The End of the Swamp

This is the rest of the swamp story. We awoke the next morning early and loaded our stuff in the canoe. Not far down the creek we came to that tree I saw the night before that had fallen across the waterway. It looked as if it had been there for quite a while. We laid in the bottom of the canoe and pulled the canoe under the tree. We were covered with spider webs when we got to the other side. Obviously no one had been this way in some time. I was beginning to wonder again if we were going the right way. We continued on as the waterway narrowed. It eventually became a ditch with barely enough water in it to keep the canoe afloat. We moved the canoe along by pushing against the side of the ditch with the paddles. The vegetation was thick and at times blocked the waterway. We encountered dozens of huge spider webs that stretched across the ditch. Finally, the ditch began to get wider and the water deeper. Fish were jumping out of the water. Several of them landed in the boat and we threw them back in the water. Then we came into a river. At last we had found something we could identify on that map. It was the Suwanee River. By this time we were snarling at each other again and in the wide river we were having a problem guiding the canoe again. I just gave up and let the river take us along. At times we were floating down the river sideways. The landing where we were to meet the man to take us back where we started came into sight. We loaded the canoe on his truck and began the 40 mile trip by road back to the other side of the swamp. The silence was thicker than the spider webs we encountered earlier. When we arrived back at our starting point, everyone was talking about the huge alligator that attacked and killed a smaller alligator in the cove where they kept the canoes. If that would have happened the day before, there would be no story to write about. Earlier today, I checked the Okefenokee Swamp website. Apparently they don't allow the public to take the kind of trip we took anymore. They do allow day trips in rented canoes, but they also give a warning. If we have to send a rescue team out for you, you will have to pay the cost of the rescue. I don't think that was even an option when we took the trip. In fact, if we had not found our way out, they would still be charging us rent on the canoe.