By Peter Clayton
The St. Mary’s flows 125 miles from the Okefenokee swamp to Cumberland Sound with 60 miles designated as part of the Florida Paddling Trail. Like the Suwannee, much of its allure is the lack of development and resulting miles of hardwood and pine forests with numerous white sandbars. However, unlike the Suwannee, there are long stretches with no public ramps so our access options were limited.
As per Clyde’s maps, our first two days encompassed about 16 miles downstream of where the Paddling Trail ends because the river widens to over 100 yards and the likelihood of boat traffic increases – we only saw one boat with a couple of guys fishing the entire trip. Although the water level was slightly above flood, we never experienced a problem, and, on the last day, it enabled us to get back into a side creek that was delightful and had a couple of gators.
Our last day repeated a day trip from four years ago of a 5.2 mile upstream stretch which featured a narrower passage and a few more twists and turns. Although wildlife sightings were few, Theo got a fantastic photo of a whitetail buck leaping through the water during this last segment. Each day we heard deer crashing through the brush and water but that was our only sighting – also heard were owls, red shoulder hawks and pileated woodpeckers.
The weather cooperated as we didn’t get rained on and the temps were quite pleasant. An interesting side trip after our second day’s paddle was to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge about 10 miles south of Folkston, GA, our home base. The Refuge had a Visitor’s Center with informative displays and a video plus an adjacent privately run “adventure” outfit which offered guided boat tours into the swamp.
