A fellow Savannah paddler (who will remain unnamed) was our "tour guide" for what was to be a three hour paddle down the Ogeechee River. Morgan's Bridge at Hwy 204 was our launch point, and our destination was the landing at Hwy. 17 just past Love's Seafood. When we left a car at the take out it was about 13 miles back to the launch. That should have been clue #1! The Ogeechee is a beautiful river complete with cyprus trees, an abundance of wildlife, and some fascinating wildflowers that were unknown to us. A portion of the river passes through Fort Stewart property. There is no development so there is nothing but wilderness on both sides of the river. FOUR HOURS into our THREE HOUR paddle we realized we were not even close to our take out. Fortunately, a good supply of water and a couple of granola bars supplied us with the energy we needed to paddle the SECOND FOUR HOURS of our trip. Three hours away from our destination the tide started coming in and a headwind of 20 mph came off the Atlantic. When we got to the take out EIGHT HOURS after we begain our journey we were thankful we had enough strength to load our kayaks on the Jeep. The Sunbury Yacht and Pleasure Club now has a library and we are proud owners of "A Canoeing & Kayaking Guide to Georgia" by Welander, Sehlinger, & Otey, and "The Georgia Coast Waterways and Islands" by Zydler & Zydler. The moral of this story is do your own research before you paddle any river.
"Whipping Post" Allman Brothers
1 comment:
I'm interested in taking a paddle trip down the Ogeechee this Spring. Were both the 204 bridge and Hwy 17 bridge PUBLIC access?
Were there numerous sandbars along the way? We will doing a very slow float and camping overnight, so sandbars are critical.
Thanks for your time. Looks like a cool trip.
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