​Swamp paddling recommendations

[Guest]

Magnus and Willie’s swamp paddling photos got me thinking about swamp paddling, and why I enjoy it so. Not only is there life in every nook and cranny, but there are often fewer people. Swamps don’t hold mass paddler appeal for some reason; too easy to get lost, or too twisty and turny, or too many spiders and snakes and creepy-crawly-slithery stuff, oh my.

I have my favorite swamp paddles in the mid-Atlantic region. For anyone passing through the mid-Atlantic region east of the I-95 corridor:

Delaware
Trap Pond State Park near Laurel Delaware, floating James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch, from below the dam at Trap Pond to the public take out at Records Pond on Rte 13. No question that is the best 5.2 miles of small swamp stream in Delaware, maybe in the mid-Atlantic. It is barely 3 feet wide in places, and special in other fairyland ways.

The swamp (northernmost bald cypress swamp in the US) at the inflow head of Trap Pond is delightful as well, and the (reservable) State Park “Island” site (2 sites, reserve them both, accessed via a short boardwalk) are the best State park sites on the east coast.

Maryland

Maryland, My (home State) Maryland. I do love singing Confederate propaganda as part of my State anthem; “avenging the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore”, and belting out “huzza she spurs the Northern scum” always make my heart swell with pride.

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/lyricsco.html

Why they now omit the line “The despot’s heel is on thy shore, his torch is at thy temple door” (a reference to Lincoln) is historically inaccurate. At least they left the “Sic simper”. Any question that Maryland is a “southern” State?

We may not have any lakes, but we got gobs of swamps (and marshes) on the eastern shore and DelMarVa peninsula.

Tuckahoe Creek. More of a hardwood swamp run, but intimately narrow and often with good current. Tuckahoe Creek State Park just above the dam put in, take out at a public landing in Hillsboro 5 miles downstream. Great day run with surprisingly clear water and a nice swimming spot half way down.

The Pocomoke River and tributaries. Base camp at the Milburn Landing area of the Pocomoke River SP and within a 30 minute drive from the Park four of Maryland’s best cypress swamp trips are at your doorstep:

#1 Upper Pocomoke River, Porter Crossing to Snow Hill, 5.1 miles. There is a shuttle outfitter in Snow Hill if needed, and he keeps that stretch relatively strainer free. The last mile hits the tidal Pocomoke, with a change of scenery.

#2 Nassawango Creek, Red House Rd down to the Pocomoke and up (get the tides right) and up to Snow Hill. A delightful 5.4 miles, much of it Nature Conservancy protected. Same Snow Hill outfitter shuttle if you need one.

#3 Dividing Creek. A no shuttle, poke up as far as you can or want daytrip. A mile north of the public landing at Winter’s Quarter Drive in Pocomoke City there is an insignificant looking opening in the cypress on river right (upstream left).

Dividing Creek may be the best of Maryland’s eastern shore swamp paddles. Progressively narrower and narrower twisty, and yet continually deep. A couple of houses at a rural bridge crossing two miles upstream, but after that the creek just goes and goes and goes. Do remember that you have to paddle back out the same distance you paddle up, but the lower couple miles are tidal, so with the right timing you get a free ride at the end.

#4 Pitts Creek/Little Mill Creek, tributaries on the lower Pocomoke. Multiple access points, but the swampish best of it is from Rte 707 on Pitts to a take out at Colona Rd on Little Mill Creek. Choose wisely, the confluence entrance to Little Mill Creek is not apparent.

Virginia

Virginia is sadly missing from my swamp repertoire. If I’m headed south I usually keep driving into NC.

North Carolina

So many different places. NC does a great job with “Paddler’s Parks” and “Wildlife Boating” access launches. Merchants Mill Pond SP (and Lassiter Swamp). Lumber River SP. Hammocks Beach SP. Others around the State. Kudos to NC.

Aside from NC’s State Park paddler facilities I am enamored of the Black River and South Rivers in North Carolina. The South offers 80 miles of cypress swamp goodness before the confluence with the Black, and the Black adds another 50 miles before becoming tidal.

Aside from the middle sections of the Black, from the Ivanhoe Wildlife Boating access launch downstream to Beattys Bridge (7.6 miles) of the 13 mile section below that through the Three Sisters to Hunts Bluff, you will rarely see another paddler along those rural swamp river miles. You might occasionally see some good ole boys in a jon boat checking their trot lines for catfish, but paddlers are rare.

The nearest State Park camping to that area of NC is Jone’s Lake SP, but that Park also gives you access to some peculiar protected and undeveloped Pocosin Ponds/Bay Lakes.


South Carolina

We’ve done a lot of the Edisto, the easiest sections of which can be a little busy for my taste, but we’ve never been into the Four Hole Swamp, and that remains on the to-do explore list.

Our one (winter) attempt at Sparkleberry in SC coincided with some Arctic Express phenomenon, and even Lake Marion was icey. Someday; hopefully with someone familiar, that place is notoriously confusing.

Lot’s missing there; Virginia, SC and elsewhere, both along the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast States.

Let’s hear your favorite swamp day paddle venues. Especially if they have a convenient State Park camping spot nearby. I’ll be heading south this fall as usual, and west again eventually, and would like to swamp dawdle along the way.

 

[Muskrat]

If you are ever in Texas there is Caddo Lake. Day trips or camping, primitive or campgrounds.

http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/caddolake.html

 

[Magnus919]

With Delaware and Maryland hitting your list, I was surprised New Jersey hasn't been explored yet, especially the Pine Barrens.

North Carolina... I need to spend some time on the Black River, especially around the Three Sisters Swamp. I did some work on a film along the river, but on land. I stood there looking out into the swamp thinking... "I want to paddle through that someday". If you've ever seen the movie "The Conjuring", it was at that house, that swamp (which is much more charming outside of the context of a horror film).

I also need to check out Merchant's Mill Pond for sure.

 

[Yohawk]

Merchants Mill Pond is a great place to visit. There are "paths" marked with buoys to mark routes you can follow. As you paddle through the park, you leave a trail in the vegetation on top, which slowly closes in. The park even comes complete with an alligator! It's about a 40 minute ride from my home. I'll make a point of taking a trip out there and posting some pics.

 

[Seeker]

Village Creek is a nearby Texas park, as is Martin Dies Jr Park. The Big Thicket (Neches River) is a protected waterway south of Dies Park that goes for miles, at least a 3 day trip.)

Closer to home for me are Anacoco Bayou, Bundick Creek, the Sabine River, and Toledo Bend Reservoir.

 

[Chip]

Questions for Mike:
When was the last time you paddled James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch? It was only feasible to paddle that because somebody went in there and cut deadfalls. Does somebody still do that? If not, a trip there would be a real endurance event, and I wonder if you could even follow the branches.

What's a swamp? Sparkleberry is a swamp. There are acres and acres of forested shallows and few places to get out on dry land. The Edisto, Pocomoke, Dividing Creek and Tuckahoe Creek are rivers and creeks. What makes them swamps? If you count those as swamps, add to the list the stretches of Patuxent in my neighborhood and stretches of the Waccamaw in Willie's.

Wikipedia has this to say about the Waccamaw: Along its upper course, it is a slow-moving, blackwater river surrounded by vast wetlands, passable only by shallow-draft watercraft such as canoe. That sounds swampish, and seems like a basis for a swamp definition. I propose that swamps have slow-moving, shallow, non-tidal water that covers an expansive path with ample vegetation. Some of Mike's nominations don't meet that definition. But, so what? All his nominees with which I am familiar offer intimate paddling experiences on small, closed-in streams, which is what we are looking for, be they swamps, creeks, branches or rivers.

Many lakes transition to swamps around the fringes. In fact, isn't Sparkleberry the tail end of Lake Marion? There are lovely swamps around the edges of Blue Cypress Lake (near Yeehaw Junction, FL), in backwater channels of the Roanoke River and Lumber River (NC), and while there are main channels, I'd call a most of the Mississippi around La Crosse, WI., a swamp.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Atchafalaya.
Brownfield Bog. But that is different from a swamp
Any of the areas off the Wilderness Waterway in the Everglades
Parts of the St John and Wacissa in FL. below Goose Pasture your goose can be cooked
Thinking of a thousand tidal areas where at high tide you paddle and low tide you wait

 

[Guest]

When was the last time you paddled James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch? It was only feasible to paddle that because somebody went in there and cut deadfalls. Does somebody still do that? If not, a trip there would be a real endurance event, and I wonder if you could even follow the branches.

I have not been down James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch in 4 or 5 years, and the last trip it was a bit of a strainerfest, made worse by lots of newly downed wood from an ice storm the previous winter and the inadvisable decision to use a SOT that was difficult to get out of. Live and learn.

The year before that I took a novice group down it with little difficulty, but that was largely due to the better volume of water coming over the Trap Pond dam, which allowed us to bump over many of the logs that were impassible at lower levels. I spoke with someone who paddled it the year after the strainerfest who reported few difficulties, so it had either been cut again or they had better water levels.

The Rangers at the park are sometimes forthcoming about the exxisting conditions on that run. The recommended level on the stick gauge under the dam/bridge was 2 feet, but that may have changed since some work on the dam a few years back. I have been down James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch a dozen or more times, as (stupidly) low as 1.6 or 1.8 feet, but it was always do-able, if sometimes challenging.

What's a swamp? Sparkleberry is a swamp. There are acres and acres of forested shallows and few places to get out on dry land. The Edisto, Pocomoke, Dividing Creek and Tuckahoe Creek are rivers and creeks. What makes them swamps? If you count those as swamps, add to the list the stretches of Patuxent in my neighborhood and stretches of the Waccamaw

I have never really thought about the definition of a swamp, but just figured I knew one when I saw one. I do count some blackwater rivers as swamps, especially if you take the time to probe up into the old cutoff oxbows and side sloughs out of the main current. Even Sparkleberry has several feedwaters besides the Wateree; Beech Creek, Griffins Creek and others.

I would count the part of the Waccamaw I paddled between the lake and across the SC border as a swamp, despite the occasional high ground pine hummock. Likewise I would count the east end of Merchants Millpond a swamp, despite the steady flow of Bennetts Creek and high ground beech forest. It still has cypress, Spanish moss and ample vegetation, and I guess that area is named Lassiter Swamp for a reason.

I propose that swamps have slow-moving, shallow, non-tidal water that covers an expansive path with ample vegetation. Some of Mike's nominations don't meet that definition. But, so what? All his nominees with which I am familiar offer intimate paddling experiences on small, closed-in streams, which is what we are looking for, be they swamps, creeks, branches or rivers.

I’m not sure it is any easier to define what constitutes a swamp than to define the difference between a lake and pond, but by my ill-defined “know one when I see one” I don’t buy the necessity of:

“Slow moving”. I have run most of those intimate, closed-in streams and rivers through swamplands at high water flow, including parts of the Black and South in flood, where the only way to stay on the main stem was to look for trees angled in at each side / . . . . \. Sure looked like flooded swamp to me.

Same for the upper Pocomoke and James Branch. We paddled the upper Pocomoke where water was pouring out of the main stem into the densely forested, vegetated and no longer shallow swamp on either side. We did the James Branch/Hitch Pond Branch at high water in something like 1.5 hours years ago. It was still swamp surrounds to me, it just went past quickly and effortlessly.

“Shallow”. I dunno, Dividing Creek is surrounded by the “Swamp or Marsh” legend in the Atlas & Gazetteer and parts of it are anything but shallow. I saw a visiting Chinese post-doc dive for his lost glasses repeatedly and come up sputtering before he managed to reach the bottom. He did not recover his glasses, but he sure tried.

“Non-tidal”. I dunno but that either. I have not paddled many salt water swamps, but some mangrove, er, “flooded forests” sure look like “swamps” to me.

Now you got me curious. Not that Wiki is an authority on anything, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp

The Wiki definitions (less regional variations) I think best broadly define what I might term a swamp are: “A wetland that is forested” “The water in a swamp may be fresh, brackish or seawater” and “Features of areas with low topographic relief”

Omit the trees and include the low relief and I’d call that a marsh, a term which is equally open to interpretation. Once you’ve paddle in Dorchester County it is hard to call a patch of grass and cattails at the shallow end of a pond a “marsh”.

EDIT: The Waccamaw flows though the fabulous Green Swamp:

https://www.nature.org/ourinitiativ...lina/placesweprotect/green-swamp-preserve.xml

 

[snapper]

I'm surprised not to see the Okefenokee on folk's lists. I realize it's out of Mike's original geographic region but if you continue down the Atlantic coast from SC you'll find yourself in GA. Head about 40 miles inland from St. Marys and you'll be at the eastern entrance to the refuge. If you're interested in paddling a swamp, I firmly believe the Okefenokee should be on your list. There is a permit process for overnight trips but there are plenty of day options that only entail getting to the water and putting your paddle in. Great wildlife as well. Besides the ubiquitous alligators you'll see lots of birds, turtles, snakes and I've even had encounters with otter; although not when the gators are active. While I've never seen one, you should also be on the look out for black bear; they're there!

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[deerfly]

living in Fl its kinda silly to recommend swamps by name, every paddleable creek or river has either sections of swampyness or swamp within the flood plane that varies with the water level that one can get off the beaten path and noodle around in, all of which can be fascinating and beautiful. Of course the local jargon being what it is places like gum slough, devils hammock and jumper creek are 90-100% swamp but you wouldn't know it by the names. So much for calling a swamp a swamp.

 

[Guest]

I'm surprised not to see the Okefenokee on folk's lists. I realize it's out of Mike's original geographic region but if you continue down the Atlantic coast from SC you'll find yourself in GA. Head about 40 miles inland from St. Marys and you'll be at the eastern entrance to the refuge. If you're interested in paddling a swamp, I firmly believe the Okefenokee should be on your list.

I must confess to having never paddled the Okefenokee, despite having driven through that area of southern Georgia a dozen times.

Part of that is the necessity of permits for overnight trips, and a larger part is that I was usually winter snowbird headed south to visit old friends in north-central Florida, to paddle the Sante Fe, Suwannee and sundry springs, or keep on trucking all the way south to the Everglades. Kinda like missing everything in Virginia, or having never paddled the Great Dismal Swamp. The day is young, keep on trucking south.

I will try to amend that oversight next trip that far south. Any recommendations for a place to stop-over truck camp and day paddle in the Okefenokee? Of course there may be winter camping reservation issues there as well, but it’s worth a shot.

 

[Chip]

“Non-tidal”. I dunno but that either. I have not paddled many salt water swamps, but some mangrove, er, “flooded forests” sure look like “swamps” to me.

.....

Omit the trees and include the low relief and I’d call that a marsh, a term which is equally open to interpretation. Once you’ve paddle in Dorchester County it is hard to call a patch of grass and cattails at the shallow end of a pond a “marsh”.

EDIT: The Waccamaw flows though the fabulous Green Swamp:

https://www.nature.org/ourinitiativ...lina/placesweprotect/green-swamp-preserve.xml

I threw "non-tidal" in there in hopes of keeping marshes separate from swamps.

The coordinates for Green Swamp map to a point about ten miles SE of Lake Waccamaw. The Waccamaw flows SW from the lake. Does Green Swamp extend all the way to the Lake?

Okefenokee is a place that has avoided my paddle, too. I'd also like to fix that.

 

[Guest]

The coordinates for Green Swamp map to a point about ten miles SE of Lake Waccamaw. The Waccamaw flows SW from the lake. Does Green Swamp extend all the way to the Lake?

Yes. If you have a NC Atlas & Gazetteer have a look at pages 82 and 83. The Green Swamp surrounds a large portion of Lake Waccamaw, including the outflow headwaters of the Waccamaw River. See pages 86 and 87 for continuation; it’s a big swamp.

 

[snapper]

Mike - There is a county campground called Trader's Hill that is just south of Folkston, Ga before you get to the eastern entrance of the Okefenokee NWR. The last time I was there the fee was $10.00 per night per tent. I don't know if the fee is the same for an RV or truck but you could contact them to see what it might be. I like Trader's Hill because you're surrounded by old Live Oak trees dripping with moss. The campground is situated just uphill from the St. Mary's river and a boat launch/swim & picnic area. The place isn't fancy but the bathrooms and showers work and there's a nice picnic pavilion in case it rains and you don't want to sit in your tent all day. One thing to alert folks to though; the water is pretty high in sulfur content so you'll definitely experience that rotten egg smell that accompanies it.

If you stay on the eastern side of the swamp there are a couple of day trips you can do from the Suwannee Canal side. The first mile will be the same but after that you can venture out in different directions. You don't even have to travel that initial mile both ways as there is another smaller water trail the parallels it when the water levels are high. This direction allows you to paddle to Chesser Prairie, Monkey Lake, Coffee Bay and Cedar Hammock.

While not on the eastern side officially, just outside Folkston is Kingfisher Landing. This is another entry into the swamp that allows for a couple of options for day trips. Like the other day routes, this will be an in/out trip but there are at least two options from here as well. Again, the first part is the same for both routes and then you'll come to a split. Head one direction and you're off towards Maul Hammock. Go the other and you're off towards Bluff Lake.

Should you decide to check out the western side of the swamp there is a state campground where the paddling begins; Steven Foster State Park. It's a bit of a drive into town for groceries and supplies but certainly doable. The state campground also has cabins if you'd rather go that route as well as washer/dryer facilities. There are canoe/boat rentals and a nice little shop and nature center on that side.

From the western side you could day trip to Billy's Island or head up to Minnie's Lake. You might also paddle down towards the Suwannee Sill so that's another option you could check into.

Bottom line, while I definitely enjoy paddling and camping in the swamp, if you aren't able to get a permit, there are some nice day trips still available to you

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[clemency]

Cedar Creek in Congaree National Park, SC, is a nice paddle. Congaree NP is the largest chunk of old growth bottomland forest left in the US, and Cedar Creek goes right through it. Gotta check the water levels before you go though. The park also has camping, though not RV camping if that's what you're thinking of. Cedar Creek also requires a shuttle.

https://www.nps.gov/cong/index.htm

 

[Gdwelker]

Congaree National Park was very nice - Cedar creek was a nice paddle, but bring s boat you don't mind portaging around strainers. It is doable as an out and back at low current times. The trees are amazing.

 

[Gdwelker]

In Virginia, consider parts of the Pamunkey, around White Oak landing and the side creeks, plus Cumberland Marsh Matural Area is accessible from there. Great in the fall for birding. Parts of the Mattaponi are nice also. I often stay at the tent section of Rainbow Acres campground on the Mattaponi and use it as a base camp to paddle both rivers.

 

[NavalCanoes]

I've paddled Trap Pond before, what a beautiful place! Unfortunately I was with my girlfriend who has a rather intense phobia of frogs, of all things, so I couldn't get into the swampier part without a spazz-tastic reaction involving a lot of screaming and tears. As for Virginia swamps, you just can't beat the Great Dismal Swamp. Great place, even has a canoe-in only campsite in the edge of Lake Drummond. I just posted a trip report, you ought to take a look.

 

[Pringles]

"Spazz-tastic." I have that. Snakes, not frogs. I never had a name for it before!

Thanks for your service. Pringles