The Okeefenokee has a sand bottom with accumulations of peat which colors the water orangish. It looks like iced tea to me. While individual pools may become stagnant, the swamp flows out and it is the headwaters of the Suwannee River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Marys River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the swamp is open prairies with some dense scrub brush and islands of solid ground in some places. It has lakes and gator holes, too. There are marked canoe trails and campsites throughout the swamp. The swamp is home to Black Bears, deer, cougars, bobcats, snapping turtles, alligators, and a bunch of birds, snakes, frogs and other wildlife. It is truly a wild and beautiful place. It is not my favorite swamp, though. My favorite is the Altamaha. It is really wild!

I love that last photo of you with the blade, HD! I am not familiar with the Altamaha. I will have to Google it.

Thanks for sharing. Thats a beautiful place, it would be nice to be left for a couple of days alone with a small boat, poles etc.

Nice pics Vic. I pictured swamps as being very much like CR described. I had no idea they could look so green and full of life. Thanks for the tour!

Every time I have ventured into a swamp, I have come out feeling pretty terrible, mud-caked and mosquito-bite ridden.

Altamaha River Swamp in Georgia. Season one of Survivorman featured an episode there.

Yeah I googled it to find it. I didn't know about the survivorman episode, though. I really like that show. I will check it out. Thanks for the tip!

That would be a good day in the Altamaha. You came out. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Very cool HD, I wouldn't say an "old man" catching his breath but rather a "smoker" catching his breath. Thats right, I'm griping over the internet <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />.

That trip sure beats a trip to the mall in my books. Thanks for sharing Vic! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

That blade is my DFLE, and I needed it that day to even cross some of the creeks, hacking away limbs that had fallen across the cypress log bridges. In the pic I am slashing through some pigmy bamboo. It is a heck of a swamp knife.

Here you see my other daughter, Bonnie crossing one of those creeks.

I took some hog hunters back there years ago. As night approached the tide came in and cut us off from our way back on a cold winter day. One of the hunters who always kidded me about carrying big knives went into a panic, fearing he would spend the night there. He wasn't used to the Altamaha. I unsheathed my big bowie and chopped down a tree that served as a bridge across the creek. We made it back to the jeeps right at dark. He never complained about my big swamp knives again. If I'd had the DFLE then, he would have been even more impressed.

Wow, what a cool story! And more great pictures of my "most desired" blade! Awesome, HD. Thanks again!

You know, you write a little like Hemingway, in my opinion.