On November 15, eight members of the Greeneville Hiking Club left Greeneville for a canoe trip through the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. Although the park rangers had warned us that low water levels would make the trip very difficult, if not impossible, we decided to attempt to complete the trip anyway. After spending Thursday night in a motel in Kingsland, Georgia, we drove to the east entrance at Suwanee Canal Recreation Area where we registered. Then we were shuttled 35 miles to Kingfisher Landing where we launched our boats.

We headed up the northeast boundary of the swamp on the trail marked with red signposts, with a total of twelve miles to cover on the day. During the first four or five miles we passed through an open area, locally called a prarie although it was covered with very shallow water. This section was fairly easy to navigate, but after passing Double Lakes, the low water levels, thick weeds and peat blowups produced conditions that made paddling very difficult. We were able to proceed very slowly by pushing off the bank with our paddles instead of using normal canoe strokes.

We pushed and pulled and pried until we reached Ohio Lake, approximately four more miles. Then the paddling got easier again although we didn’t reach Maul Hammock, our first nights stop until well after dark. The final fifty yards from the main trail to the shelter was the most difficult of the day because there was almost to water in this access channel. We were able to finally reach the platform by the use of ten foot "push-poles" we had brought along just in case.

Maul Hammock is a 30x40 foot wooden platform, known as a "chickee," built on stilts and has a roof covering half the floor space. We set up our camp and rewarded ourselves for our hard work with charcoaled Delmonico steaks, baked potatos and salad. We did have guests show up just in time for dinner: a couple of raccoons! They had absolutely no fear of humans and we spent the night running them off the platform, trying to keep them from our groceries and garbage.

The inital segment of second day’s paddling was much easier as we headed due south into the heart of the Okefenokee. There was a distance of eleven miles to be covered on Saturday. We stopped for lunch at Dinner Pond, a beautiful, open area filled with lilly pads. Next, we proceeded through a jungle-like section reminicient of the Congo River in Africa. This part of the trail had frequent overhanging limbs, very narrow channels and sharp twists and turns. We passed several alligators sunning on the banks and one of them charged off the bank and swam just a few feet across the bow of the canoe, hissing its anger at us for invading its territory.

The low water conditions started to rear its ugly head again as we entered a section known at the Cypress Graveyard. This was an apt name as the downed cypress trees made passage impossible without lifting our canoes over the logs and stumps. We were forced to get out of the canoes and wade approximately a mile and a half through the black waters and muck of the swamp with the boats in tow.

After reaching the panoramic Big Water Lake, the paddling became easier again and some of the group rushed to reach the platform and change into dry clothes while others took their time enjoying the swamp and reached the platform well after dusk again. The second day was no different from the first, as the final hundred yards in the access canal was the hardest. The "push-poles" came out again and this trail took about a half hour to cover. The shelter at Big Water was about the same as Maul Hammock except that lower water conditions there kept the raccoons and other critters away.

On the final day, we had an easy nine miles to cover through, arguably, the most beautiful section of the Okefenokee. We went through a section of narrow chanels lined by huge cypress trees covered with Spanish Moss and the wider areas of Minnie’s Lake and Billy’s Lake. The large, misshappen, cypress "knees" present in the water gave some sections the look of a "fairyland!" After a brief stop for lunch in the canoe, we continued to our destination at Stephen Foster State Park, where we were shuttled 85 miles back to our van.

The Okefenokee Swamp is not a true swamp but a large watershed of 700 square miles. It forms the headwaters of the Suwanee River which runs all the way across the state of Florida and drains into the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Marys River, which drains into the Atlantic Ocean. Okefenokee is an indian word that translates into: "Land of the Trembling Earth" because the ground will move when walked upon due to the unstability of the peat base.

The trip had covered a total of 31 miles through praries, forests, jungles and lakes. We saw a wide variety of plant and animal life including alligators, sandhill cranes, herons, kingfishers, river otters and deer. The Okefenokee Swamp is one of the most beautiful, although desolate, places on earth. This was a difficult trip but well worth the effort.