Suwanee River State Park, Canoeing Down the Suwanee River

The water almost looked black, but it was really a dark tea color stained by the rain running though so many leaves. It would than become acidic and full of tannins causing such a unique color. Rising above the water the banks were interspersed with layers of white sand and porous limestone rocks speaking of the caves that lie below.
The banks were broken by fingers of cypress roots, looking like arthritic hands really, that seemed to reach for the water. The cypress trees were full of bright green foliage and beards of Spanish moss reached down ten feet or more contrasting the color and matching the brown trunks. Suddenly the water erupted as a giant prehistoric fish rose and cleared the water.

Leaving Alabama we had continued our journey, looking for a place to spend the night. Lo and behold we found a small park that sounded familiar, Suwanee River State Park. It turned out that it was the river that Stephan Foster used for his famous song, Way Down Upon the Swanee River, (yup he misspelled it).
Of course we had to stay there and of course a canoe trip on the Suwanee was in order.
Our campsite was large but difficult to back into, although there were some really good spots in the small campground. Setting up, I took a walk and talked with a couple that had canoed the river. They talked of the large splashes but said they didn't know what the cause was. That evening we finally found out that Gulf Coast Sturgeon were in the river on their annual spawning run.
The park rangers even warned us of people getting seriously injured as the leaping fish, some as big as 300 pounds, would crash into boats. We decided we would stay along the shallows and be as quiet as possible during our canoe trip!

The next day we launched early and paddled upstream. We quickly passed a family wading in warm water as a spring flowed from a large sinkhole. A little futher and we were rewarded by a large splash as a sturgeon rose into the air before crashing back into the water. Luckily it was quite a ways away as were all that jumped for us today.
As we rowed we saw numerous large turtles on snags. They would usually slide off into the water as we approached, but one especially large lined box turtle stayed his gorund and dared us to take his spot. I guess when your a large turtle there is not much that scares you!

Renita remarked that the cypress roots reminded her of gnome castles, their many spires reaching into the sky. I told her that it couldn't be gnomes as they only inhabit the shores of Minnesota lakes. Perhaps they were faries instead of gnomes, but I knew that I better keep my mouth shut.
We didn't see any water moccasins on low branches and we were both glad of that as we have heard so many stories of agressive snakes. Luckily we have never encountered any of these and the ones we have seen in our travels have been asleep or aware and warning us to stay away, a warning that we always obey.

Too soon we grew tired as we paddled upstream. The river wasn't flowing very fast but still we were fighting the current. Turning downstream we floated a bit and Renita took image after image. We didn't find any rocks to collect and thats ok, we have too many already in our rolling house.
The joy of fulltiming had rewarded us again with an unexpected treausre of a new found place of beauty. Landing we talked with a family that had also just finished their float and we all agreed it was a fine morning to be way down upon the Suwanee River. Sorry, I couldn't help myself :). Clear skies.