Okefenokee - Paddling from Kingfisher Landing

Today was our last day without strong winds here at Okefenokee Swamp, so we eagerly headed out for more paddling, despite having just paddled a section yesterday.  Today, in contrast to putting in from the main boat ramp near the Visitor Center in the Suwannee Canal Recreation Area, we headed north to Kingfisher Landing, down a primitive, sandy road on the Northeast corner of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  As usual, our entry into the water was without misadventure:

 

Before putting paddle to water, we strolled around Kingfisher Landing, and spotted this old railroad mounted logging vehicle from the old logging days when Okefenokee Swamp was privately owned by a logging company:

Turning our attention to the canal leading from Kingfisher Landing out into Carter Prairie, we were greeted by a wide, slow-moving stream of water.  Okefenokee Swamp drains into the Suwanee River, which actually originates north of the swamp in Georgia and empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Mary's River, which originates in the swamp and empties East into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

The prairie is characterized by a river of grass, punctuated by rafts of peat, hammocks with bushes and small trees, and larger islands with pine and larger deciduous trees.  Occasionally, larger open lakes and ponds dot the prairie.  Here was a hammock or small island with a few large trees:

 

 

Today's paddle didn't reveal nearly as much wildlife as other paddles have -- and not even any alligators, as we saw on yesterday's paddle.  But we did catch these two butterflies enjoying the sun on a floating peat raft as we paddled by:

Much of the paddle was in the open sun, and so we were sure to wear broad-brimmed hats and suntan lotion:

A mile into our paddle, we reached the junction of the Red Trail, which we would follow, headed northwest toward Double Lakes and ultimately around and down to Billy's Island in Stephen C. Foster State Park, which we visited on our paddled adventures here in 2022.  Billy's Island is accessible only by water, but was inhabited over the years.

 

 

The further we paddled, the more the landscape opened up.  Winds picked up, and we found ourselves paddling "upstream" against a faint current and into a breeze that seemed to reach about 12 mph or so.  The paddle back down, of course, was a breeze.

 

 

One of the more interesting things we spotted on this trip was a plethora of hooded pitcher plants, showing beautiful reds and oranges, fading into dry gray on their upper stalks as they seemed to be dying and drying in the late season:

 

 

Sarracenia minor okefenokee (Giant), commonly known as hooded pitcher plant, is a stemless herbaceous perennial that is native to wet pinelands, bogs and savannas in southeastern North America from North Carolina into Florida. It is one of only two species of its kind to employ domed pitchers with translucent white patches that allow light to enter. It has been suggested that the light shining through these patches attracts flying insects further into the pitcher and away from the pitcher's mouth. The pitcher is filled with water and enzymes produced by the plant and helpful in the digestion of prey. In the wild, Sarracenia minor seems very attractive to ants, although it also attracts and eats a wide range of flying insects.  The giant version is found generally only in the Okefenokee Swamp, and can grow quite tall –  up to three feet in height.  Here is a better photo of the hooded pitcher plant taken by a better photographer than we are, and earlier in the season when the pitcher plants had not started to die off for the year:

 

 

And then, we also enjoyed the company of thousands of Golden Club plants.  They were plentiful on yesterday's paddle, but they were everywhere where we paddled today:

After eating lunch in a quiet backwater, we eventually reached Mile 2 and reluctantly decided that, because we had started our paddle at noon (much later than we normally like to set out), we really should turn back in order to get back to the campground and give Ruby the cat her mandatory first afternoon walk (and third of the day).  So we marked our turnaround here:

 

 

The paddle back was peaceful and -- as others have noted, because Kingfisher Landing is in a remote and infrequently visited section of Okefenokee -- quiet, without the noise of crowds of tourists.  We had time to just enjoy the scenery and share our own reactions to our surroundings and our other blue sky thoughts.

This may be our last paddle for a while, so we will simply say, "See you on the water!"  (Wherever that may be.)