October 24, 2013 Paddling the Beaufort River

At 7:00 am, we walk down to the trestle and see the sunrise in all its splendor over the golden marshes.

On the way to the river, we stop at Old Sheldon Church where once I met Bill Campbell tending family graves.  He told me that he had met his wife, a Scottish Macdonald in India during the 2nd World War, how she was also related to William Tecumseh Sherman. Laughingly, he related how the Macdonalds had invited the Campbells over for dinner and murdered them and how Sherman had burned  down the old Sheldon church.

During the Revolution, the British had indeed burned down the church.  It was rebuilt and some believe that it was burned by Sherman in the Civil War. More recently, some think that it was merely torn apart by the residents nearby who had no fuel to burn to keep them warm in the days during and after the war.

Now only the brick columns stand in the deep woods, like a Southern Stonehenge, a tribute to a spiritual past.   Still, once a year on the Sunday after Easter, a service is held here.

Then, geared up in our life vests, gloves, hats, and sandals, we launched from the marina right into the Beaufort River. A barge and tug boat sailed nearby on its way out to sea. We paddled down river and under the bridge to Parris Island.

We were saluted by dolphins.

At Fort Fremont (a Spanish American War relic), we took out to look around.  I caught my sandal in the kayak seat and fell backwards into the water's edge.  Actually it felt good as the day had brightened and heated up.  I laughed.  Now I was truly baptized in the holy waters of the Beaufort River with the dolphins in attendance.  And I am changed forever.

Octber 23,2013 Paddling the Combahee

Early  morning put in at the Combahee (pronounced 'Combee' by the locals).  The Combahee is the "C" in ACE Basin, the three river estuary of the Ashepoo, the Combahee and the Edisto, an 18,000 acre wildlife refuge.

We paddled upstream with a 20 mph headwind for about an hour.  The day is bright and clear, cool (66'). I have a green kayak today, longer, sleeker and faster.  The Combahee is a fresh water river with salt underneath and is effected by tides as it flows through the oak, pine and cypress forest.  My brother, Buddy, has fished this river and tells me that even if you are sailing with the tide, you must go faster than the tide is moving and it can be a wild ride.

No alligators today.  Ring necked King Fishers skim back and forth over the water.  Turtles bask on fallen logs and suddenly, there is a flock of 30 to 40 white Ibis careening above us and alighting into the trees, then walking single file along the bank.  These blueways (or more accurately black or brown ways) have been called "The Atlantic Flyway" or the bird highway in the sky as there are countless avian species living here or moving through.

After a picnic lunch, we continue upriver as far as the estate, "Auld Brass" designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and now owned by the Hollywood producer, Joel Silver.  He has exotic animals living on the grounds and I remember about five years ago reading in the Waterboro news paper of his escaped rhino being hit by a car on a country road.  We could see only the green roofed dockside gazebo also designed by Wright.

We turned around and paddled downriver, past our put in, under bridges and turn around again at Public Park.  We have traveled 9.2 miles today.

October 22, 2013 Paddling Cuckhold Creek

In the early morning, we launched our kayaks downstream against the tide. A bald eagle flew across the sky above us, a welcome, a good omen.  All day it was cool and now and then a few rain drops would fall.
We saw small alligators, red winged blackbirds, terns, egrets, ibis and two osprey nests.

We paddled through old rice canals ringed with glorius brilliant sulfur yellow swamp flowers (which might be called swamp coriopsis). It was incredible to float there in a kind of round pond in the middle of the flower ringed marsh grass, a secret paradise.

Returning, the bald eagle watched us take out from his perch high in a dead tree.

In the old days, rum runners, armed with guns, drove their boats through this creek in the dead of night with their contraband loads of liquor, sometimes escaping the sheriff and sometimes being ambushed and caught red handed.

October 21, 2013 Paddling Boyd Creek

Last night I watched a full yellow moon rise in a deep blue buttermilk sky over the marshes at Knowles Island.  Far across the way I could see the rotating light on the Hunting Island lighthouse.

I have canoed before, but this is my first experience of kayaking.  We loaded up and drove to Boyd Creek. I had a fat baby blue kayak which seemed to want to drift to the right. I kept going into the spartina grass. Our leaders demonstrated a T rescue.

At noon, we put out at a picnic shelter and had our bag lunches which we had packed earlier.  Back into the creek and finally out at a place called Saltzberg, stacked the kayaks on the trailer and drove back muddy and wet and happy.

My upper arms and shoulders ached. We threw our clothes in the washer and sank into hot baths.

I sat on the balcony watching the green, gold, and brown grasses, the marsh, the water.  Aaaah.

Note:  Bill Hamel, Master Naturalist and One of "The Pinckney Island Wildlife Preserve honored Seven" is a volunteer who tends to and keep the Preserve open.  He tells about Port Royal Sound  watershed and the visisitudes of low country estuaries, the destruction humans have done to the sacred salt marshlands and black water salty fingers of water.

Boyd Creek travels into Jasper County where there is great poverty.  Next to Jasper is Beaufort County with Paris Island Marine Base, and Hilton Head and other islands where the very wealthy vacation.