Okefenokee Night 1 and Day 1 - Too wet for fish, too cold for... just about anything

Night 1 and Day 1 - When wanting to visit the Okefenokee Swamp during the peak visiting season, which happens to be March and April, you are only allowed to spend three days and two nights out there at one time. The best way to optimize this for working folk would, of course, be on a weekend. But the swamp is around four hours away from Aiken, and wanting to optimize our time out there, the group decided to meet up as close as possible on Thursday night.

There are plenty of parks around south Georgia, I'm sure, so Dad scheduled us a camp site at Laura Walker State Park in Waycross, GA. It's about 20-30 minutes from where we're putting in. Some of the retirees went down earlier to scout things out and because they can. The rest of us waited until after work to head down. The only thing that could dampen my spirits during work was, of course, the weather.

It was cold and had been raining all day in Aiken and most of the southeast so I was understandably a little hesitant about our first night seeing as we were supposed to rough it and camp in tents the whole weekend, including that first night. However, along the way we received a call that our group had upgraded to a cabin because our campsite, like most of the park, was under water. I'm still not sure if we were upgraded by the park or we just upgraded ourselves because I never actually saw a park ranger (happens when you arrive five minutes before they close under the cover of darkness and rain and then leave the next morning under similar circumstances). After all, we're river rats and sometimes pirates and we do what we want. And it is almost always better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. But the cabin made things much better. I mean, who doesn't want to spend a night in a small room with seven other people, right?

In all seriousness it was much better than setting up our tent in the rain, getting all our equipment soaked in the rain, and sleeping on a wet tarp on the wet ground in the rain. My only complain was the odd symphony of snoring going on around me. The cabin was more of a small bunk house with eight bunks. Nancy chose to sleep in her car and Allison stayed in another town with her parents, I believe. So I had Jeff in the bunk below me snoring, Bob across the way snoring, Dave R. and Dave S. both snoring... I'll give Kim the benefit of the doubt and say she didn't snore... and I'm willing to bet I snored or snorted a couple times at least. So, if someone happened to walk past our cabin that night, I'm sure they were wondering who let the bears in out of the rain.

On Friday morning we all woke up with the sun, mostly because, as is the case with older men, they all had to use the bathroom earlier than I had planned on waking up. But with them all shuffling and the screen door slamming shut and creaking open and closed there was no staying asleep. So, I got up and we all got cleaned up (we made sure to shower at the heated bathhouses and changed clothes for possibly the last time in a few days). Dad and I packed extra clothes hoping to change during the trip, but let's be real here, camping and being a guy means you can be gross and nobody around you really cares or says anything because they are in the same boat (not literally, I don't do tandem kayaking. That's just asking for problems).

Anyways, back to the story: we loaded up our vehicles and caravaned out of the smaller park to a town just outside the east gate called Folkston, GA for breakfast at the Okefenokee Restaurant. It was really good with pancakes as big as the full dinner plates and hot coffee. I'm not normally a coffee addict or even casual drinker, but when you need to get warmed up and get going at the same time, you almost never say, "No," to a good cup o' joe.

Filled up and now with Allison having joined us during breakfast, we went to the park and packed our gear into the kayaks. This, I found out, is an art form in spreading out the weight of all the gear and was much easier and better than I was planning for as the rain had stopped so our gear could really be dry. Yes, we had dry bags, but even those aren't perfect and I wasn't looking forward to sitting on a wet seat.

When you paddle this stretch of the canal and swamp, you have two lanes. One on the right going out and one on the left coming in separated by a bank of trees. Glad to see the highway system idea still holds true out on the water as well.

As we headed out, the first stretch made me wonder if this was worth the trip. Both sides look like a tornado or hurricane had been through. It's bleak, gray, still damp and cold and there are burnt trees and lots of downed trees. But it's not raining, so that is good. We were sort of wondering what had happened to this stretch when we remembered a few years back there were lots of wildfires from lightning strikes during the dry periods. The underbrush has started to come back and is starting to grow back up, but the barren tree trunks of cypress, oak, and pine are all stark reminders of what happened, especially as some still show the charred scars attributed to the fires.

So we kayak along not expecting much out of the day. It's too cold for the cold blooded monsters we're hoping to see. And I'm betting most birds, even the water fowl, are probably thinking. "Screw this. I'm nesting down for the weekend." But, it's not raining so that is good. (Notice a trend here yet?)

With our expectations a little lower for this first day we do see some pretty cool sights and I feel like this is helped a bit by the fact that we're one of only two groups out on this morning and the other group thankfully got a bit of a jump on us. So, the water is glass and we're able to just easily glide along. Dad and I found a couple spots along the way that we're able to cut off the canal and, with a little maneuvering, we found ourselves in a couple bogs/lakes/prairies/ponds. Not 100% sure what they call these sections but I think to myself in both that these must be really beautiful during sunny weather... And are perfect for a gator to hide in. But it's too cold, no gators. But, it's not raining so that is good.

 But as we continue on the scenery began to change a bit. We started to see more trees, more Spanish moss and more greenery. We saw egrets and cranes, herons and other water fowl...

It's just before lunch when we spot our first critter other than birds flying over. It's a hawk and he seems a little pissy and ruffled up. I don't blame him. The wetness and the cold has him all ruffled up.

And before long we were ready for lunch.

We stopped at a place called Coffee Bay for lunch. It was another platform where you can either spend an hour hanging out resting, or you can spend the night. It's here we officially meet the only other overnight group in this part of the reserve with us. It's four guys from Atlanta who try to do this trip every few years together and they hang out, fish and just be guys in the wilderness. And seems I remember they try to stay at the same platforms every time. But they're nice and even though they have claims to the shelter because they reserved it for the night, they welcome us in for lunch and we hang out and chat a bit. Nice group. They even offer to leave the vodka and have a fire waiting for us when we get back tomorrow. They were only kidding about the alcohol though.

Filled up, we take off and it's more of the same as we continue on: lots of moss, lots of trees... And not much else. But I did I finally see a gator, but his head is all I see. It was no bigger than my hand and as soon as I made eye contact with him, he was under the water and gone. Don't blame him. And that's the last gator for the day. 

Now, you'd expect a national park to be on top of their game as far as maps go because they don't want you getting lost and becoming gator food. But this isn't exactly the case. Back at the put in, an employee told me a couple of the best places to go and best routes to maximize our trip and see the coolest things. Oh, and a secret. Our turn to get on the prairie is actually about a quarter to a half mile AFTER mile marker 9, not before as it is shown on the map. This isn't the only mistake we'll discover, but it happens. I explained it to the group, but a couple missed what I was saying so they started getting worried ahead of me until they finally found the turn off. It's here most all of us regrouped and started out onto what several of the seasoned guys called a prairie. So... Prairie dogs, and dry land, right? Wrong.

But I digress. Despite no sun out on the prairie, it's still good kayaking, and there is an obvious path through the lily pads and other snags and snares. And it's WAY different than what we had been on. Where the canal was only 40 feet wide at points with tall trees on either side, the prairie is pretty wide open with occasional "islands" made up of groups of trees and bushes.

We twist and turn, zig and zag along through the prairie following the open path set before us and we started to see a few more birds here and there. Mostly swallows of some kind that don't stay still even for a second so I was unable to get a picture of them. But there's really not much else.

It's here that I started to grow a little weary and a bit cranky. I've been wearing my cold weather dry top since around 9:45 and I was never 100% comfortable in it. The wrists and neck line are made of rubber to help keep the water out and they are cutting off circulation a bit. My left wrist especially. Now, for those that haven't kayaked much, no, you don't need a lot of wrist motion, but it helps. So I finally shed the top with a bit of help stabilizing from Dad and we continue on near the back of the pack.

The way is long it seems. Maybe it's because we're all tired, but it gets a bit quieter and we are very relieved when we finally round a bend and see the outhouse that signals we have reached our shelter for the night - Roundtop. And there are Jeff and Dave S. They had been ahead of us until lunch, we briefly saw them then they were gone again. Being old boyscout masters they have been here before and are pretty much all business as far as getting up, going and not loligagging. They already have their stuff set up and help us with our gear.it's a bit windy on the prairie and still overcast and chilly. There's also an outhouse on the dock and it is ripe. I mean gagilicious. But, it's not like it's easily accessible for cleaning and when you have to go... you have to go.

Friday night's camp was our first experience camping out of the kayaks for dad and me, and was far different from the night before. Where we had dinner on the road eating Wendy's, Friday we dined on freeze dried MREs. Where Thursday night we had bunk beds with matresses, Friday night it was the hard dock/platform in our tents and sleeping bags.

But back to dinner. We had our choices of a few different MREs and when we were picking them out beforehand I just remembered my experiences with certain flavors in their fully cooked staged. So no way was I about to test the waters of freeze dried chili and mac-n-cheese when my stomach didn't like it made at home. Instead, that first night I chose chicken and rice while dad choose beef stew. It's an easy concept, it's pre-cooked and then freeze dried. I'm not expecting much in the way of flavor or amount because the packages were kind of small and all you do is add  2 cups of boiling water, mix together and then seal the package up before letting it sit for about 10 minutes. So, I opened it up and.... I am actually surprised! These are perfect for dinner today because they are hot and act as a hand warmer and there's a lot of protein and there is a lot of it... And it actually tastes good! I'm very surprised. I tasted a bit of dad's beef stew and it's not bad either, but I have plenty to eat with my chicken and rice and I was pretty well satisfied.

Dinner was definitely what the doctor ordered for this group as we all started to perk up a bit having gotten to sit and rest a bit and with warm food in our bellies. We set up the tents (six on this platform and I tell you, it's a little crowded) and we got everybody settled in around the picnic table and just started talking. Talking about what a great group we have and other things. Trying to take our minds off the cold and wind. And the smell.

And that was when something amazing happened. Just before sunset, the sun actually came out! Glorious sun beams. Not going to lie, we may have celebrated a bit. And suddenly, like a switch being flipped, the group is more upbeat about the coming days. I feel like, up to this point, we were all a little concerned that the weather forecast of 70's and clear blue skies was going to be way off. Weather changes, but dang it. I wanted to see gators and wildlife.

Amazing thing about camping, not just with older folks, but when it gets dark and you don't have a camp fire to gather around, you get really tired and you, gasp!, go to sleep at a decent hour. So we called it a night and settled into our sleeping bags on the hard boards.