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Day 7
Dublin on the Double -
Ga. 57 to Dublin
At 22 miles, this is the longest day of the journey, but it is also perhaps the most rewarding. With the exception of Ga. 57 near the launch site, you won’t see a bridge of any kind. Along the way, you’ll take in the uniquely named Cow Hell Swamp before sliding into Dublin and our River’s End Celebration.
“Swamp” is a misleading term for what flanks the river here. When Georgians think swamps, they think quaking earth and the fabled Okefenokee. Along the Oconee and other Georgia rivers that cross the fall line and spill into the Coastal Plain, the swamps are really only expansive lowland forests. They only take on the character of swamps when the river spills over its banks during floods.
Nevertheless, they are incredibly productive and beautiful places–home to an array of critters. The “action” in the Coastal Plain is not on the mainstem of the river, it’s back in these dark, shady sloughs. It’s here that the alligators hide, the herons hunt and the songbirds flitter…and as Cow Hell Swamp’s name implies, it is also the place where cows stumble in and are perhaps never seen again.
The river itself is very different from even the previous day’s route. Below Balls Ferry, it becomes very intentional and sheds its winding ways. It seems to have found its purpose—to run fast to meet the Ocmulgee and form the Altamaha. Sandbars become less numerous and cypress and Spanish moss more common, lining a corridor marked by high banks.
Our journey ends in East Dublin at Buckeye Park, site of the annual Redneck Games. Our River’s End Celebration will incorporate some of the games. It’s an event you will not want to miss.
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