1 Day Solo Canoe Scouting the Suwannee to the Okefenokee | 4 Gators in 300 Yards

In short: I put in at Griffith Fish Camp in Fargo, Georgia on a 99 degree day and trolled up the Suwannee toward the sill, the broke dam at the edge of the Okefenokee. The plan was to scout up to the refuge boundary, see how far I could get, then drop back down and camp on the outside. Along the way the river went from wide black water to tight tupelo and cypress, and the gators got thick, one of them chasing a bird right in front of the boat.

Trolling up a river you cannot paddle

The current up this stretch runs strong, and going upstream by paddle would about wear a man out. I know some folks think a trolling motor is cheating, but it is the trick for getting up river, and I planned to paddle the whole way back down come morning. This is different water than my home stretch on the St. Marys. Still black water, but the tupelo trees grow right up out of it, and there are spots where the trees near about touch side to side. I lived within an hour of here for fifty two years and never saw it. There is beautiful country all around you if you just get out and find it.

Reading the refuge boundary

The signs told me where I was. National Wildlife Refuge, no firearms, no camping, no fires, no motors bigger than ten horsepower, and every visitor off the water by sunset. So I knew I could not camp up that way. I trolled on up to the sill just to see it, a mile and a half or two past the boundary sign, with logs laid clean across so there was no getting a canoe through. Then I turned and worked my way back down to the outside of the refuge to find a spot for the night, somewhere with running water and shade and a few pine trees.

Gators everywhere, one on the hunt

I counted four gators in about three hundred yards, three of them big, one close to eight or nine foot. You can size them from the boat by the gap between the eyes and the nose, an inch about equal to a foot. But the thing I will not forget is a five footer that came flying across the water after a water turkey, near about caught it before I spooked the bird off. That told me plain, that gator was hungry, and that meant I was not getting in this water to wash off, not up here. I found my shady spot on the outside of the boundary, running water and pine trees, and made that home for the night instead.

Questions about the Suwannee and the Okefenokee

Can you camp inside the refuge boundary?

No. The signs make it clear the moment you reach the boundary: National Wildlife Refuge, no camping, no fires, no firearms, no motors larger than ten horsepower, and every visitor has to be off the water by sunset. I read those signs on this trip and knew right then I could not camp up that way. Overnight camping inside the swamp itself requires an advance reservation and permit on a designated route, so it is not something you can just pull off on a whim. I trolled on up to the sill anyway, just to see it, a mile and a half or two past the boundary sign, then turned around and worked my way back down to the outside of the refuge. That is where I found a spot for the night, running water, shade, and a few pine trees, plenty good for camp without crossing into refuge land.

How do you judge a gator's size from the water?

An old rule holds that the distance in inches from a gator's eyes to the tip of its nose roughly equals its length in feet. If that gap looks about eight inches, you are looking at roughly an eight foot animal, and it lets you size one up even when all you can see above the surface is the head. I used that trick on this trip, counting four gators in about three hundred yards, three of them big and one close to eight or nine foot by that same measure. It works from a moving boat because you do not need the whole animal in view, just a clean look at the head. That mile of black water under the tupelo had gators working the banks the whole way, and reading their size at a glance told me plenty about how much room to give each one as I trolled past.