near the center of the refuge.  The closest humans to me would be Chip and the group that he’s guiding, at Round Top Shelter, about five miles away.  It feels good to be so alone, but I’m also ready to get out and to get back home before the year ends.
Kayak ready

At nine, I slide into my kayak and set out for the final leg of my solo paddle. The fog has lifted.  It is cool enough to wear gloves, but I take off my jacket anticipating a workout.  I am paddling against the current, but the flow isn’t that strong and I am able to make good time.  Most of the canal is wide.  When I pass the turn-off for the Round Top platform, which takes one around the southeast side of Chase Prairie, I leave the canal and explore a bit of the prairie.   I see no alligators, which isn’t surprising since the temperature is so cool, but I am surprised to see two turtles.  There are a few birds including a huge kingfisher and a redheaded woodpecker.  In the distance I hear the sound of sandhill cranes.  After returning to the canal and continue paddling eastward, I spot a canoe in the distance.  A man is paddling in the back and it appears as if he has a tent in the front.  As they get closer, I realize there is a woman and two kids in the front of the boat, wrapped up in a blanket.  They had spent the night at Coffee Bay and would camp tonight at Canal Run, which I had left just a little over an hour earlier.  They are the first people I’ve seen in forty-eight hours.

swill of water from paddle showing its stained color

A gray day and a long straight canal

I explore Bugaboo Landing and a few side streams between the time I saw the family canoeing and arriving at Coffee Bay.  It’s not quite 11 AM, but I know this is the last place to stop for lunch (unless I want to stop at the privy two miles into the refuge, but that doesn’t sound like a place to eat and it’s still three miles ahead).  So I stop and eat at the same platform in which I’d paddled to with my Dad on the first of November.

After eating some peanut butter and crackers and fruit, I push the boat back in, and paddle the last five miles in about an hour and a half.  Somewhere along this section, the water changes direction and begins to flow toward the St. Mary's River and the Atlantic instead of through the Suwanee to the Gulf of Mexico.   As I approach the landing, a tour boat is taking a group of cold tourist into the swamp.  The woman leading the tour asks if I’d seen any wildlife.  Outside of a few birds, I hadn’t and I’m afraid her clients might be a bit disappointed.  

After loading my gear and boat, I head over to the visitor’s center.  There, in the bathroom, I take a sponge bath and put on clean clothes.  A few minutes later, I am ready to go, but it is still early so I take the drive down to Chesser Island and walk around the old homestead there.  The white sandy yard surrounded by chicken coops, a corn crib, a hog pen, smoke house, cane mill, a few bee hives and various sheds with farming implements remind me of the great-grandparent’s sufficient farm. 
Chesser Homestead

An hour later, I head back toward Savannah, taking the backway, US 301 up through Nahunta and Jesup.  I am hungry but nothing looks good until I come into the outskirts of Jesup and spot B.J. Barbeque.  The place looks thrown together, but there is smoke coming from a hut in the backyard which is always a good sign.  I turn around and wait in line for one of the largest barbeque sandwiches I’ve ever seen.  I saw the woman making it and ask and learn that they put a third pound of bbq on their sandwiches.  That, along with some onion rings and a glass of unsweetened ice tea fills me and I drive the rest of the home happy and fulfilled. 

36 comments:

  1. You still haven't convinced me to not paddle the Okefenokee someday in my future!

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    1. Ed, if you can get over here in late March, I'll save you a spot in a trip I'm planning!

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  2. Replies
    1. It wasn't a heavy fog and it lifted fairly early---a heavy fog would be really eerie and I would be a little reluctant to start out paddling in some of the areas cause you could really get lost easily

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  3. God bless your friend from Michigan. What a journey this was for as well. Your gray day still boasts such a beautiful reflection of your day. Right now 60 degrees would make me dance for joy! I know those days are just around the corner, and our winter has been gentle this year. How good it feels to drive with a full belly from delicious food and so many good memories playing through your thoughts all the way home again!

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    1. It warmed up that day into the 50s, so it wasn't nearly what you have been dealing with!

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  4. I'm still savouring that first line of your post and the sounds you went to be with. I love the outdoors for that very reason. Great post and lovely photos. Thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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    1. I was actually surprised by the insect sounds during the winter--but it was unusually warm. I find myself drawn again and again into the wilderness.

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  5. I don't think I could ever sleep in a hammock. For one, I have bad back problems thanks to a rod. And two, I'd feel like I'd fall out. Haha!

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    1. You are surrounded in this hammock (I may do a post on it) by no-see-um insect screen so there isn't a chance of falling out. As for your back, this hammock is better than those they have in Central America (but I also sleep okay in them), but you could also bring a tent and sleep on the floor. I hope your activities aren't too limited with that rod--it does sound like it would make hammock sleeping uncomfortable.

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  6. I love the pictures, it really brought your story to live. You are braver than I. I'm not sure I could do a solo trek like that.

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    1. Thanks, solo trips are not for everyone, but every once in a while I find myself needing to be alone. I am going back in the swamp in the end of March but with a group of folks.

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  7. Blogger tells me that my comment caused "conflicting edits." In case it did not go through, I was marveling at your true spirit of Nature and your photos. :)

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    1. Interesting- Hilary, how to you create tension between edits? :)

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  8. No human contact for 48 hours??? Maybe I should take up serious canoeing!

    The BBQ sandwich and onion rings 'bout starved me. But I'd have drowned by tea with some sugar.

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    1. I would saw I would take you with me, but then I'd not be along...but canoeing is a great way to experience the wilderness...

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  9. pretty cool about running into the family in the canoe...
    dude i could def go for some bbq right about now too...ha

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    1. Yeah, just thinking about it makes me hungry all over again!

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  10. Fun! Now I'm craving barbecue and onion rings, though...

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    1. I'm sure you can find a place in Nashville! That's the good thing about being back south--there is plenty of good bbq, but not as many bars with cheap hand-made burgers as in the north.

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  11. The least you deserved to cap your laborious journey was 1/3 pound bbq sandwich. Sounds appropriate and darn good.

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    1. I wasn't that laborious and it was glorious and the bbq just topped it off gloriously

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  12. That BBQ is making me hungry. I like how you write in the present tense. Makes it all so immediate.

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    1. Thanks! I try to write in the present when possible, but sometimes find myself slipping into past and have to edit it out

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  13. Your stories are brave and fascinating, Sage. I can't even begin to imagine how many miles you have traveled. But I admire your courage!

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    1. Thanks, Michael. I have no idea how many miles I've done, but I know I have done over 3000 backpacking (overnight vs, just hikes) and have done several week long paddles and probably 40-50k on trains :)

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  14. Amazing photos... and those sounds of insects, owl, fish at 3am - wonderful too!

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    1. Thanks, Vesper, I still need to start reading your new book!

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  15. Amazing details and I love the pictures. What a trip!

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    1. It was a lot of fun! The "Everglades trail is also on my list and that's in your backyard!

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  16. That was a magnificent trip.
    I'm not so certain I'd be up for doing it in a kayak. Frankly I think I'd need a bit more space between myself and wildlife viewing me in the same way as you did that sandwich.
    Have they any notion about the population of alligators. I seem to remember reading they are much more solitary than Croc's and have something nearing a range. And where within the reserve do they nest since the nest has to be above the or any high water line.

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    1. They nest in the refuge too--just stay away from them when nesting--I think they can build a nest up above the water--and they give birth in late summer when normally the water levels would be the lowest (I imagine a hurricane would create problems for nesting if it came onshore before the eggs hatched)

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  17. oh my goodness gorgeous photos and this trip sounds incredible!

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    1. It was a very neat trip--this is interesting ground and in the winter, the bugs and snakes are at bay

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