To Tate’s Hell Swamp (up the Apalachicola River)

Easter Sunday 4/20/14




Water Street Hotel / Marina seems luxurious with floating docks.

 

Poor Steve; after a breakfast of huevos rancheros (different café, runnier eggs) Dan and I give him a call to check up. Yesterday in shorts must have taken its toll and he’s down for the count. Good day for it as the sun refuses to make a showing again but the strong north wind hasn’t materialized so Dan and I decide to go rive exploring.

 

A strong current makes for slow motoring up the Apalachicola River and into Tate’s Hell Swamp (yes, named after a guy named Tate with a hell of a storey) and we’re soon rewarded with the sighting of several napping turtles and two magnificent bald eagles!



two eagles - look closely!

To dodge some of the flow we take narrow Four Tree Cutoff.

 

Little Saint Marks River is some quieter than the Appalach and much more wooded. We spot another cut, uncharted and not much more than a boat width wide, and I decide to give it a go, not knowing if I’ll have enough depth. I make it in but am stopped not by shallow water but overhead tree branches. Too tight to motor, I scull around and back out onto the river.

 

uncharted trees

We continue on for a few miles, spotting only a waterman’s houseboat or two until we come to a fixed railroad bridge. Dan was ahead but even Coot’s short mast wouldn’t clear.

It was late in the afternoon by now so we decided to turn back just a bit and anchored alongside river reeds in about six feet of water. By playing the tiller with the current I could nestle into the reeds or out into the river. After getting settled until it was near dark I became mesmerized with the river flow, reeds struggling for survival, the echo of distant birds, and the beauty of it all.

 

 

Dan - like the FUGAWI Indian