Why I love Georgia’s great outdoors: Canoeing and kayaking

Our first canoe was a Christmas tree ornament. When my husband, Michael, and I got married, we didn’t have a wedding registry; instead, we asked people to give whatever gifts they felt like giving, or they could donate to our canoe fund. We received the canoe ornament and around $300 as a symbol of hope for what was to come. We ended up spending the canoe fund on more practical things, especially since we had nowhere to store a boat in the third-floor apartment we rented. After almost 17 years, four children, and a cross-country move, we finally bought a used red Coleman canoe over 17 feet long. The owner offered to sell us a battery-powered trolling motor, but we declined. The boat of our dreams has always been self-propelled. Over the years, our family has taken great joy in canoeing and kayaking some of Georgia’s ponds, lakes, rivers, and salt marshes.

I wonder what the other boaters on Lake Russell thought when they saw our family’s maiden voyage. We had canoed before in borrowed and rented vessels, but my memory of our first trip in a boat of our own—four kids in life jackets, taking turns to paddle while the others waited patiently on shore—stands out as one of those moments where the dream and the reality didn’t exactly align. Motorboats zipped past in the bright water while our boat tipped and rocked in their constant wakes. We must have looked so out of place, like a bicycle on a superhighway. We’ve since learned to study maps more carefully and venture along the shallow fingers of lakes where motorized vessels can’t travel. But, even then, getting tossed by man-made waves, I was so happy to be bobbing along with my little crew.

As lovely as they are, even without motorboats, Georgia’s waters are troubled. This state’s murky history lurks beneath the surface. Some of Georgia’s lakes, like Russell and Lanier, are a complicated mess of drowned towns and defunct plantations named after men who fought to preserve a racialized caste system beneath the guise of “states’ rights.” We’ve paddled J. Strom Thurmond Lake, named for the staunchly segregationist South Carolina governor and U.S. senator whose daughter, Essie Mae Washington, a biracial Black woman, revealed his paternity after he died at 100. Michael is White; I am a biracial Black woman. Our family has built so many happy memories on waters named for men who wanted to deny us the fullness of humanity. But when I’m with my family, floating freely on water that used to be sky above cotton, I feel like the answer to somebody’s prayers.

We’ve kayaked the brackish waters of St. Simons Island. Slicing our paddle’s blade through the dark waters near Igbo Landing, I felt the memory of people who chose death over enslavement wash over me. Boats trafficked African people as cargo across the Atlantic Ocean and up the Savannah River. But boats also carried our ancestors to freedom. “Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore” was an emancipation song. Michael and I push off with our children into the deep.

I watch my almost-grown kids paddle out on the water, all sinew and sparkle. For a few hours, we are the only people we see. Our voices mingle with the current, the sounds of cicadas and kingfishers. Time, for a merciful moment, slows and bends, and we stay afloat.

Where to paddle Georgia waters

Toccoa River Canoe Trail
This beautiful, beginner-friendly canoe trip follows nearly 14 miles of the Toccoa River in North Georgia. People flock to the river for its pristine trout fishing, forested banks, and views of Georgia wildlife. Your downstream journey will take you beneath the 270-foot suspension-style Swinging Bridge; just beyond it, a shaded campground area on the right bank is an ideal spot to pull out for lunch.

Okefenokee Swamp
Listed as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia, the breathtaking 400,000-acre blackwater swamp is best enjoyed by canoe. You can bring your own or rent one from local outfitters like Okefenokee Adventures, whose entrance point on the northern side of the swamp is along a former logging canal and offers a more family-friendly adventure. Experienced paddlers may enjoy putting in at Stephen Foster State Park on the more remote western end, or planning a multiday canoe trip, camping at one of several platforms inside the swamp.

Sweetwater Creek State Park
For an adventure closer to home in Atlanta, Sweetwater Creek State Park offers plenty of natural beauty to enjoy from aboard a canoe, only about 20 miles from downtown Atlanta. The gentle waters are ideal for beginners, and offer opportunities for scrambling on river rocks and visiting the crumbling ruins of a pre–Civil War mill.

Josina Guess is an assistant editor for Sojourners magazine and a contributor to Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic (Lookout Books, 2022).

This article appears in our August 2024 issue.

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