Where the Map Ends, The WILD Begins.
Past the last landing there is always something out there. We go find
it, and we film what actually happened.
Multi-day canoe camping expeditions through the blackwater rivers and
swamps of the American South, and the alligators that live in them. The
Okefenokee, the Suwannee River, the Satilla River, the St. Marys River,
the Altamaha River, the Alapaha River, the Withlacoochee River, the
Ocmulgee River and the Oconee River.
Fifty-three years in Charlton County, Georgia, in Okefenokee country, a
mile from the house I grew up in. My wife Tina paddles bow.
Full length expedition films, not clips. Canoe camping, float trips,
river fishing, catch and cook, across south Georgia and north Florida.
Sandbar and swamp platform camps with gators in the water beside us,
sized from the eye to the nose. Solo trips and expeditions where
conditions decide the rules.
If you can't make the put-in, ride with us.
Stay Rugged.
Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
Zero bars in the Okefenokee, and the map still opens. 🛶
I put the whole CWS app in 90 seconds: offline maps, GPS track, float plan, and the folks at home get told if you're late. Free on iPhone and Android.
Watch it here, and tell me what you'd want it to do on your next trip.
1 day ago | [YT] | 0
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
The check you skip at night is the bite you find next week.
Members asked for the honest findings on ticks, and they are unglamorous. Permethrin goes on clothing and gear, never skin, and it is the single biggest difference-maker. Repellent handles the skin. Then the nightly ritual: a full sixty-second check at lights-out, waistband, sock line, behind knees, hairline, and armpits, the warm creases. Found fast, a tick is a tweezer job. Found next week, it is a doctor conversation.
Are you a nightly tick checker or an honest skipper? What finally made it a habit?
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
A herd rooting thirty feet from your shelter at 1 AM. You want them gone, not incoming.
Wild hogs near a night camp are a traffic problem, not a fight. They want nothing to do with you, so your whole job is making sure their exit is not through your shelter. Think about which way is open before you make yourself known. Then light and noise from a covered position, loud voice, a light sweep. They will take the easy gap almost every time, so make sure the easy gap points away from you.
Hogs at one in the morning, thirty feet out. Walk me through your move.
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
The Swampers series is live.
Swamp Raised, Swamp Gator, and Where the Map Ends, the Wild Begins. Tees, tanks, hoodies, tumblers and stickers, printed to order and shipped from here.
Y'all have been coming along on these rivers with me for a while now. This is the first time you can wear it.
Tees $28, hoodies $45, stickers from $6.
blackwateroutdoorjourneys.com/store
4 days ago | [YT] | 0
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
Snakes do not ambush people. People deliver their hands to snakes.
Members keep asking to get better educated and less afraid around snakes, and one rule does most of that work: never put hands or feet anywhere your eyes have not been. Firewood piles, log crossings, brushy ledges, the far side of a downed tree. Step onto the log, look, then step down. Use a stick to move wood before fingers go in. Fear shrinks as procedure grows, and the snake was never hunting you to begin with.
A member said it straight: I want to be less afraid of and more educated about snakes. What habit made the biggest difference for you?
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
Same river, different gator. The calendar changes the animal.
A member asked which is more dangerous, breeding season or dry season. Both, differently. Spring courtship and early summer nesting bring movement, bellowing, and boldness, males cruise and females defend nests, so give banks and mounds extra room. Deep dry spells concentrate every gator into the water that remains, so a shrinking river means more eyes per pool. Neither season is a reason to stay home. Both are a reason to read the water before you pick a camp.
Have you noticed the seasons change gator behavior on your home water? What have you seen?
First week free:
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5 days ago | [YT] | 3
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
Where do you sleep with gators around? Higher, cleaner, and further back than you think you need.
Members ask constantly how anyone sleeps out here. The answer is boring on purpose. Camp well back from the water's edge and up the bank, gators do their business at the waterline, not up in the trees. Keep a clean camp, fish scraps and food smell are the actual invitation. Keep dogs leashed and away from the banks, they read as prey in a way people do not. Do that and the swamp sleeps you just fine.
A member with gators in the pond behind the house asked for every bit of gator knowledge we have. What would you tell a new neighbor in gator country first?
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
6 days ago | [YT] | 2
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
The most-asked question in this community's history: do gators hunt at night?
Straight answer: alligators are most active from dusk through dark, especially in warm months, and they hunt in the water, not by stalking camps. People are not on the menu. Nearly every real problem traces to two things, fed gators that lost their fear, and people or dogs at the water's edge in low light. Respect the dark hours near the waterline and the gator wants even less to do with you than you do with it.
What is the closest you have ever been to a gator, and did it behave the way you expected?
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
Two of our books are now in print.
The Okefenokee: Why the World Chose This Swamp, 32 pages, $9.95. The Blackwater Paddler's Guide, 2nd Edition, 44 pages, $14.95. Both full color, perfect bound, printed to order and mailed USPS ($5.95 shipping).
Still free to read online. These are for the truck, the shelf, or a gift.
blackwateroutdoorjourneys.com/store/#books
Stay Rugged.
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Blackwater Outdoor Journeys
A trip plan nobody is holding is just a diary entry waiting to be found.
The system that actually works has three parts, and members here already run it well. Someone at home holds the plan: where, with whom, when you are due out. A hard check-in time, not a vibe. And a buffer rule agreed in advance: how long past silence before they call, and who they call. Signal dies out here, that is the point. The plan works even when the phone does not.
Who holds your plan when you go out, and what is your agreed buffer before they act?
First week free:
www.skool.com/camping-wilderness-skool/about
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