Rollin’ Down the River – The Dead Lakes to The Big River – Part II

By Clint Cox,

alias “The Panhandle Paddler”

Last week we left off our journey on the final leg down the Chipola at Burgess Creek. Traveling south of Burgess Creek the next major stop was that of Lockey Lake. This “lake” comes into the Chipola on the west side and has a nice boat landing known as Bryant’s Landing. My traveling partner, Chris Matthews, and I took a break for lunch here before spotting an interesting site across from the landing. We took note of several “contraptions” that demanded a closer inspection. These contraptions turned out to be swamp logging devices (photo attached) that were anchored up in a little slough.

Just a short paddle from Bryant’s Landing is Douglas Landing on the west bank. This is a small “fish camp” style landing with a concrete ramp and several locations for overnight camping. Another landing on the west bank was spotted just down from Douglas and it is known as Lister’s Landing. This is a small dirt landing but appeared to be in good shape. Across from Lister’s Landing on the east side is Douglas Creek, which loops around and comes back out about a ½ mile down on the east side of the river.

Buck’s Brite was the next site that we checked out and it is a creek coming in on the west side of the river. The creek features a nice sandy beach, swimming area and camping spot. It also featured a house boat tied up at the mouth of the creek. Just a short paddle down from Buck’s Brite we came to the meeting place of the Chipola and Apalachicola River. The two rivers come together just 27 miles north of the town of Apalachicola.

Chris and I checked out a potential camping spot on the Big River but decided to return back up the Chipola to Buck’s Brite for the night. Part of the reason we went back up river was due to a difficult decision that we had to make. The dilemma was whether to paddle down the Big River to the next take out point or paddle back up the Little River to Douglas Landing for our take out the next day. Obviously paddling down river would have been much easier, but there are no take out points on the Big River in close proximity to the Chipola and Apalachicola’s meeting place. So back up river we went and Buck’s Brite turned out to be a right nice camping spot, complete with good shaped, a good swimming hole and a beautiful river front view. That also meant that the next morning was spent paddling back up river to Douglas Landing. That was a tough little paddle but we made it and were able to hitch a ride back to our vehicle for an early exit.

Two interesting aspects were noted on this lower section of the Chipola. First the presence of numerous house boats. Very few turns were taken without the revealing of another batch of these floating houses tied off to the bank. And these floating houses took on every imaginable shape, size, color and condition. The other interesting aspect noted was the style of fishing that we observed. As I mentioned last week this portion of the river has little to no banking. The banks are made up mostly of a variety of trees and bushes hanging out over and even on the water. The folks that fish these parts pull right up into, and amongst these trees and bushes. Casting is out of the question, so they just tight line fish with rod and reels right next to their boat. Given the number of heathly moccasins that we saw down here, I’ll pass on this fishing technique.

With the journey down the Chipola River complete, I take some time over the next couple of weeks to share a few thoughts, and of course more photos, about my journey.