2 Days Canoe Camping the Okefenokee | The Swamp Said No Fire

In short: This is night two of a two-night Okefenokee trip, paddling into Mixon's Hammock off Billy's Lake. The swamp was so dry and the water so low that it was under a fire ban, so there was no campfire to cook over. We had steak, potatoes, and shrimp planned, and we cooked them anyway on a little backpacking stove and the cast iron. Fishing for warmouth and stumpknockers along the way, gators on the logs, and a night in a true wilderness area.

Fishing into Mixon's Hammock

Tina ran to the truck and grabbed the tent poles for night two, and we loaded back into the canoe and pushed off down the canal into Billy's Lake. We took a left when we hit the lake and headed toward Mixon's Hammock, that is George Mixon's Hammock, only about a mile and a half. It was a beautiful afternoon with plenty of daylight, so we fished along the way. Look at that big old joker, I said, hauling up a grown warmouth I could hardly get to the boat. Tina caught her a stumpknocker, and we caught a catfish on a Beetle Spin, a first for me. That big warmouth that almost looks like a bass, that is what we are after right there.

The swamp said no fire

We pulled up to Mixon's for the first time, a gator right there to greet us, and I went to see why they call it a hammock. All these big old oaks, and there is the old train track bed, because the highlands ran right down to the river. The campsite had no fire ring, and a sign warning to be aware of bears. Here is the thing, there was a fire ban on, it had been so dry and the water so low, dry dry, so we could not have a fire to cook over. And I was so looking forward to cooking those steaks over an open flame. It was gonna be so good. But you do not get mad, you get to work.

Steak, potatoes, and shrimp anyway

So we pulled out the little backpacking camp stove and made it happen. We seared a steak or two, cooked red potatoes with onions and sweet peppers in the cast iron, and did the shrimp in butter like we had the night before. Now how is that for supper in the swamp, steak, potatoes, and shrimp, it does not get much better than that. We said grace and thanked the Lord for a beautiful day, for getting us out that morning with no issues and to Mixon's safe, and asked Him to keep the bears off and get us home the next day. That is a good steak, Tina said, and to think we almost wasted these on fish.

Gators guarding the morning

We slept good and woke to coffee, and I got excited about that coffee every time. Then we fished the morning out, and the gators were everywhere. Tina wanted to fish out where the sun was, but that is right where all the gators were, so no. One big one right there was guarding his territory, moving slow, not budging. We paddled back toward the takeout at Stephen Foster State Park, entering a national wilderness area, and the sign was right, it is wild. Somewhere new we had never been, and Tina riding the front of that canoe with all them gators jumping was the excitement of the whole trip.

Questions about camping the Okefenokee

How do you cook a steak in camp with no fire?

Cooking a steak in camp with no fire just means switching to a backpacking camp stove and a cast iron pan instead of an open flame. That is exactly what we did at Mixon's Hammock once we learned the swamp was under a fire ban from the dry conditions. We seared the steak right in the cast iron, cooked red potatoes with onions and sweet peppers alongside it, and did shrimp in butter the same way we had the night before, all off the little stove. It was not the open fire we had been looking forward to, and part of us missed watching flames instead of a small burner, but the food still turned out just as good, maybe better, since we had already caught fish that day and almost made a meal of those instead. A stove and cast iron will not give you the same feeling as a campfire, but they will absolutely get supper on the table when the swamp says no.

What is Mixon's Hammock?

Mixon's Hammock, also called George Mixon's Hammock, is a stretch of high ground and big old oaks off Billy's Lake in the Okefenokee Swamp, reached by paddling out from Stephen C. Foster State Park. We paddled the canal into Billy's Lake, took a left, and made the roughly mile and a half crossing to reach it, fishing along the way. Once we arrived, a gator was right there to greet us at the bank. Walking up into the hammock you understand why they call it that, all those big oaks standing on ground higher than the surrounding swamp, with the old raised train track bed still visible where a logging railroad once ran straight down toward the river. The campsite there had no fire ring and carried a sign warning campers to be aware of bears, a reminder that even a quiet hammock like this still belongs to the swamp around it.