03-13-2019 An Easy Day in Southern Georgia

Current Location: Albany RV Resort, Albany, Georgia

High light overcast, humid, and 75 degrees F at 3:00 PM

We pulled out of Stephen C Foster State Park at 10AM accompanied by a slightly overcast sky. It was a softly gentle morning, but nothing like the brilliant previous day.  I was so glad that we had scheduled our days in perfect synch with the weather, with our main kayaking day giving us the very best possible weather.

The route through Georgia has many options, and we have changed our minds several times in the last few days.  I wanted to avoid Interstate 75 through Atlanta, a nightmare at any time, and especially so with an RV pulling a car.  It was easy to choose a less direct route.  Direct to where is as yet to be determined.

We thought of going north to Nashville, where Arnold Air Force Base has a well reviewed family camp.  With the weather doing funny things today, and in the days to follow, we decided against that plan.  Instead we merely pointed the rig in the general direction of I-40.  Perhaps we will go through Memphis, perhaps not. 

On this morning, however, we traveled quiet 2 lane roads north, and a lovely wide 4 lane highway to the town of Albany.  Searching in RVTrip Wizard, I had found a decently reviewed RV park and called for a reservation just before we went off grid at Okefenokee. 

Albany RV Resort was a good choice.  We arrived before 2PM and settled in with full hookups, decent WiFi and so many channels on cable that we haven’t turned on the TV to check them out.  There is a nice dog park, and a very nice dog walking pathway the circles the park, complete with doggie stations and a pond.

The pond is a weird color, and it says no fishing, but the ducks and geese didn’t seem to mind at all. It is a good, quiet afternoon to get caught up on communications after being off grid for a few days, and we will continue in the general northwest direction tomorrow. 

What we didn’t know when we landed here was that Albany has been devastated by tornados. The tornado outbreak of January 21–23, 2017 was a prolific and deadly winter tornado outbreak that occurred across the Southeast United States. Lasting just under two days, the outbreak produced a total of 81 tornadoes, cementing its status as the second-largest January tornado outbreak and the third-largest winter tornado outbreak since 1950. Furthermore, it was the largest outbreak on record in Georgia with 42 tornadoes confirmed in the state.

I wonder if there is any time of year that it is possible to cross this part of the United States without worrying about storms and tornados. It seems there is some kind of horrific historic “bomb cyclone” spinning over our friends in Colorado wreaking havoc and expected to trigger severe storms, flooding, and blizzards in the central US. 

Now it appears that the leftovers from the “bomb” are moving toward us, at an angle that is impossible to avoid.  Stay put and you get hit, keep moving and you move toward it.  Ah fun.  We are thinking perhaps a Cracker Barrel parking lot might be on the agenda for tomorrow night.  Maybe by the time we get there, things will be OK.  Or at least we can take shelter in the bathrooms if need be.

Our simple up close goal is to reach Palestine, Arkansas by the weekend, where I hope to visit a long lost relative, found through the wonder of DNA.  More about that will come later.

In the mean time, I am enjoying uploading photos for free, writing a bit, and relaxing in the breezes coming through our windows, helped along by the Fantastic Fan.  Surely do love that invention.

03-12-2019 Okefenokee “Land of Trembling Earth”

Current Location: Stephen C Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia

Clear at 55 Degrees F at 8AM

When arriving at the Okefenokee Swamp, it is hard to get a true sense of the vastness and complexity of the wilderness.  The heavily managed long leaf pine forest that flanks the entry highway 177 is an open maze of tall thin (by Northwest standards at least) pines with a low understory of glossy green palmetto. 

It is only after a few days of deeper immersion into the landscape, especially by water, that I have come to truly appreciate and be in awe of the treasure that is the Okefenokee.

We signed up for the first morning ranger guided boat ride at 10AM and the skies were still shrouded in a bit of fog as we got on the water.  The boat ride was about 90 minutes, and the ranger was extremely knowledgeable about the swamp, the vegetation, and answered most questions well. 

We had some kids on the boat, and they had the most fun counting alligators, with a total of 76 seen by the time we returned to the boat basin. It was a good way to get a feeling for the waters we would explore the next day in our own kayaks. 

Our decision to make the long drive back toward the east entrance and the visitor center was perfect. With steamy temperatures and rain in the forecast, it was a good day to spend some time in the car. 

As we approached the Visitor Center, the entrance to the Swamp Island Drive was on the left, and we took the slow 15mph drive that meandered to Chesser Island and the Chesser Island homestead.  The homestead is a beautiful presentation of what life was like for the hardy settlers who lived on Chesser Island, mostly self sufficient, surviving on what they could grow in the sandy soils and what they could hunt and fish for in the swamplands. 

It was surprising to see how roomy the home was, but the Chesser family was large, with 9 children, and many more grandchildren living on the island until the mid 1950’s.  They had no electricity, but surprisingly, had a telephone.  We couldn’t figure out how they managed that.

The beautiful cypress boards harvested from the island and milled by the family for the house were gray with age but with no sign of rot.  Old cypress is an amazing wood. 

The logging of cypress in the Okefenokee is an old story, with less than 1 percent of remaining old growth cypress left.  Such beautiful wood, and perfect for building homes in the wet climate of the South.

The day was warming, and the sun felt wonderful on our short hike on the Chesser Homestead trail.  We skipped the boardwalk since Mattie couldn’t go but she loved running along on the sandy trail.  As long time readers know, Mattie loves sand!

The visitor center is aging, according to the volunteer we spoke with, who told us they were planning a new, state of the art visitor center for the following year.  However, to us, the current center seemed lovely.

One of the best features of the Visitor Center was of all things, the movie.  It was through this movie, with very minimal narration, that I began to actually get a feeling for the beauty of the swamp. 

From a human scale, at ground level, and from a car, it is impossible to see the complex mosaic of “islands” (dryer habitats) , cypress swamplands, waterways, and “prairies” (wetlands without trees) that extend for miles in all directions.  The aerial views provided in the video were breathtaking, and really changed my perception of Okefenokee.

The “Storyteller” was another treat.  Up close and personal with an audio animatronic human being is weird, especially when he looked me directly in the eyes while telling his stories. He tells several stories if you push the right buttons. 

Another treat was the “jukebox” where different sounds were played.  We listened to a few, and one that stood out was the hog something or other frog.  The next day, as we paddled in the swamp, I was glad to have heard that sound, because I recognized the difference between the frog sound and the huge bellow of the old alligators that exploded across the river like thunder as we paddled in the early part of the day.

After our day exploring, we returned in time to be sheltered before the thunderstorm hit.  It wasn’t a terribly terrifying storm, but there was a lot of rain, and enough thunder and lightning to make it exciting. The beauty of this storm is that it blew out all the hot sticky air we had been experiencing the previous few days and the weather turned cool and fresh.

When we woke up for our planned kayaking day, the skies were gorgeous blue, not a sign of fog in the air, and crisp enough that we needed long sleeved shirts as we boarded our boats by 9AM.

The day on the water filled out another perspective of the swamp.  The Okefenokee isn’t technically a true swamp, because it is not a pool of stagnant water with trees, it is actually a flowing river, much like the Everglades, it has a current flowing through the landscape. 

We felt that current traveling upstream on Billy’s Lake, turning west and north toward Minnie’s Lake.  It was uphill all the way.  Even the slight current was stronger than we expected, and the paddle upstream about 4 miles to the “Minnie’s Lake Rest Stop” was a bit of a workout.

The canoe trail is beautiful, and in places incredibly narrow. Paddling upstream wasn’t that difficult, but on our trip back down it took a bit of skill to turn the boats to keep from being pushed into the cypress trunks by the current.  We saw a lot of marks on those stumps where people hadn’t been very successful.

There weren’t a lot of birds, which surprised us.  Either we are too late or too early in the season, and there was only an occasional great egret, a couple of cormorants, and a red shouldered hawk.  Toward midday we did begin to hear a lot more birdsong, but in the thick cypress swampland, it was hard to actually see a bird.

What we did see were the alligators.  There were many of them, some submerged with only eyes showing among the pond lilies, others swimming across the channel, and many sunning themselves on logs, looking for all the world as though they were hugging their logs.

As we approached the landing, I was startled to see this really big guy right beside me, and for the only time on the trip, I felt like I was too close to an alligator!  He paid me no mind, and I tried to keep paddling while taking his photo and NOT let myself get pushed into him by the current. Alligators don’t seem aggressive at all and if you leave them alone they will leave you alone.

The landing was interesting, sturdy and roomy, with a shade shelter, and a series of wooden steps that made exiting the boats a bit different, but doable.  With that big gator just a few hundred feet away, I was glad for an exit on the wooden step and not in the deep black water below the step.

We enjoyed our lunch there, watching the dragonflies and bumblebees buzzing around, enjoying the young gator on the log nearby, and appreciating that we had enjoyed the entire trip completely to ourselves.  At about that moment, a canoe showed up at the landing, and as we paddled back downstream, we passed a couple more canoes with people wondering how far it was to the shelter.  We also passed someone in a john boat with an idling motor.  I did laugh to myself imagining that guy attempting to get through the narrow spots farther up the trail.

The trip to the landing took about 2.5 hours, and the current took us back to Billie Lake in just an hour. We decided that we had enough in us to paddle upstream a bit more on Billie’s Lake to get to Billie’s island, where there had once been a logging community of more than 700 people.  We still marveled at how in the world those loggers managed to harvest all that old growth cypress in all that water. 

The landing at Billie’s Island was shaded and lovely, and there were a few kayaks and canoes docked where people had disembarked to hike the short trail to what remained of the community.  With more than 9 miles of paddling under our belts, we decided to call it a day and just lolled around a bit at the landing.  The return trip home was quiet and perfect, and as I paddled up the short access canal to the boat basin, I knew it was on my list of one of my favorite paddles ever.

We are so glad we made the effort to come to Okefenokee.  It is not on the way to anywhere, and yet is such a treasure.  We are especially grateful to Judy, who spent a many seasons volunteering at the refuge for writing about this place and inspiring us to seek it out.

03-10-2019 Okefenokee Don’t Ya Love that Name!?

Current Location: Stephen Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia

Foggy and 64 degrees F at 9AM

When we left Jacksonville yesterday (on Sunday morning), I confidently headed in the direction of I-295 toward I-10 West.  Seems as though a couple of weeks navigating Jacksonville freeways built my confidence again.  After all, I did learn to drive on the San Bernardino Freeway (currently I-10) back in the 60’s.  It also helped that it was during church time and the freeways were almost empty.  We have noticed traveling through Northern Florida that there are a LOT of churches, almost one on every block.  I had no idea there were so many different versions of the Baptist Church.

Within a very few miles along the interstate, we turned north on secondary highways heading toward our destination.  I was thrilled to once again be on open roads, empty of traffic, and surprisingly also empty of telephone lines and fences. Gorgeous.  I know we can find spaces like that out west, but never thought to find that kind of clean landscape here in the south.  The forests, marshes and swamps of Florida and Georgia are truly wild lands.

We were required to check out of JAX NAS by 11 and couldn’t check into our site at Stephen C Foster State Park until 1.  With a short 90 miles to our destination, we found ourselves ahead of schedule. We looked for a wide spot for lunch, except all the places in the road that had room for our rig were church parking lots and they were full.  Eventually a spot appeared, and we stopped for a pleasant lunch in the warm Florida air and a walk for Mattie before we continued north. 

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is huge, covering 630 square miles in southeast Georgia, including nearly all the world renowned Okefenokee Swamp.  Stephen C Foster State Park is almost in the geographical center of the refuge, and is the only place to camp in an RV in the swamp.  There are three entrances, however, to the refuge lands, which can get a bit confusing.

We found out after arriving at the State Park that the actual visitor center was an hour and a half back near our route, and we should have known to go there first on our way to the state park.  We usually like to use the visitor centers as a good way to get oriented to the landscape and history of where we are, but in this case, there wasn’t much available. 

Also, it is important to note that there is basically no cell phone or internet service in this area, so looking anything up is not possible, not even at the state park office where we checked in and registered for our reserved campsite.  The store is small, and has tee shirts, stuffed alligators, and kids books, but nothing that would give us any more information about the swamp and park except for the map of the canoe trails and the official NWR brochure for the swamp.

What we discovered in that brochure is that most of the “attractions” of the swamp are back at that main entrance on the eastern side.  In addition to the Visitor Center, the area has several walking trails, an overlook tower, the Chesser Island Boardwalk, the Chesser Homestead trail, the Deerstand Trail, the Longleaf Pine Trail, the Phernetton Trail, the Upland Discovery Trail, and the Ridleys Island Boardwalk.

Here at the State Park, we have the lovely campground, a small loop trail that surrounds the campground, and the boat launch.  It is here that we will take the ranger led boat ride and will launch our kayaks to explore the several water trails that are part of the area around the state park.

We settled into our site and adjusted to the warm steamy afternoon with the fantastic fan on full blast before we gave up and turned on the air.  We have no internet, but a complete surprise, we do have a limited cable service, so can get a weather prediction at least now and then.

It was the first day of Daylight Savings time, and we knew that daylight would linger till 8 pm or so.  After an early supper, we decided it had cooled enough that an evening walk would be a perfect way to end the day. 

The nature trail and boardwalk in the vicinity of the boat basin is almost a mile and a half of well groomed trail in addition to the elevated boardwalk that meanders out into the swamp. We learned that the difference between a wetland swamp and a wetland marsh is that the swamp has trees, mostly cypress.

We also learned that logging of cypress was  extensive in the early 1900’s and supported communities of hardy settlers .  We walked through the thickly vegetated swamp, wondering how many varieties of plants it must have.  I was rewarded with a sign at the end of the walk that said the Okefenokee Swamp supports more than 620 species of plants. We also marveled at how in the world anyone would navigate in a swamp.  No clue.  Maybe we will learn about that at the Visitor Center or on the boat ride.

We were also rewarded with one lone alligator, even though everywhere we go there are signs warning of the presence of alligators.  I didn’t see any water birds at all, not one.  We are repeatedly warned not to feed the wildlife, but so far this season, actual wildlife views have been few and far between.  I expect that might change today as we take the boat ride into the marsh and walk on some of the trails at the wildlife refuge.

The campground  here is quite nice, with some sites very private and large, and others a bit more open and smaller.  It is hard to choose sites from the internet, and I tried for the several big pull through sites, but none were available.  Seeing the sites in person, I was glad we didn’t get one. 

They are along a paved road rather than the quiet meandering small road that goes through the park.  The ground is very wet, and yet we are on hard sand and completely level.  In all our campsites this year, including cement pads in many places, we haven’t been this level.  We haven’t bothered to drop the jacks.

We love that Mattie is allowed on the trails and is only restricted from going on the boardwalks in the refuge, but not at the state park.

Another amenity that tickled us are the classic southern porch wooden rockers on the screened in porches. There is one at the registration office, and they are even at the campground restrooms, which are called “comfort stations”.  Maybe they figured campers might need a break from the bugs.  So far, the bugs haven’t been too bad, but there are some truly big, truly scary looking wasps that seem to think our motorhome would make a great place to live.  We will do our best to avoid those creepy critters.

With good weather expected on Monday morning and rain in the afternoon, we decided that we would do the boat ride in the morning and then drive back to the main visitor center in the afternoon.  With clear weather in the forecast for Tuesday, we saved that day for our planned kayak into the wilds of the swamp on our own.

03-08-2019 Kayaking the Silver River Once Again

Current Location: Jacksonville Naval Air Station Florida

Clear and 55 degrees F at 7AM

I didn’t plan it this way, but somehow it was perfect.  Our last day kayaking in Florida was on the Silver River.  For me it was just a tiny bit bittersweet.  I fell in love with this river during my first trip to Florida in March of 2000.  Florida was entirely new to me and a complete surprise. 

Paddling against the current, trying to keep from running backwards into this guy as I juggle the camera

I had never imagined the beautiful forests or the clarity of the springs, and the feeling of soft velvet Florida air.  I hiked down to the river from the state park and daydreamed about someday owning my own kayak and being on this beautiful river.

Colors on the upper part of the Silver River are breathtaking

I visited the springs and the river several times over the years, riding the jungle cruise boats and the glass bottomed boats from the springs, but it wasn’t until 2007, when Mo and I made a cross country trip to Florida in the baby MoHo with our previous kayaks that I actually got on the river in my own boat.  (the story is here). It was mid December, and the trees had no leaves and it was a chilly day. Still, it was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by an incredible number of birds on that trip.

Juggling camera settings while paddling, got some kind of “art” thing!

Our trip to Florida this year was about making one last cross country journey all the way to Florida for the main purpose of kayaking the spring runs. As always, with Florida planning, I had a bit of trouble scheduling weeks in the proper order at the proper places.  When I scheduled our two weeks on the eastern edge of Northern Florida, I thought that we might have access to some nice boating areas around Jacksonville.

Lower portion of the Silver River is a bit darker, not quite as clear as the upper part

What we discovered, however, was that most of the kayaking in the Jacksonville area isn’t exactly what I imagined when I planned to drive so many thousands of miles to find clear spring runs.  Instead, there is the huge St Johns River, which is more like a bay, and its many beautiful estuaries.  Salt marshes, low tides exposing sharp oyster beds, and thick brown water.  The more I researched, the more I decided that a 2 hour drive to return to the limestone backbone of the state where the best springs are located was OK.  After all, if we could drive 3500 miles to get here, we could drive 95 miles to kayak clear water.

There were some options, but none seemed as perfect as returning once again to the Silver River and Silver Springs.  We knew the launch point from our previous kayak, and we knew the paddling against the current upstream was doable.  We had done it.

Lobelia in bloom along the river’s edge

We left early in the morning, hoping to be at the launch by 10:30 or so.  What we didn't’ count on was my wrong turn that took us to the eastern edge of Orange Lake instead of the west side, adding another hour to the trip. I should know to turn on Miss Google’s voice when I am driving instead of getting all cocky and thinking I know where I am going.

We were launched and on the river at exactly noon, an easy, non slippery, and soft launch right into the canal that leads down to the Silver River.  It is important to mark the location of the canal so you don’t miss it on your return trip our you will end up in the big, brown Ocklawaha River.  We reached the Silver River in just a few minutes and turned west toward Silver Springs.

Hmmm.  I didn’t remember the current being this strong.  We had 5 miles to go to the spring upriver, and my shoulders definitely noticed the power of the current.  I think it must have been a bit more than the 5 mph listed in the kayak book.  Lucky for us, after a couple of miles, the current seemed to lessen a bit, or at least we got used to it.

During the first couple of miles, the river didn’t appear as clear as I had remembered, and I was a bit disappointed.  By the time we reached the 3 mile marker, however, the water began to clear more and more.  The river seemed big after the Rainbow and the Ichetucknee, and it was deep! There are numerous springs where the water boils on the surface, trying to turn the boats in circles. 

The bottom of the river shows turquoise and green where the springs boil up and you can see huge gar and bluefish in the depths.  I think some of those parts of the river must have been more than 40 feet deep.

Black crowned night heron

Limpkin, the only species in its family

This lonely baby wood duck was our favorite, especially when it found its mom

We didn’t have as many birds as we saw on our December trip, but we did have a LOT of fellow travelers.  It seems that floating downriver is the most popular way to do the river, and we were going upstream.  After awhile I got really tired of saying “hello, hi, good afternoon” so many times to so many people.  Another surprise to me was the presence of motorboats on the river.  Required to travel at idling speed, they still felt rather intrusive in such a place.  We never saw a boat on that river back on a chilly day in December of 2007.

We were entertained by several young rhesus monkeys playing in the trees

It was a beautiful paddle.  At about half a mile from the spring, as the afternoon light was lengthening, we asked each other if we really needed to go all the way to the spring.  Having done it before, we decided that paddling around with the glass bottomed boats, the river boats, and the tourists wasn’t something we cared about doing.

Turning back downriver, suddenly we realized that we were at last alone on the river.  For most of the gliding float downstream, we had the river to ourselves, with only a few hardy souls returning upriver to the Silver Springs launch site. It was gorgeous.  And it was bittersweet.  I knew that every dip of my paddle into that water would be among the last. I savored every moment in the way life should be savored all the time. 

It took us about 3 hours to paddle 4.5 miles upriver, taking time to photograph the birds, alligators, and monkeys.  We floated downriver in about an hour and a half, for 5 hours total in the boats doing 9 miles. 

I should mention the monkeys, since obviously they aren’t endemic to Florida.  The legend is that they were released when the Tarzan movies were filmed in the area in the 40’s, but research indicates the monkeys are actually escapees from the Jungle attraction that used to be at Silver Springs.  There has been talk of trying to remove them, and some feeble attempts were made, but since they are so popular with tourists, thus far they remain.

It is a bit difficult to explain how paddling on the water through all that green feels a bit like you are inside a green glass bottle with the sun coming through.  Somehow the vermillion light fills my heart as well as my eyes. I am so glad the Silver River was my first and my last Florida river.  A treasure I will remember always. Mo just reminded me again to mention that the day was absolutely perfect, the weather was perfect, the skies were gorgeous.