It is a beautiful, cool, clear blue day. I am on my way to the Beidler Forest in the Four Hole Swamp. Driving down I-26 now and then a speeding New York car passes covered in the white grunge of snow, ice, salt and detritus from the blast of winter in the Northeast.
After going under I-95, it is another 10 miles to exit 177 for Harleyville where I take Hwy 178 East through this small town and past the deserted Nightmare Cycles storefront, the small houses with perfectly groomed flat yards and the local churches. It is about 6 miles to the left hand turn at the signs for Bethel United Methodist Church and the Beidler Forest. Just after the church, the Forest road veers to the right, then another right onto a dirt road through the woods onto Sanctuary Road. There is the sudden flash of a Red Shouldered Hawk swooping across my path as I come to the Audubon Center in the middle of the wood.
Enter the Building and go through it to travel the 1.75 mile boardwalk extending through the Bald Cypress-Tupelo Gum Swamp. The oldest in the world. Some cypress trees here are 1,000 years old.
This is the summer home of the little yellow bird, the prothonotary yellow warbler, who is now in South America and will return next month.
Workers are replacing the wooden boardwalk which is about 30 to 40 years old now, but I can still walk the long loop through the flooded plain of the cypress, tupelo and many other trees surrounded by cypress knees, looking like gatherings of small hooded gnomes. I hear the hollow drum drum drumming of the red headed or the pileated woodpecker.
The Center has T-shirts and mugs with the benediction:
May the Forest Be With You.
And so it is.
(Note: from Charleston take I-26 West to exit 187. From I-95 North take exit 82 to 178 East.
Open Tuesday through Sunday 9:00 to 5:00 pm. Fees Adults $8.00 Seniors $7.00 Children 6 to 12 $4.00
Children 0 to 6 free. There are canoe trips also. 336 Sanctuary Rd 843-462-2150)
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