Passing north beyond Minnie’s Lake along the Suwannee River Middle Fork trail, the kayak channel constricts through a more mature Cypress forest. Here the dense, towering trees cast their shadows and darken the swamp below. One gets a feel for what it was like throughout the entire Okefenokee before the saws and lumber mills of the 1920’s.
In a dark cove where the channel turns, groups of Cypress knees stand out from the dark soil on the banks of the water. I remembered this exact spot from our first trip up the red trail and had affectionately named it “Cypress Knee Bend.” This was true swamp: shadow, Spanish Moss, green hues of growth and algae among the browns of tree and stump. How I’d love to linger in this scene, perhaps camp overnight.
Okefenokee Photography Project by William Wise 