DB Marsh stayed several days at Peacock Springs River Camp waiting out thunderstorms, then paddled down past Hal W. Adams Bridge, and slept on a picnick table at Yellow Jacket. He has now has made it to the town of Suwannee near the mouth of the Suwannee River.
![[bridge, fungus, hammock, Hart Springs, River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-28--d-b-marsh-peacock-suwannee/many.jpg)
bridge, fungus, Hart Springs, River
Along the way he got enough cell signal to put up some more stories and pictures. Continue reading
Update 2022-03-28: Peacock Springs to Suwannee, FL, Suwannee River 2022-03-28.
He’s made it to Dowling Park River Camp on the Suwannee River: Danny “DB” Marsh on his thousand mile loop from Fernandina Beach and back. When he gets cell service, he updates his website.
![[Big Shoals, Woods Ferry, Eddies, Holton Creek River Camp]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-23--db-marsh/many.jpg)
Big Shoals, Woods Ferry, Eddies, Holton Creek River Camp
He’s having the usual kind of river misadventures. This is an example of why it’s usually not a good idea to boat alone.
About 1 AM it was about time to make camp. I pulled up to a steep bank next to the I-75 Bridge. I stepped off the kayak onto what I thought was a white sand bank. It was not sand at all, but very slippery white clay. My feet went out from under me and in the next instant I was swimming.
Continue reading
Update 2022-03-23: Holton Creek to Dowling Park River Camp, Suwannee River –DB Marsh 2022-03-23.
Danny “DB” Marsh is paddling a thousand mile loop from Fernandina Beach and back. He is currently at Woods Ferry River Camp on the Suwannee River, where I just talked to him on the telephone.
He bypassed the Okefenokee Swamp because he didn’t realize how far in advance you have to reserve sleeping platforms. So he put in on the Suwannee at Fargo. Like many of us, he hopes that nice welcome center reopens some time soon.
He is from Montana, and is still amazed by alligators.
“To this Montana boy, seeing them up close and free is a mixture of amazement, joy and terror at the same time. They however wanted nothing to do with me, and would dive from their riverbanks into the water with huge splashes to watch me pass from their safety of the water. I counted 13 that day, I’m sure many more were unseen.”
He has solar panels to recharge his electronics, but it’s nice to get to a River Camp with electricity, so he appreciates the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail. Continue reading
Due to high water, we have rescheduled the Saturday paddle to become a 2-hour easy hike from Bell Springs to Big Shoals on the Suwannee River, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. Here’s a way to see Florida’s only Class III rapids with no need for a boat.
When: Gather 8 AM, caravan 9 AM, hike 9:30 AM, end 12 PM, Saturday, March 19, 2022
Put In: Nature & Heritage Tourism Center, 10499 Spring St, White Springs, FL 32096, at the corner of Bridge and Spring Street.
GPS: 30.32947, -82.759426
Take Out: Meet at the Tourism Center, sign in, and Dennis will lead a caravan to Bell Springs, where the hike begins and ends.
Bring: hiking boots and clothes, drinking water, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net/outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
![[Map: Bell-Springs to Big Shoals]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-19--hike-bell-springs-big-shoals/map-bell-springs-big-shoals.jpg)
Map: Bell-Springs to Big Shoals
A very congenial festival next to the Suwannee River in White Springs, Florida.
When: 10 AM – 4 PM, Saturday, March 19, 2022
Put In: Nature & Heritage Tourism Center, 10499 Spring St, White Springs, FL 32096, at the corner of Bridge and Spring Street.
Take Out: Same as Put In.
Free: No charge.
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
Volunteer: WWALS members, we could use you at the WWALS booth.
What: according to the Town of White Springs:
The Town of White Springs and the Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center are pleased to present the 🌺 20th Annual Wild Azalea Festival on Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm, at the Nature & Heritage Tourism Center in historic White Springs, Florida. Come out and enjoy live entertainment, craft and food vendors, raffles, duck race, cornhole tournament, kids’ area, and more! 😍
![[Wild Azalea Festival, WWALS Booth]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-19--wild-azalea-festival/many.jpg)
Wild Azalea Festival, WWALS Booth (2019)
Update 2022-03-18: OK water quality, Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2022-03-17.
Not a good weekend for boating, fishing, or swimming in the Withlacoochee River. Better stick to the Alapaha River, or the Suwannee upstream from the Withlacoochee River Confluence.
WWALS found very high E. coli at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp for Thursday, and high background Fecal coliform there and downstream at Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps.
Knights Ferry is where E. coli from cattle manure usually is first detected in the Withlacoochee River after washing down Okapilco Creek out of Brooks County, Georgia. Notice almost an inch of rain on the east side of Brooks County at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River, and 1.4 inches on the west side at Dixie, GA. When there’s more than half an inch of rain on Brooks County, we usually see this problem. Continue reading
Please ask Georgia legislators to pass HB 1289 against mining near the Okefenokee Swamp. Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, an Alabama-based company operated by people with a history of misrepresentation and pollution, is proposing a mining operation that threatens the Okefenokee Swamp and tourism-related jobs in the area, as well as the Floridan Aquifer and the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.
![[Otter, Okefenokee Swamp, 2019-12-07. Photo: Gretchen Quarterman]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-24--hb1289-gwc-alert/otter.jpg)
Otter, Okefenokee Swamp, 2019-12-07. Photo: Gretchen Quarterman
Floridians, you can do these things, too. The Swamp is upstream from Florida, both aboveground and through the Floridan Aquifer. You can call these Georgia legislators using the numbers in here: House and Senate.
For what’s in the bill and some other ways you can stop such mines, see Continue reading
The Georgia Governor’s office yesterday announced grants to many cities and counties for water projects. The funds come from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021.
Of the eighteen awardees in the Suwannee River Basin, adding up to $57,285,314.00, no surprise, Valdosta got the most. No, it’s not to fix some more of those sewer and manhole problems. It’s to build a new drinking well system, “southwest of the City limits, west of I-75 on Highway 84 near exit 16…”
Hahira, with about 5% of Valdosta’s population, got the second most, to fix its wastewater treatment plant and some stormwater drainage. Maybe that will stop Hahira from leaking E. coli into Franks Creek and the Little River.
Ray City got a substantial amount to fix its aging wastewater treatment plant, which should be good for Cat Creek and the Withlacoochee River.
Unfortunately missing is Quitman, which wanted $482,000 to top off local funds for fixing its lift stations. So no ARPA help to Quitman for stopping sewage spills into Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River.
Here are those awardees, most to least: Continue reading
Update 2022-03-15: Due to high water, replaced by Hike: Bell Springs to Big Shoals, Suwannee River 2022-03-19.
Join us for a geologic education paddle through millions of years, on a scenic two-mile stretch of the Suwannee River. Led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida, we will pass White Sulphur Spring, the first Floridan Aquifer Spring encountered on the Suwannee River.
Once you land, you can go on up to the Wild Azalea Festival! The festival is conveniently located at the corner of Spring and Bridge Street, 10499 Spring St, White Springs, FL 32096.
![[US 41 Bridge past FL 136 Bridge, Suwannee River, White Springs, Florida]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-19--white-springs-bridge-to-bridge-suwannee-river/map.jpg)
US 41 Bridge past FL 136 Bridge, Suwannee River, White Springs, Florida
Dennis Price explains, “For millions of years, Florida was a limestone platform not connected to the now North American continent. For eons the limestone bed would emerge, the bed surface would erode then sink again, several times. Each time the limestone would build again with a different set of fossils. The last limestone bed to deposit was the Suwannee Limestone. Florida thru this time was separated from the continent by the Suwannee Straits, similar to the Florida straits separating Florida from Cuba. Erosional sediments from the continent was slowly filling the Straits and when finally filled, sediments began covering the limestone that was Florida. These sediments are known as the Hawthorne formation today.”
When: Gather 8 AM, launch 8:30 AM, end 10 AM, Saturday, March 19, 2022
Put In:
Suwannee River Wayside Park Ramp @ US 41.
From White Springs, travel south on US 41 to the river; the ramp is on the south side in the town park, in Hamilton County.
This is where the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail officially starts,
although the WWALS web pages and map include the entire river up into Georgia and the Okefenokee Swamp.
GPS: 30.3255, -82.739167 ,
Take Out:
Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park Launch, 11016 Lillian Saunders Drive/U.S. Highway 41, White Springs FL 32096.
$5.00 per vehicle (up to 8 people) State Park entry fee.
White Sulphur Springs is after the second bridge but before the takeout. It was one of the first tourist attractions in Florida. Nowadays you can visit the empty bathhouse, see the trickle of water coming out, and read what Dennis wrote: The NFRWSP’s job is to figure out how to increase water levels in the aquifer. –Dennis J. Price 2016-12-12.
Bring: the usual personal flotation device, boat, paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup. Mosquitoes can be bad at dusk so come prepared.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net/outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
On newly-proclaimed Okefenokee Swamp Day, a bipartisan bill to ban mining on Trail Ridge by the Okefenokee Swamp appeared in the Georgia legislature: HB 1289.
![[Bill, Proclamation, Trail Ridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-02-08--ga-hb-1289-okefenokee-trail-ridge-mining/many.jpg)
Bill, Proclamation, Trail Ridge
You can ask Georgia Governor Kemp to get the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) to deny the permit request from Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, for a titanium dioxide strip mine within three miles of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers. Or ask your city or county government to pass a resolution supporting the Swamp and opposing the mine, as half a dozen have already done.
Or write directly to GA-EPD: TwinPines.Comment@dnr.ga.gov
Or use this convenient Georgia Water Coalition action alert form to ask your statehouse delegation to pass HB 1289 and to ask GA-EPD to deny the permits.
![[Paddling the Suwannee]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-17--db-marsh/many.jpg)
![[Fargo Welcome Center vacant]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-17--db-marsh/fargo.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-03-10--wq/many.jpg)
![[Treatment Plant Flow Diagram]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-08-30--permits/hahira/Hahira-GA0037974-Application-Form-2A-0013.jpg)