Okefenokee Swamp Report - Day 1, Part 1

Last week I left the Creation Museum on a vacation (I know you are all shocked, you didn't know such a thing could happen).  If it makes you feel better I was gone with many fellow employees... ;-)  I went to Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

The first night we stayed in a campground outside of the swamp.  Many other people had arrived the day before and spent that night there.  They used Monday (the day I arrived) to explore some of the swamp, the beach, or other areas nearby.  I spent Monday driving across the entire state of Georgia--half of the time I wasn't on Interstate highways...it was interesting.

The yellow tent is the one that I borrowed from my brother Larry.  I borrowed much of my equipment from him.  He has been canoe camping many times and it made more sense than outfitting myself for one trip.  I did enjoy the entire experience enough that I want to do it again (both the swamp and canoe camping itself).

Most people brought their canoes, like Buddy and Kay here.  When I asked my nephew Erik if he could come I thought about borrowing a canoe--but I never considered that one could be tied on top of a small car--but the blue car in the right of the picture also had a canoe tied on top.

This is most of the equipment that my canoe-mate Rob and I had.  My stuff is the stack on the left and Rob's is on the right.  I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow dry bags from my brother Larry--otherwise I would have relied on trash bags as others did.  We didn't have a problem with water--but I like how easy dry bags are to use.  They are useful even if you're not really worried about things getting wet as they're easy to move and easy to stow in various places in the canoe.

Josh is willing to pose in interesting ways.  With him working in the Petting Zoo I just thought this was an appropriate picture to frame.

Denise and Mark brought an inflatable canoe.  I'm pretty sure that the red skirt visible here was removed shortly thereafter--partly so it was easier to tie their gear on top.

The sun looked great through the trees.  We actually woke up before sunrise.  We had to leave the campsite by seven and we made it, partly because most of us woke at five and got things ready pretty quickly.  I'd meant to get up at six thirty, but I'm glad I got up earlier so I had more time and didn't have to rush.  Later we wished that we'd gotten an earlier start on the water--but we didn't quite know what we were in for at this time.

This was our first view of the swamp.  I think this might have been part of a canal, I'm not sure that it was entirely natural.  It was beautiful though.  The rest of the day didn't always feature such nice trees--we saw many burned areas later.

These were the only type of bathroom facilities we had for the next three days.  Once we were in the swamp the outhouses were at the edge of platforms.  Oh, and you need to bring your own toilet paper, ;-).

I like taking pictures of signs, especially directional signs.  We did have to register in that we had a permit to be on our route (the red trail) for the days that we were in the swamp.  During March and April (the busy months) you can only travel the routes that allow two night camping, you can't book any of the longer trips that are possible other times.

Denise will probably kill me, but I thought this was a rather fun shot.  I managed to catch her just as she started to walk, so she looks like she is falling over or being held up by ropes.

Before the drivers moved the cars we got together for a group shot.  I don't have it on my camera, but Perry ended up taking a group shot at each place we all got together.  I'm looking forward to seeing them once I start to put everyone's pictures together on a DVD.

See what Mark's hair looks like?  It got worse over the next couple days as he developed a strong case of "swamp hair."  We suspected he might be a skunk ape--either that or Josh was one.

This is where we parked our cars, near the visitor's center, while we were in the swamp.  Many people had gone through the visitor's center and walked some trails on Monday, but I'd been driving all day on Monday and didn't get to go through until Thursday, when we exited the swamp.  At the time I parked I didn't even realize the visitor's center was nearby.

The two canoes were the rentals that we added to the canoes and kayaks some in the group brought.  I was in one of the rentals.  The driver of this van took the drivers back to the launch ramp along with those two canoes that we'd rented.  On Thursday we came out at the other end of th park and he was there to pick us up, at which point we managed to fit all of our canoes on the rack and equipment in the trailer, boats, and van.

In the morning we were all fresh and enjoying the day.  This feeling wouldn’t last throughout the day…  The canoe in the background was from a group starting out on the green trail.  Our route didn't stay together very long.  Pretty soon they'd diverged and we didn't see other people until we were on our way out on the second and third days and in the area that motor boats could come from the exit at Stephen Foster State Park.

We followed signs like this red one throughout our three days in the swamp.  Most of the time it was clear which way we were to go, simply because it was the only way.  It was helpful when the path was clearly the area between mats of lily pads.  Whenever there was confusion or at mile markers we saw red signs.

Throughout the first day we only saw trees at a distance like this one.  We weren’t fortunate enough to go through shady areas.  Eventually it was so hot that while there weren’t any clouds the sky wasn’t blue—it was partly white with a heat haze hanging in the air.

Here you can spot Perry (one of the trip organizers) with a bladderwort.  I wish that we had all stayed together more often.  Times like this where Perry showed us something were rarer than they could have been—but fun when they came.  He explained how this plant worked as he pulled out up for a closer examination.

Here you can see a bladderwort in situ.  We saw dozens or hundreds of them that first day.

This is the underwater portion of the bladderwort.  The yellow flower sits above the water—this part trails beneath the water’s surface and catches underwater bugs.  Later this day (and the next two days) we often saw this portion of the plant beneath lily pads throughout the swamp.

Rob was the other paddler in my canoe (well our canoe actually).  He is a vet that volunteers at the Creation Museum.  We did end up steering towards the banks (or not steering? ;-)) a few times, but overall I think we worked together decently well.

Just like many other areas of the swamp this looks like muddy, but solid ground.  Let me assure you that it is not at all solid.  There are islands in the swamp, but we didn’t see any.  I spent well over two days off of all solid ground (unless you count the platforms as they didn’t float but sat on posts driven into the ground beneath the water).  By the last day I knew that I was going to miss being in the canoes.  I almost didn't want to get out once we reached dry land.

This is a typical prairie.  Doesn’t it look like something you’d see out West?  Despite the solid looking field of grass it is actually a bed of water lightly covered by plants.  Even when you see trees they are either growing on peat mats or growing through the water from the swamp floor, several feet down.

Around noon we tried to find a shady spot (we failed as there was very little shade this entire day—especially at noon) and failing that at least put our canoes together so that we wouldn’t drift while breaking out lunch supplies.  I brought hard salami, cheese, crackers, and apples for my lunches.  It was quite practical and easy to get to.

I do have plenty of other pictures, but this is all I have time for right now (hence the Part I you should have read in the title of this post).  I will try to get this trip documented as soon as I can.  On Friday and Saturday I’m working an overnight so I might, might have some time to work on this.  I didn't realize that it would take this long.  But when I went to select the pictures for this post I realized that to fit everything into a decent length post I'd have to post so few pictures that it simply wasn't worth it.  I decided to break the report into multiple posts and hope everyone would be patient enough.  There were no alligators in this post, but pictures of them are coming soon.

~Matt