Rivers exhibit many characters and the St. Mary's was no exception. We'd be paddling through a sinuous section -- first a curve this way and then that way, over, under, through and around deadfalls-- when we'd break out into a long, wide, relatively straight section. We'd paddle that a little ways and then it'd be back to the narrow curvy river.
Sugar sand.
Reflective water.
There are always moments for quiet reflection on canoe trips. It'd been a good paddle and Ed was probably thinking, "This porkskins gorp idea isn't working."
We are now in the part of the river that is affected by the tide by as much as 3 feet.
We camped here for two nights, a few miles above historic Trader's Hill.
We met a fellow at the sandbar, up from Jacksonville for a little fishing, who told us about an oxbow lake not visible from the river. He explained how to find it and that there were some monster alligators in it. His story was that there's a jonboat kept beside the pond for people to use. You could be fishing from that boat in the pond, and suddenly feel the boat heave. You look into the water to find the cause and see a big alligator beneath it. We opted to not take the jonboat out. We were disappointed to see only a couple alligators in the pond and they were on the small side. The pond's a couple hundred yards off the river and is very pretty. Woods come to the edge of the water for its entire circumference. In those woods are some pretty good sized cypress trees with some pretty good sized cypress knees. J.D. is about 5-9 or 5-10. This knee looks to be over 7 feet tall.
This fellow climbed about three quarters of the way up this cypress, then dove into the river. Then he came back and climbed all the way to the tip top, from where, after balancing on a little limb, he again dove into the river.
Rivers were the sites of the first baptizing. The practice continues today. While the fellow was diving out of the tree, there were baptizings about 50 yards downriver.
The take-out. Traders Hill is a site of considerable importance in both the history of Georgia and that of the country. It was the point highest up the St. Mary's which sailing ships could reach. Consequently, there were trails to Traders Hill from all over the southeast as early settlers and Native Americans, alike, made their way to there to trade for supplies brought from around the world on the ships. Our the trip took a toll on Ed's wardrobe.
Rivers exhibit many characters and the St. Mary's was no exception. We'd be paddling through a sinuous section -- first a curve this way and then that way, over, under, through and around deadfalls-- when we'd break out into a long, wide, relatively straight section. We'd paddle that a little ways and then it'd be back to the narrow curvy river.
