Altamaha River Is Georgia’s ‘Little Amazon’ With 120 Endangered Species—and It is Simply 1.5 Hours From Savannah

The river rolled beneath us as sheets of rain lashed down. I sat within the stern of our canoe with my buddy Madeline within the bow. My dad, Joel, adopted in his lengthy pink sea kayak. We sped previous drooping branches that bobbed as the present tried to tug them downstream.

I couldn’t assist however chuckle. I had traveled to Georgia to see how wild the Altamaha River nonetheless was. Now, on day 4 of our six-day source-to-sea paddle, the river was exhibiting its may.

About an hour and a half south of Savannah, paddlers can discover a forgotten gem. Nicknamed Georgia’s “Little Amazon,” the 137-mile Altamaha River meanders via hardwood forests and old-growth cypress swamps, previous river-cut cliffs, and alongside cordgrass marshlands earlier than emptying into the Atlantic. Undammed, crossed by roads simply 5 instances, and residential to greater than 120 endangered species, The Nature Conservancy calls this river one of many 75 “Final Nice Locations” on the earth.

One of the simplest ways to benefit from the Altamaha is by boat. In 2010, the Georgia River Community launched the Altamaha River Canoe Path. Right this moment, this path stretches the size of the river and gives 29 entry factors.

We began our journey with an evening at a primitive campsite at Cities Bluff Park. A information at Three Rivers Outside helped us shuttle our automotive all the way down to the takeout in Darien earlier than seeing us on our means on the put-in at Hinson’s Touchdown. Three Rivers gives every part from shuttles for 10-day journeys to kayak leases to two-hour guided excursions.

I’d spent a yr researching the Altamaha, studying tales of winding, difficult-to-navigate tributaries, dense swamplands, robust currents and tides, huge catfish, and large alligators.

The journey didn’t disappoint. On our first night time, we arrange camp on a large seashore at one of many river’s many dispersed tenting areas. I picked dewberries whereas Madeline fished the shoreline, pulling a big redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass from the water.

For dinner, we feasted on fried fish, pasta, and berries. We lounged on the mushy sand, watching the solar sink as snow-white egrets strolled via the shallow waters, their lengthy strides providing flashes of their brilliant yellow ft.

In the course of the subsequent few days, we fell right into a sample. We rose early and paddled arduous, watching solitary sandpipers run alongside the misty shores as ospreys eyed us from their nests atop useless timber.

We spent our lunches stress-free on the Altamaha’s sandbars, casting strains and darting into the water for a fast swim, watchful for the define of an alligator shifting via the depths.

Within the afternoons, silvery mullet leapt out of the darkish water subsequent to our boats. On one memorable event, one bounced off my dad’s kayak deck with a loud thump.

Every night time, we listened to barred owls echoing their acquainted track, “who, who, who cooks for you,” as they soared between Spanish moss-covered branches.

Our largest alligator sighting got here on the afternoon of our third day. “Madeline, Madeline, Madeline!” I nervously chanted as what I had taken to be a log started charging down the financial institution beside us. It broke via the tangled willows and plunged into the water, its large kind making waves that lapped towards the canoe. Madeline grinned again at me. “What did you count on me to do?” she mentioned.

We spent our final night time on the river at Altamaha Regional Park. After one other spherical of torrential thunderstorms, a scorching bathe and a cup of espresso by no means felt so good.

The subsequent morning discovered us within the park’s retailer, which hosts a tasty diner tucked into the again nook behind cabinets of fishing deal with and camo shirts. Over a breakfast of waffles with native sorghum syrup, fried eggs, crisp hash browns, grits, and sausage, native anglers informed us we had to take a look at Rifle Reduce.

This slim, mile-long canal gives reduction from the currents and tides on the mouth of the river. It’s adorned with brilliant wildflowers, tiny scuttling crabs, and shorebirds. Although lovely, it has a darkish historical past. The canal was hand-dug by enslaved individuals within the 1820s to shorten the path to the timber mill in Darien.

After coasting via the minimize, the river pulled us again out right into a ferocious mixture of wind, present, and tide as we entered Darien.

We’d caught our first glimpse of one other group of paddlers on the river earlier than making the final bend. Now, straight forward of us, they had been in hassle. Caught within the unusual mixture of present and tide, that they had flipped their canoe. With out life jackets on, they clung to the capsized canoe, and we hurried to assist.

My dad swooped in to tow one on the again of his kayak. With the assistance of one other kayaker, we had been in a position to get the opposite man and their canoe to a close-by muddy financial institution reverse and simply upstream of the takeout.

The journey ended with Madeline and me in separate boats. I took one man of their canoe, whereas Madeline and my dad coaxed a nervous, exhausted man into the bow of ours. He perched on the balls of his ft and clung to the gunwales, making the gear-laden canoe shudder within the swirling water. One way or the other, Madeline made it throughout with him.

The Altamaha was an journey to the very finish.