Just below where every major Georgia river crosses the Fall Line, it enters a looooong straightaway. They all do it: the Savannah, the Ocmulgee, the Flint, the Oconee… only the Oconee didn’t seem straight this morning. The river is so low right now that it winds within its banks, exposing sandbars on its sides, even in the long straightaway. And this is a good thing: if the straightaway appeared too straight, rather than just a little twisty-turny as it did, the head-game might have been a little too much for us, the destination appearing just too far away.
But that was just the morning. Before long, we were into the fascinating land of oxbow lakes and tight bends, a vast floodplain bottomland forest extending for miles on each side of the riverbank. And even though many of the bends were full of deadfall, strainers and snags, we were all amazed to see the power of the river at work: an abandoned oxbow off to the side holding only slack and stagnant water might have been the river itself just a year or two ago. The river channel is what a geologist would call “active” here, and it’s a fun thing to witness. One other good thing, in the words of veteran PG paddler Bobby Marie: “I just love the fact that on every bend there’s a sandbar, and I can get out and play if I want to.” Amen to that.
Joe Cook was right: this river is full of old beer cans with pull-tab tops. That’s in contrast to the modern day pop-tops. And while this is a fascinating point of history, your scribe assumes that Joe won his own contest, collecting more pull-tabs than anyone else. Not sure: we’ll confirm tomorrow. Will post some more photos tomorrow, too!
… And not to neglect the birds, we must note that there were many, many Mississipi Kites today, gliding over the river catching dragonflies and other bugs. Cool stuff. Here’s hoping we’ll see some Swallow-Tailed Kites as we descend toward Dublin.
-Ben Emanuel
