Withlacoochee River Park

Richardson: One vacation spot to avoid

About the only similarity was that a goodly supply of cold beer was always on hand, although the brands were not as numerous and all were cooked up in the good old U.S.A. rather than far-off places like Germany and Liechtenstein.

We often took along misery for company as we sweated, grunted and heaved our way to elegant tropical destinations like Suwanee, Florida, Goat Island and the Withlacoochee River. Retreating from the stress of everyday life, we were determined to have fun, and usually did - just not in the same way most people think of it when they go on holiday circa 2011.

This particular excursion took place in the summer of 1979 - the hottest summer on record prior to our current phase of global warming.

My father-in-law, Mr. Lamar Whidby, helped us come to a decision to visit the sunny, stunningly gorgeous St. Mary's River on the Georgia-Florida border. Our ultimate goal was to catch some red breast sunfish and camp out on bank of this waterway that separates Bulldog and Gator land. It was supposed to be a veritable vacation paradise, according to Mr. Lamar.

In order to get to our destination, we had to leave Georgia, go through Florida and then curve our way once more back into Georgia - I think. There's a little tip of land in the southeast corner of our state that caused me some confusion.

Anyway, we wound up east of Moniac, north of Stokesville and just south of the Okefenokee Swamp in the county of Charlton.

I'm sure you've heard of all those places, especially the swamp land. The Indians named it the "Land of Trembling Earth," but by the time we'd finished this expedition, I could have added some other items to the translation.

I'm thinking "Land Before Time," "Jurassic Park" or "Land of the Giant Prehistoric Mosquitoes" would have all been suitable names.

Suffice to say we wound up in the deepest, darkest part of America I'd ever become acquainted with. Might as well have been Central Africa for all I knew.

As you might imagine, this trip was scheduled to be conducted with no frills. We took canoes and small gas motors to be sure, but no tents. This was all about roughing it, catching fish, and then cooking them on the riverbank.

One of the things that struck me was that the red bellies we sought were typically a very tasty fish, but also very small. One of them fried up would offer about a good mouthful of meat, so we were going to have to catch a couple hundred to feed the members of our party who were along on the trip.

Anyone hike the trails at Southwest Florida Water Management ...

Actually most of there trails are maintained by FTA , hiking trails that is. im not sure where you live but have you hiked green swamp,  or withlacoochee river park. green swamp east? this december i will leading a 3 day backpacking trip on swifmud land. theres upper hillsboro river trails in zephryhills.

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