I drove up from Beaufort on the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Highway ( I-95) and past Walterboro where there is a memorial to the Airmen at the Airport. Even though the World War II African American fighter pilot unit 332 originated in Tuskegee, Alabama at the Tuskegee Institute, they trained at the air base in Walterboro.
To get to the Colleton County State park, exit I-95 to Canadys. This is a small park on the North Edisto River which borders a cypress swamp. There is a very short Nature Trail (.33 miles) but it is uniquely well marked for plants and trees which include: live oaks, covered with resurrection fern and Spanish moss, huckleberries, river birch, loblolly pines, red buckeyes, wax myrtle, horse sugar, magnolia, cinnamon fern, royal ferns, red maple, tulip tree (yellow poplar), black gum.
The walk goes to the river though minions of cypress knees. Here the Red Bank Canal was built by slaves and was used by loggers to float timber out of the swamp and down river to the saw mills.
The beautiful sunlit black watered Edisto gets its color from the tanin (the same element that colors tea) which leaches from dead leaves along its banks.
This is a fantastic place for putting in a canoe or kayak and paddling, drifting down river. In the summer, the park holds a riverfest with a number of different guided canoe trips available. One summer, I took one. We were hauled upriver by a local outfitter in a rumbling old land rover with Beethovens Fifth blaring over the speaker system. This was certainly unexpected and very exciting.
We were given instructions and guided down the river in our canoes. At one point, we stopped and jumped into the water for a refreshing, cooling swim. I plan to do it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment