Georgia on My Mind – Day 3

22 July 2022

Friday

I made it to Commerce, GA and have now added the photos I could not yesterday.

It was a pretty uneventful trip from Clermont to Fargo, Georgia.  However, once I reached the outskirts of Fargo (also called the side of the road) my GPS told me I still had 17 miles to go to reach Swannee River State Park.  For some reason those 17 miles seemed like forever. It reminded me the third time I tried marijuana brownies.  The first time did nothing.  The second time I was mildly relaxed.  The third time I was driving from Jackson to Brandon, Mississippi and it felt like it took 3 years.  

Pushing through the time warp, I made it to the park.  I actually think this is the second time in the park.  My grad school buddy, Charlie Cooper and I, decided to canoe the Okefenokee.  We planned everything down to the last detail including getting an entire country cured ham to take with us.  The trip was exciting for a lot of reasons, not the least of which a cottonmouth almost dropping in the canoe with us, an alligator almost leaping into the canoe (it missed the bow by a few inches) and the largest raccoon in the world trying to eat our ham one night.  Add in having to get waist deep in the Okefenokee to pull the canoe over peat bog blowups and having to listen to bull gators and their mating calls all night long and you get the idea of the fun of the trip.  

We camped on wooden platforms spaced throughout our canoe trip.  We had to bring a portable toilet with toilet bags with us.  They were the little blue bags that attached to the collapsible seat and not like the modern ones of today that solidify any urine in the bag and neutralize the smell of any feces.  It also sat out on the edge of the platform for all to see.  It’s a good thing Charlie and I were not modest because there was no curtain.  We also had to pack our waste out with us in the canoe.  You can image what day three smelled like in the canoe.  It had prominence on the stern of the canoe unless the wind direction changed and then it was moved to the bow.

When we got to the park, we walked the half mile to the dump to dispose of our waste.  On the way back to our canoe, the park ranger accosted two guys who had just pulled up in their canoe and demanded to see their bags of s—t.  They didn’t have them and they were written a citation that incurred a stiff fine.  At least we could show him ours in the dumpster but he was too busy with the other two.

When I went to register at the park office, I was told that I didn’t have to drive the 17 miles to the park, I could have just pulled into the eco-village. Dumb me, I didn’t know it was in a different location than the park.  While I was at the park, I asked if there any trails to hike.  She said the only trail that was open was the Trembling Earth Nature Trail which was mostly board walk.  All the other trails were flooded and impassable due to heavy rains in the area last week.  I decided to give the 0.75 mile nature trail out.

The board walk was old and in need of some serious repair but it was a great walk through the shade with open views of the Okefenokee along the way.  One branch of the trail ended in a dead end.  The other branch looped back to the visitors center.

One part of the board walk had tons of pine cone scales and stripped pine cones. The squirrels had literally covered the board walk with stripped cones.

I then retraced the 17 miles and found Cabin 6, my assigned Eco-Cottage.  The pin code given to me to open the lock box didn’t seem to work so I headed to the park host and he tried and failed.  He then called the park 17 miles away and they said no such pin number existed.  They then gave him the correct pin number and I was in.

I suspect that I am the only person in the entire eco-village.  The cottage is quite nice.  Strangely, it has both a regular shower and a handicapped shower, a regular toilet and a handicapped toilet.  I don’t know why they didn’t just put handicapped toilets instead of both.

I will be eating dehydrated tonight for dinner and tomorrow for breakfast.  That’s if I am actually hungry.  In Lake City, I stopped for lunch at a Krystal.  I haven’t eaten any of those hamburgers in years.  The last time I did I had diarrhea the next day.  Don’t say I don’t live dangerously after yesterday.  I don’t like the odds. Plus dehydrated food on top of that!

There are no trails at the eco-village.  There are no people at the eco-village.  There isn’t anything in Fargo to see or do.  I decided to head to Commerce, Georgia tomorrow to get closer to Helen.  I’m doing a Hampton Inn there for one night.  I’ll end up paying for an extra night on the trip and losing my fee for the second night here but I was planning on hiking tomorrow.  Instead, I’ll be traveling.

As it happened, around 7pm, there was a severe thunderstorm warning.

Stay tuned!