Georgia Wilderness Society
Adventures on the Oconee River
April 29 - 30, 2023
It rained so hard Saturday night we could barely hear the barred owls that always hoot back and forth half the night to remind us we are just intruding on their swamp. The rain gracefully stopped at dawn for us to rise, cook
breakfast, and break camp.
We got most of the way to Dublin before
the final wave of wind and heavy rain hit
us. The rain was a bit cool, but the wind
was one of the few sustained tailwinds I
have had while river paddling. Not a
complaint was heard from any of this
seasoned bunch of paddlers and campers.
Sightings included blooming magnolias, the usual cypress trees in spring green draped with Spanish moss, a swallow-tailed kite, a seven-foot alligator, ducks, egrets and kingfishers, but no turtles or herons in the high cold water. We also saw more folks launching motorboats at Balls Ferry than I have ever seen, but they did not bother us much downriver.
Good timing on the Oconee: Eight GWS river rats in four canoes and two kayaks paddled a pretty section of the Oconee River between Balls Ferry and Dublin on a spring weekend at the end of April.
Paddlers were Terry Ross, Kerry Coburn, Shirley Williams, Curt and Irene Cole, Grant Mangum, Everett Mangum and trip leader Joe Mangum. Jane Mangum helped with the shuttle and with providing a lunch before the launch.
(Bonnie Gehling snuck in a new provision in the Bylaws requiring all trip leaders on overnight wilderness trips to furnish a “last supper.”)
Before the trip, the river was high from spring rains and we were keeping an eye on the river gauge in Dublin, and it finally showed a drop of 7 feet the last week before the trip, which left exposed only one old reliable sandbar in Cow Hell Swamp below the Johnson County landing (about the midpoint of the 22-mile run).
The weather forecast was ominous, with three waves of rain and storms forecast, and the trip leader offered to arrange a shuttle for anyone who wanted to make it a day trip, but none of the rats took up the offer, and our timing was lucky. We got in a nice dry afternoon paddle Saturday, and got camp set up in the sunshine, and most of us got supper cooked before the rain started. Then we gathered to solve the world’s problems under a big tarp Curt and Irene Cole were good enough to tote along and set up.
