Ready to leave:
Okefenokee National Wildlife
Refuge is about 1700 square
kilometers (650 square miles). While the swamp has had a tough history of
getting logged and dredged, it has managed to survive and even rebound from
the past damages. It is still a very wild place. There are several
access points to the swamp, and I think that
each access point has a "day use"
zone centered on it so you can put your canoe in the water and paddle around
for the day. However, if you want to spend a night in the
swamp, you must arrange for permits from the US Fish & Wildlife Service
ahead of time. There are regulations and practices you must know about,
too. For example, you must bring
in all your water--drinking the swamp water is unwise. You must also learn
about how to navigate the trail system (actually, a very easy
process). Once you are in the swamp, you are on your own. We saw perhaps
two people per day while we were there.
The swamp is big. It is real wilderness. You don't screw around with it,
otherwise you'll get yourself in serious trouble.
This is a picture of us on the morning of our first day out, at
Kingfisher Landing. Once we got
into the canoe, it was three days before we felt solid ground under our
feet again!
(While we had tents, dry bags, etc., we rented the canoe and other gear
from "Okefenokee Adventures", the official concessionaire for
our put-in site. The cost was less than $150 for five days!)
