The last two years in the fall I’ve motored up into the Dragon Swamp at the head of the Piankatank River because it is just so beautiful. 2023 and 2024

I left the boat ramp at 7am with a pink sunrise. Fifteen minutes later the sun started to peak over the treelined shore. Two older guys from Richmond were launching a jon boat and asked a few questions about mine.

The morning was pretty overcast and rather chilly compared to the previous years. I ran into a patch of sea smoke up where the phragmites start.

Closer to the swamp I started hitting a line of towering cypress trees.

Soon enough I made a 180 around the leaning tree with an eagle nest which is where it really starts getting beautiful.

Pretty quickly the river narrows down to about 50 feet.

Like previous years I came across a few guys fishing. Funny enough, this is the same guy I took a picture of last year!

This year the tide was in my favor and we’d had a really wet couple of months so I managed to bump my way over the log that stopped me last year and make it into new territory.

This stretch of river is definitely canoe and kayak oriented with little holes cut into fallen trees. I just barely fit through this section. There are way more shallow logs that I had to bump over too. Generally I managed to get the motor into idle before I hit them and it popped the motor shaft up.

Eventually I ran up on a beaver dam 1/2 a mile further along than last year. I ate lunch and listened to the gurgle of a pretty impressive flow of water. I wonder how or even if the tides affect the water level this far up. Maybe next year I need to pull the boat over the dam and see what’s past the bend!

1/2 mile further from last year’s green track and 1/3 of a mile from Route 17.

Coming back through the tightest spot on the river.

It’s really hard to show how beautiful it is in pictures. I’m sure rowing or an electric motor would be even better since I’m sure there’s a lot of birds to listen to.

Sometimes it was hard to see what was river and what was forrest with all the reflections.

Heading out of the swamp back into the wider river. For whatever reason this trip felt just a touch less awe inspiring than last year. I’ve been wondering if that’s because it wasn’t new and unexplored? Or was it the weather? I guess I’ll have to see how I feel next year! It seems to be becoming a yearly thing.

Back at the ramp at 1pm. I hauled out just after the two guys from Richmond in their jon boat. The day was getting warmer and overall was quite pleasant.

This year I went 29.1 miles in 5 hours 44 minutes. Average speed was 5.3 mph with a max of 6.9 mph. Since the tide was with me this year my fuel mileage was better. I did 10.7 miles on the 1 liter fuel tank at an average of 6 mph, so that works out to 40.5 miles per gallon and .15 gallons per hour.