Along the Suwannee River

What a great hike along the Suwannee River. It was marred only by a couple of damp and cool days, and by an ignorant or aggressive landowner who allowed his six large dogs to harass us while we walked the couple of hundred feet of trail at the bottom of his property. He was on his porch, as were 5 of the 6 dogs, as we approached. Rather than call back or secure his dogs, he just allowed or encouraged them to run down, surround and bark at us. I tried to ignore them and walk on, but the most aggressive, a pit bull was too close to comfort for Ian and had to be pepper sprayed.

We started out at the White Springs Nature and Heritage Tourism Center, Mainly becasue it was warm in there, and freezing outside, but once inside spent the time to look at all the exhibits and collect loads of brochures.

A couple of non river milestones on this leg were my fourth and final crossing of Interstate 75 (first crossing was way down south in Big Cypress, an additional twice on the western corridor) and Interstate 10 for the second time. We will have two additional croosings of I10 before we finish.

The hike along the river was a nice workout up and down the banks, along switchbacks, and steep and slippery ravines. One ravine we crossed, Swift creek was running with a good flow of clean clear water. It was interesting to see it mixing with the tannin colored Suwannee water at the confluence. On the bluff above Swift Creek was a perfect backpack campsite; just enough level packed sand for one tent, easy access to the clear stream, and a great view.


For an entire day we played leapfrog with a group of canoers on the Suwannee. They had to do all the twists and turns, which the trail mainly rounded off, but we got all the ups and downs in the gullies and ravines. I think they may have had the easier choice! I had a nice, but brief conversation with them from the old US129 highway bridge at the end of the day.

The terrain around Holton creek is very potholed, with creeks appearing and disappearing from predominantly algae filled pools right now. There is very little water flowing, and the Alapaha River is just a dried up sand riverbed. We saw a large doe, who we must have disturbed drinking from the only flowing water we saw all day, the source of Holton Creek. A little further down the trail was a young diamondback rattler who posed for pictures for a while.

On our first rainy day since Lake Okeechobee over a year ago we stumbled on a pack of wild hog piglets, without mama. They were very cute, rooting around and not really sure what to do with themselves. Later in the day we spoke to a kayaker who had see a large hog dead in the water. Probably our piglets' mother. I doubt they'll survive long alone.

In the Holton Creek WMA we came across a new remote campground put in by the Suwannee River Water Management District. It's part of the Suwannee Valley Canie Trail, and very nice: at least six large raised screened platforms for sleeping, a large covered pavilion, lots of picnic tables, grills and fire rings, and toilets and hot showers.

Two more rivers join the Suwannee during this section, the Alapaha, which was mainly just a sand riverbed with standing water, and the Withlacoochee, which flows into the Suwannee at Suwannee River State Park. We ate lunch at the confluence and watched the trains going by on the trestle over the river, then hiked upstream by the east bank of the Withlacoochee, and downstream again on the west bank almost back down to the confluence before breaking away from the rivers and passing through the old site of the town of Ellaville (no sign of it today). When we rejoined the Suwannee downstream of the confluence it's a much wider river, and seemed shallower, with several areas of shoals.

We’re headed for somewhere warm and a couple days off for now.

Happy New Year.

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