Lovely Tandem Day Paddle

Last Sunday, I had a beautiful paddle while getting to share Okefenokee Swamp with a visitor.  It all started when I was chatting with a guy who came to the refuge alone.  He told me he really wanted to paddle in the refuge but didn't want to paddle by himself.  Of course, I seize any excuse to paddle so I replied,  I'll take you paddling, IF I can get the use of a tandem canoe".  (One of the really nice perks here is that our concessionaire, Okefenokee Adventures, lets the volunteers and staff use their canoes/kayaks for free. That's in addition to treating all their clients to fantastic tours and good food as well as filling their needs for paddling and camping equipment. ) So, as soon as I convinced Skip that I meant it,  I went over  to Okefenokee Adventures and asked if I could borrow a tandem canoe, and if a guest would have to pay to go with me.  I got the right answers, yes and no, and ran back to tell Skip that we were on.  He choose to come at 9:00 Sunday so I was all ready to go meet him by 8:30 A. M.

Two of thousands of spider webs made visible by the fog

Starting out

The day was very foggy and  spider webs were "blooming" everywhere. I got a little distracted by them and almost was late for our date.  Then I found I had no food with me, so had to run back to my trailer to get my food. But we got all our stuff packed and were able to start off  before 9:30 A. M., just as the sun burned off the last of the fog.  The day was so warm, we paddled in short-sleeved shirts. After the first two miles, I suggested we visit the porta potty on a platform as this would be our last chance to use a bathroom and get out and stretch without having to stand in water.

Porta Platform located near the junction of three trails

Skip at rest stop

While there, we enjoyed the birds, including our only sighting of a white ibis. Then as soon, as we started back on the trail, I remembered I was supposed to take a picture of the rest room platform. (Georgia Rivers Network is building an interactive map of the Okefenokee and wants to use my pictures, and the GPS waypoints for them so people can click on little icons along the map and see what to expect there.)

One of last ibis in our part of the swamp

 So we quickly turned around. I think I was paddling a little harder than was Skip, so we ended up backing up into a patch of tall grass along the canal. This caused loud crashing just to the back of our boat.  Then I realized we had backed into an alligator's sunning spot. Skip, who was sitting almost on top of all this commotion but was not able to see what was happening, managed to keep his composure.  But later, he told me a pun, " If you spent a week in a cypress swamp, would you be weak in the knees?"  I'm pretty sure I got his knees weak with only a few seconds on top of an alligator.

Stay away from those grassy patches!

The rest of our trip was uneventful.  We paddled around the triangle that goes around an island, then went out on Chesser Prairie a ways. We came back to the canal and paddled to the entrance to the day trip trail and took it back.

More and more Golden Club is blooming

One of several alligators sunning in Chesser Prairie

Sweet dream?

In the day trail, we had to pass six canoes that made up two groups of novice paddlers, who were slowly bouncing from stream-side to stream-side. The warm day caused lots of turtles to be out. One of them was the size of a small washtub.  But he was also very wary, and dived into the water way before I could get close enough to catch a photograph.  Our trip took us through mostly tree-lined canal, then through scrub and prairie so we got to see the main habitats that occur on the east side of the swamp.

The smallest but least wary turtles we saw

View along the day-use trail that parallels the Canal - fire hit it heavily

We definitely feel on the cusp of spring here. We watched a red-shouldered hawk return to her nest, then listened and watched as her mate called before flying off, probably to find more food. Leaves are mostly tiny fuzz on many of the bushes. There are lots of fresh, new waterlily leaves, with more growing and unrolling underwater. The sound of robins has disappeared as they have left to deliver spring to Up North. The big flocks of ibis seem to be gone.  But the flock of little blue herons is still here.  Turkey vultures are passing through and we seemed to be in the midst of at least thirty vultures during one mile of our paddle. They were overhead, and resting in the trees.  We would often spook one to fly off with a roar of wings.

Grooming turkey vulture

Oh, no! This is the end of a beautiful day on the water. 

Trip Length: 9 miles - Average paddling speed: 2.8 mph - Total age of paddlers - 157 :)

Paddle to Monkey Lake

I decided to try to paddle to Monkey Lake Shelter and back, a total of about fifteen miles from the boathouse. I put my canoe into the water as the first bird, a Carolina wren, sang. The day was warm and foggy and I only needed my little nylon paddling shell over a short sleeved shirt.

Foggy View

More and more birds joined the morning chorus as I started down the Suwannee Canal. Soon anhingas were flying and I was being cussed by a kingfisher for scaring away his fish. A barred owl flew over the canal and into a tree.  I followed it to the shore to stop and take a picture. It flew from its perch to a hole in a tree and fed something, sat a minute and then flew off.  I first thought it was feeding babies but heard nothing and no babies showed up at the hole, so I think the female was sitting on eggs while the male fed her.  I didn't think to set a waypoint for the nest, but hopefully I can find it again and watch the babies grow up.  The fog was just thick enough that wood ducks flew down to the water fairly close in front of me instead of rushing noisily away as they usually do.

Male owl who just fed a female on nest

Wood Ducks in the Fog

Soon I was at the turn into Chesser Prairie.  The fog made the landscape all the more magical.  Ghostly white ibis glided through the fog.  The sandhills were very quiet, early on - they don't like to fly in the fog.  I stopped and accidently let my paddle splash and several wood ducks went screeching off, along with two sandhill cranes, that had been just on the other side of a line of shrubs. Anhingas were grunting and two barred owls called back and forth.  I disturbed herons and egrets and they grumpily flew off. But the yellow-rumped warblers were unfazed and bounced from lily pad to lily pad to branch while keeping up a barrage of chirps.

The only navigational skills you need here is the ability to read signs and follow the arrows

The only one of some sixty myrtle warblers I was able to capture

Not lost yet - those tall posts are used to guide the paddler across lakes -two of them are usually in view

The sun struggled to upset the fog and almost made it.  As I came around a grassy corner, soon after the day brightened,  I almost ran into a sunning eight-foot alligator.  I froze in place and waited until I was past him to paddle again.  He tried to sink, but only had half the depth of water he needed to hide.  I made sure to watch for him on the way back out.  He was with a friend when I came back by.

I almost ran over the big guy in the back coming from the other direction around a blind corner

Soon the sun lost its battle with the clouds and fog and it got darker and foggier. But it was still pretty. Sandhill cranes waded through the water with big splashes and snuck through the brush, flying only if I got too close.

I saw this scene in black and white, so took it that way

Sandhills splashing through the marsh

The fog and sun made the spider webs stand out

Views changed depending on whether or not the area had shrubs or grass

  I wound my way through lakes and along banks of grass or shrubs. Finally I saw a sign for the shelter.  But when I got to Monkey Lake, the shelter was nowhere to be seen.  I followed the main channel and soon  found myself on the way to Buzzard Roost Lake.  I had to haul out the map to determine where else to look for the shelter.  I went back into Monkey Lake and took a right. Around another corner was the tall while porta-potty.  Past it was the shelter in a very private place with with no view and no place to walk.  I stretched out my back and walked around for a few minutes, ate a snack, got a big drink, and started back.

Almost to my destination - don't follow the opening to the right if you want to find the shelter - It's straight ahead, then around a turn

View from the shelter looking down the little boardwalk to the porta potty and back out to the lake -
 this is the only view except for trees and shrubs

On the way back, I was determined to paddle more consistently and take fewer pictures.  I think I met both those goals, but not by much. One of my distractions was a snowy egret.  Ebird doesn't think we have them in winter and I always have to write details when I list them.  So I wanted a good picture of a snowy. But the egret was behind some grass a lot of the time and I had a hard time getting my camera to focus on it. Getting a useful picture required several minutes and twenty pictures. And as the light improved, I found more things that deserved to be documented along with gorgeous scenes.

This dead pitcher plant was a work of art

Another distraction was the bellowing of several alligators. I detoured to try to locate some of them, but they were hidden down in pretty tall grass. When the bellows were distant, they sounded like the swamp was snoring. And as I came back, the sun finally beat down the fog for good, only letting a few fluffy clouds remain in the sky. So then I had to take pictures of the gorgeous configurations of sky, earth and water

Earth, air, water

When I paddle on dark,  tannic waters, I feel as though I'm paddling on the intersection of two parallel worlds. I'm pretty sure, if I watch carefully, I'll see some beings working or playing down in the clouds below my canoe.  So again, I had to take more pictures.

Water lilies and grass above the clouds

Then the views got more and more photogenic.  So while my GPS said my maximum speed was six mph, it also said my average speed was only 2.2 mph, and my average moving speed was only 2.6 mph.   And of course I was completely stopped for over an hour.  But I had great fun, both paddling and taking over 300 pictures.

The reflections are even prettier than the objects

My scariest moment happened on the way home. I dipped my paddle almost on top of a snipe, and he exploded with the fearful roar of his wings, together with a "yelp".  It was so startling, I almost fell out of the boat. But it was great to get two snipe on my list of birds I saw. They occur rarely here.

A few of several hundred ibis

When I was less than a mile from the canal, I met Bill  taking two pairs of the resident volunteers out for a boat ride.   I was paddling fast and Bill's boat motor doesn't have a reverse.  So we could barely yell greetings as we went past.  I did manage to grab a picture of them as they approached.

 The meetup

My GPS said I did 15.1 miles and I survived.  I was a happy and tired camper.

There's the boathouse - I'm saved

(And the next day, my shoulders didn't hurt at all.  But my right hip was pretty unhappy with me.)

Got the Gold Ring - Assignment to Clean Toilets

I's been a long time since I've had to do much cleaning of public toilets on National Wildlife Refuges, in fact not since I occasionally got got the chance to go clean one porta potty located on the Sacramento NWR auto tour.  I felt that I needed to make sure other volunteers understood the  procedures involved to have a really clean bathroom for our patrons - while, of course, making sure the job was fun to do.  For that story, click here.

This past Friday, I was given the day off because I'd volunteered to work Tuesday, first to judge the Folkston Middle School Science Fair, then to work on getting an inventory database set up to put the inventory back in with category numbers.  Bill had invited me to to help him clean up campsites and my boss, Gracie had said I could even count this as work.

We met at 7:30 A. M. and started to slowly get ready.  Bill was not looking forward to the wind chill added to the forty degrees we already had. I hoped that two hats, long underwear,  a fleece top and nylon windbreaker, along with my nylon pants and my boots would be enough.

We loaded up brooms, shovels, bathroom cleaning equipment, a chain saw and lots of toilet paper. Then we set off to go to two shelters, Coffee Bay and Canal Run.  We planned to clean them up and cut anything causing obstructions in the boat trails. Bill also planned to cut some of the fallen trees to give the next campers firewood.

Leaving from the boathouse

This trail, known as the Orange Trail, is open to boats with motors, so it is deeper and wider than are the strictly canoe trails. We motored slowly to keep from totally freezing.  I  can't take pictures with my gloves on and soon couldn't feel my hands.  I enjoyed watching the birds spring up from their reflections and then rise high above them as they flew off down the canal. But the day was cloudy, and most of my pictures of  moving birds were blurry.

View down the canal

We broke up an Anhinga party

Our first stop was at Coffee Bay.The bathroom is the first  to appear,  but it is separated by a strip of land from the actual shelter.  Bill had lots of trees to cut into firewood at this site, which suffered a lot of fire damage in the huge wildfire two years ago, so he didn't get in my way of cleaning the bathroom.  It wasn't until I got finished that I thought it might be interesting to write a blog on how to clean a bathroom,wilderness style.  So I made sure to get a few pictures of the process.

Map showing canoe trails

Over fifty sandhill cranes flew away from just behind the trees when we stopped

By the time I'd finished working on the bathroom, Bill had cut and stacked firewood and cleaned out the fire ring. We probably spent only fifteen or twenty minutes there. Then we headed up the trail to Canal Run.  This is the prettiest location I've seen.  And the shelter is in a good place to be able to do some more paddling from it.

A pretty shelter location with enough land for a fire ring. 

This time, Bill didn't have much wood in the camp to cut up so soon he was butting  in on MY job.

And that job consisted of:

• Sweeping out the porta potty, from top to bottom to get rid of spider webs, leaves and other loose dirt. 
• Spraying the entire inside and outside of the porta potty with Simple Green and letting it sit a few minutes. 
• Scrubbing any supper dirty places with the broom.
• Dipping up buckets of water and throwing it all over the potty. Repeat as needed to rinse dirt down and out
• Wiping out the walls and bench with paper towels
• Sweeping out the water/dirt from the floors.
• Scrubbing and then rinsing the outside to get rid of the green algae growing on it. 
• Pouring a little simple green over the boards leading to it, waiting, then scrubbing off a thick coat of potentially slippery algae. Rinsing. 
• Putting three rolls of toilet paper into a little plastic garbage bag to protect it from the damp, then setting the bag on the bench. 

That's it!

In the sweeping stage

Me whipping down the inside- note my two hats - and note the green boards where I'm standing

Almost finished with the inside cleaning

Bill, stealing my job, and scrubbing down the outside

Bill took what was to be a really excellent picture of me giving the job a thumbs up on the way to add the toilet paper.  However neither of us removed the lens cap before snapping the picture. Hopefully, if you are using this as a guide, you'll be able to manage this final step without the picture.

I made Bill let me help shovel out the fireplace and stack the firewood

And I still had plenty of time to photograph these shelf fungi

With all this hard work, we were ready for our lunch break. 

Compare this picture of the toilet to the picture of Bill scrubbing it -
 he does good work - and note the boards are mostly clear of algae

Heading back - I added the last jacket I'd had as a reserve so I could stand the chill factor

We got back about 1:30 P. M.  I took a nap while Bill did some other chores. He works 40-50 hours a week.

I'll definitely choose cleaning bathrooms over closing out the cash drawer, any day. Can I please clean more of them?

And more good news.  Today I THINK I finished the new inventory database.  And we only have to put new PLUs on the miscellaneous items before we are physically finished. 

Rebuilding Project

Warning!!! Long post.

Last week,  I got a wonderful e-mail from Susan, one of the staffers.  It said I could go over to the west side the following Thursday and help rebuild Mixon's Hammock Shelter.  I just had to show up at the maintenance shop at 7:00 A.M. Of course, I said yes.

Thursday was going to be quite cold, so I dressed in long underwear tops and bottoms, nylon pants and a fleece top, a light windbreaker, and two hats - one that my friend Tracy made me for Christmas topped by my sun hat, which also makes a good windbreak.  I had my usual smart wool socks on my feet.  I thought about wearing my canoeing boots, but then remembered that we can get in and out of the boats without getting wet, so I just wore my old low hikers that are now falling apart.(Shoulda taken the boots.) And I had my dry bag all packed with food, water, and my fleece pants, in case the weather was colder than I thought it would be. I also remembered to pack my leather work gloves.

Not long after I got to the departure site, two young volunteer guys and Wild Bill, another resident volunteer, showed up and we loaded up for the hour plus drive. Steve and I shared the back seat of the truck.  I read a book while he slept. We finally got to the other side where we met JD, the staffer who was the building foreman, and Bruce, another volunteer who is living at Banks Lake.  We divided ourselves into three boats and started off. The young guys fitted themselves among the tools in JD's work boat.  I went with Wild Bill, and Bruce went to get another boat.

Getting ready for a cold ride

JD, Steve and Tyler among the equipment and tools

Too cold to fly

Soon we were at Mixon's Hammock Shelter, which is only a few miles from the boat launch, down the Suwannee River.  I was excited to see more of this area. (If you didn't read about my first foray, click here.)

Arriving at the work site- behind Tyler is the porta potty and it's tank, in two pieces

The plan for the day was to get the piles driven, then add the cross ties, being sure to make a place for the porta-potty tank. The guys sawed the four corners of one end of each post off to make a point, then lined it up where it needed to go Tyler, and later Steve ,balanced on cross ties or a piece of lumber across the cross ties to drive the post down through the peat with a sledge hammer.

Tyler driving a post

As soon as the post got a little stable, the guys attached a pile driver.  This ran from an air compressor in the boat and made short work of driving the pies several feet into the peat. But the cold made the compressor cranky and it took several minutes to start.

Bruce setting up the pile driver

JD and Tyler holding the post straight while the pile driver works

Meanwhile, Bill and I hauled the old lumber away.  This platform is being completely rebuilt.
Most of what we walked on was the old platform, but the builders balanced on new cross ties to set new piles. The back part had been torn completely down and this was the part being rebuilt. The old wood was stacked on the front part or was just lying around on the (wet ground behind the platform.

Bill hauling a load of boards off the hammock

I hadn't been told to bring boots - and JD didn't bring me any waders.  So I mostly only hauled lumber from the platform to the boat, while Bill did the long hauls. When our boat was full, we took it back to the boat house area to dump it.

Besides the heavy photography work, I hauled wood across the platform to the boat

Boarding

Capt. Wild Bill with a load of lumber and me

A few of at least 1000 ibis we passed 

We hauled three of  these 12'" X 3" X 12' boards back 

Back at the work site, we found the guys had started to connect the posts they had just set. It took a person at each end to hold them in place while JD or another volunteer screwed them in. The generator had to run the rest of the day to keep recharging batteries for the drill.

Hauling in the heavy cross tie

Hang tight, there

Drill master

Even though I took about 400 pictures, after a while I was sure I had documented everything worth showing.. When I got bored, I went for a walk and took some artsy pictures, then came back and sat in our boat and read a book.

This camp is mostly used by boy scouts and has a fire pit and walk-around room

The guys continued to add posts and then connect them until they had all the posts driven and connected in the back area. They got half or more of the supporting cross ties in as well. JD, Steve. and Tyler made good use of their waders.

Building from the water up

The only bad time was when they checked the measurements for the porta potty tank and found one was way too big and the other too small. JD solved the problem by deciding to rotate the tank. This then only required adding one piece of a board to make that side smaller, and then moving an internal cross piece and relocating it a bit further apart from its neighbor.  This done, they gathered up their equipment and we all prepared to leave.

Bruce leaving with his load

Looking all done, there, Steve

Two and a half boat loads of lumber waiting for the dump truck

I had so much fun that I'm planning to go back next Wednesday, one of my days off.  I'm hoping to get to tear down the front portion.  I may have to bring my own crowbar or fight Steve, since that's his favorite job as well. JD expects this to take four more days - but the first three days next week are expected to be rainy so it may not get finished next week. But soon it will be a great place for young boy scouts to come and enjoy the swamp.