2018 Paddling Florida's Suwannee River with Sierra Club

This Sierra Club Outing was "Way Down Upon the Suwannee River." The legendary Suwannee begins in Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp and travels 220+ miles through southern Georgia and Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. We began at Fargo, Georgia, just south of the swamp and paddled 75 miles in seven days to The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park near Live Oak, Florida.

In 2003 I had signed up for this trip, but the upper section of river was closed due to record flooding. Instead we began at the Music Park and went 65 miles downriver to Branford. So I returned in 2018 to see what I had missed!

Our 12 participants and two leaders came from across the country to enjoy Florida's scenery and weather. Most chose to paddle kayaks, but five canoes, heavily laden with gear and food for our week-long journey, were also part of our flotilla.

The scenery was breathtaking, and every turn of this twisting river offered new vistas to behold. Tupelo and cypress trees ruled the first few days, with pines and other species gradually becoming the majority. Only one gator was seen, but numerous large turtles slid into the water as we approached and birds were abundant.

The white "sugar" sand became our home away from home as we camped for six nights and took our rest breaks and lunch stops wherever the beaches were accessible to us.

Some locations allowed us to spread out at night and even head into the forest to camp at times, while other sites were smaller and made "community living" a requirement.

Few structures were evident from the river and we traveled 20 miles before the first bridge was paddled beneath. In fact, few bridges cross the river in these 71 miles, which speaks volumes about the lack of civilization evident along the river. Below is I-75 which we had been hearing for days since it parallels the river's course for quite a distance before we finally passed beneath it.

This was a blind photo I took by holding the camera over my head and shooting backwards. It actually worked!

Here's a shot Randy took of me as he paddled the front of the canoe...

I did attempt one "selfie" and this is what I got...

We stopped at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture State Park which is on the Suwannee River at the town of White Springs. I've been there several times previously but gladly re-visited the museum and the carillon. The museum has dioramas depicting eight of Foster's songs, as well as numerous antique pianos from that time period like the one below, all adorned with photos from that era and Foster's sheet music.

The Carillon Tower seen below was of special interest to me. I grew up three blocks from the Chicago factory/headquarters of Deagan Company which made precision musical instruments including church bells, and their bell tower near my house chimed tunes several times daily. The well-known NBC chimes are also theirs. The state park's carillon was installed in 1958 and it took more than a year to construct and install the huge set of bells at a cost of $120,000. It  was the single greatest manufacturing project in the firm's then 78 year history. Unfortunately, the chimes were undergoing repair while we were there!

Here's a view of our flotilla from the bridge at White Springs.

Big Shoals is Florida's most extensive river rapid system, dropping nine feet in less than a quarter mile. The river bed is lined with limestone outcroppings commonly described as karst topography, and Big Shoals is the one place where it predominantly breaks through to the surface.

The sharp jagged edges of the limestone can rip boats to pieces, so most people portage the short distance as we did. It's a lot of work unloading all the boats, carrying them and all the gear up a hill, along a trail, and then down a tricky hill back to the water. Last year's Hurricane Irma pretty much tore up the put-in area making it quite treacherous.  We camped that night at the top of the hill...

...and then loaded the boats the next morning. We used ropes to safely descend to the river and loaded one or two boats at a time and paddled them downriver to the beach across the river to await the other boats and then continued our journey. Five more minor rapids/riffles were encountered beyond these rapids as we headed farther downriver.

We talked about getting a group photo but never got around to doing it, so here are all the participants in various pictures.

(l to r)  Randy, Terry R., Sue, Kenda, Holly, George, and Nancy

(l to r)  Patrick, Terry R., Randy, Terri M., Nancy, Sue, Terry G., George, and Jurij.

Kenda and Terri M. (back row) and Nancy and Sue (front row)

Terry G., Sue, Terri M., Chuck, and Nancy 

Terry G., Jurij, and George

 (l to r)  Kenda, George, Patrick, Holly, Jurij, Lehman, Sue, Terri M., and Nancy

Here our incomparable leaders and chefs, Holly and Patrick! Their planning and leadership made this trip the success it was! I've been on a number of Sierra Club outings led by Patrick and I heartily recommend all of his trips. Thanks to both of them from all of us participants -- you both made our week possible as well as memorable and rewarding!

One final shot of the amazing Suwannee River and our stalwart adventurers...

One of our participants, Sue, is a cartographer, and she used her GPS device to record our trip. She then put it on a map showing our entire journey. Thanks, Sue!

Here are some Downloadable photos on Shutterfly 


A brief video of our adventure is available here: