Three of us met at Bald Point State Park, at the mouth of the Ochlockonee Bay about 9:30 am. The park is off Alligator Point Rd, the first turn west of the bridge over the bay. The launch point is at the end of the park road, about 100 yards from the paved road with access across the sand to the fishing dock. There is a three dollar/vehicle entry fee, and bathrooms available.

The morning was cloudy and cool to start with, with a good breeze blowing from the northeast. The bay had 18" waves with some choppiness. The plan was to head up Chaires creek, about a mile up the bay on the west side, and navigate up that to Tucker Lake. The mouth of Chaires creek is fairly well obstructed by oyster bars, but there are passages between the bars - at least when the tide is in. Our timing brought us past the creek, missing it completely, and paddling much further up the bay than anticipated. Paddling into the wind took me too far out to see the creek mouth between the bars. After overshooting, and nearly making it to the bridge, we turned back, and stayed much closer to the shore, and finally found the mouth. The tide was still falling, and a rapid current was flowing between the oyster bars. We did start up, but the creek was flowing across a wide sand bar with only 1" of water over the sand, not leaving much room to float across. After relaxing a b
it, and enjoying the 76 deg sunshine, we headed back to the take out point.

When I try this again, I'll pay a lot more attention to tide tables, and plan to launch from the park dock two to three hours before high tide. (In my defense, I'm from south Dakota originally, and tide was something we read about in 5th grade -- not something we ever experienced!) In theory, that timing would have current going up, and current going back down, with enough water to cross the bars. The aerial photos available from www.labins.org or FDOT were evidently taken at high tide, and do not show the oyster bars at the mouth of the bay, or the mouth of Chaires Creek,

There are some blind channels leading into the salt marsh that are much narrower than Chaires Creek, and twist very soon after leaving the bay. They can be interesting, with lots of gator drags on the banks, but will dead end in a very tight spot.

Some wading needed at low tide - be careful of oysters

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