Family Hammock Camping on the St. Marys River | Sandbar Cooking Foil Packs

In short: We put in at the St. George boat ramp on the Georgia Florida line and paddled the St. Marys as a family, me, Tina, and the boys. The first mile below the bridge is tight, sketchy water full of switchbacks and dead falls that tested our skills. Then it opened up, we found a sandbar, gathered fat lighter, let Boo start the fire off a Vaseline cotton ball, and cooked foil packs of home cured bacon and fresh deer sausage over the coals.

The sketchy first mile

Right off the boat ramp this stretch gets real difficult. Switchbacks, curves, dead falls all in the river, trees, stumps, roots, everything. You cannot take a johnboat down this. We are not seasoned canoers by any means, and it showed, we stuck on a stump, bumped a few logs, and had to push off one to swing to the other. But that is the thing about tight water, you pick your line early, use the paddle to push off, and take it one obstacle at a time. Mama did a good job getting us through it, and Boo was cruising up front like he had it figured out. If you come this way, watch that first mile past the bridge. After that it goes wide and easy.

Fat lighter and a one strike fire

We found our sandbar with trees to hang the hammocks, a point to fish off of, and a spot to swim. Then Brantley and me went hunting fat lighter. When a pine dies and the sap dries up in it over the years, the wood turns to fat lighter, and it is a highly flammable, excellent fire starter. You know it by the smell. Seven or eight pieces will keep a fire all night. We had soaked cotton balls in Vaseline back at the house, and Boo got the fire lit in about four or five strikes his first time ever, then fed it birch bark and small stuff till we had a good base.

Bacon, deer sausage, and foil packs

Supper was worth the work. We fried up home cured bacon from a hog we raised and processed ourselves, and cooked our fresh deer sausage in one long link so it stayed sealed and cooked in its own juices before we cut it into chunks. Then we built foil packs, what we call full packs, with the sausage, rice, home canned tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Lawry's. A drop of water in each one so it steamed instead of sticking, sealed tight, and set near the coals for about ten minutes. We could have boiled a freeze dried pouch in five minutes, but it would not be near this good. Real food over a real fire is the whole point.

Questions about canoeing and camp cooking

How do you cook a foil pack over a fire?

Start with good ingredients, because a foil pack only tastes as good as what goes into it. We fried home cured bacon from a hog we raised and processed ourselves, and cooked our fresh deer sausage in one long link so it stayed sealed and cooked in its own juices before we cut it into chunks. We built what we call full packs, layering the sausage with rice, home canned tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper in a sheet of foil, seasoned with salt, pepper, and Lawry's. A drop of water goes in before you seal the ends tight, that bit of moisture steams the food instead of letting it stick and burn. Set the pack near the coals, not right in the flames, and give it about ten minutes, turning it now and then. A freeze dried pouch would boil up in five minutes, but it would not come close to this. Real food over a real fire is the whole point.

Is the St. Marys hard to canoe?

The stretch right below the St. George boat ramp on the Georgia Florida line will test you. For about the first mile the river is tight and tricky, switchbacks, curves, dead falls sitting right in the water, stumps and roots everywhere, nothing a johnboat could get through. We are not seasoned canoers, and that first mile showed it, we got stuck on a stump and had to push off logs to swing the canoe around more than once. It takes real attention, picking your line early and reading the water instead of just paddling and hoping. But once you get past that first mile, the river opens up wide and the whole character of the trip changes, it turns calm and easy, the kind of water where you can relax and just enjoy being out there with the family. If you put in at that ramp, respect that first mile, and once it is behind you, the rest of the float is calm and easy.