Day 9

We did not have any service at our campsite so I am just now getting up the blog for yesterday. 

Day 9

Today we knew we had a long but interesting day in front of us.  We finally got out of camp before 10:30, scooting out at about 10 or so.  Our GPS died so we do not know exactly how far we went in total, but I am guessing we went around 22 miles.  We started our day by paddling about 5 miles to the Chipola Cuttoff. This is a large creek that juts off of the side of the Apalachicola and goes towards what is known as the Dead Lakes.  The Dead lakes are

a series of lakes that look- dead.  There are huge Cyprus trees growing out of the water with Spanish moss hanging down, and stumps littering the whole lake.  It is a very fun but somewhat spooky place to paddle. We left the Dead Lakes  and continued down the Chipola for about 15 or so miles until we ran back into the apalachicola river. About 5 miles down the Chipola, we ran into a nice man who asked us about our trip. We told him where we had come from and talked about the Dead Lakes. He told us about a somewhat unknown part of the lake called Cotton Lake that is crystal clear. It is fed by springs, so the water is pure and fresh with about 30 feet of visibility.  We really wished we had run into him earlier!

Once we got back to the Apalachicola, we still had a couple miles until our campsite. We chose to stay at Hickory Landing, a designated campsite about a mile up what is known as Owl Creek.  This was another cool trip with Cyprus tree swamps that you can paddle through.  We got to the cell service deprived campsite at about 7:45, with just enough light to film ourselves setting up camp.  We fell asleep to an absolutely terrifying screeching noise coming from the swamp- still not sure what that was exactly!