In short: This was our first overnight paddle into the Okefenokee, loading the canoe over the Fourth of July weekend and heading out to stay at Round Top and Coffee Bay. Me and Tina counted mile markers down the main canal, passed big gators putting their whole bodies up out of the water, fought yellow flies that ran her into the tent, cooked beans and rice on a little backpacking stove, and watched a gator hold by camp all evening into the dark.
We paddled out onto the main canal heading toward camp, and it was beautiful and peaceful, mile marker after mile marker ticking by. It took us about an hour and forty five minutes to make the first three miles, then we picked up speed, a mile in fifteen minutes, another in twenty two. The gators showed up quick, big ones close together putting their full bodies up, and they did not seem afraid at all. Four in the last fifty yards at one point. We made Coffee Bay a little past noon, unloaded, stretched our backs, and got tight before the afternoon thunderstorm rolled in.
The yellow flies were the real fight. They were not bad through the day, but come evening they came on thick, and Tina spent the afternoon in the tent to get away from them. I set up my backpacking stove, first time using that type, screwed the adapter onto a one pound propane bottle, and got it going with the little igniter. That thing puts out flame and gets hot quick, so you have to stir or it will scorch. Supper was ham and bean soup my daughter cooked, warmed up with rice we had frozen, quick and simple. The one trick that beat the yellow flies was learning to live in the smoke. In the smoke they leave you be.
As the sun went down our little gator friend was right there, holding just off camp, and a big owl flew in and perched in the tree across from us to watch too. When it got dark, it got dark like there is no other dark, and the sky came clear. I shined the light around and counted eyes glowing all over the water, one down there, one right there, a little friend close in. That gator hung by our camp into the night, but he wanted nothing to do with us. You keep your food and scraps out of the water, never feed him, give him room, and he just sits there with the fireworks going off somewhere far away and the frogs sounding off loud as anything.
Planning a permitted platform trip, beating the bugs with smoke, running a backpacking stove, and staying calm with a gator in camp. It is all in the Canoe Camping Playbook.
Read the Canoe Camping PlaybookOvernight paddlers stay on designated stops reached by the water trails, like Round Top and Coffee Bay. You paddle in along the marked canals counting mile markers, and camp only at your reserved platform. It takes a permit, but it puts you deep in the swamp.
Get in the smoke. Yellow flies are worst in the heat of the evening, and campfire smoke is the one thing that keeps them off, so build your fire and live in it. They tend to die off after dark, and a tent or netting gives you a break until the sun goes down.
A gator will often hang around out of curiosity, holding just off the bank and watching, but it wants nothing to do with you. Keep food and fish scraps out of the water, never feed it, and it will just sit there with its eyes glowing in your light.
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