A big thanks

Thank you to all of you who came along on the adventure via the blog. And to so many of you that supported us to make the trip happen. Happily everyone is home safe and sound. 

Edi-slow

The most amazing things keep happening to us. We woke up for a second day at Edisto beach state park and the plasure of sleeping in the same place twice was enough to get things rolling in a great direction. We started the day with hot showers and then had a lovely conversation with the invertebrate class from Western Carolina. We learned a lot about spiders. 

Meg who owns and operates Botany Bay tours had arranged to pick us up and drive us to Holloywood, SC to collect the truck. On the way she invited to team to a late afternoon crab crack on a historic cotton plantation. We gave a wholehearted Yes. 

We spent the time between packing a 17 foot boat, 16 foot boat and a 15 foot boat into a 15 foot truck. That is when you have to pull out the diagonal. 

All the 17 foot trucks were rented. 

We then went to the beach where Chris tried his hand at sea kayaking which he enjoyed. We saw dolphins which had joined us in our boats on Thursday as well. Apparently they are very common here. 

And then we headed out to the crab crack. We met a wonderful group of local folks who knew how to have a great gathering that included good stories and good food with great crab. The crab was caught from the scenic tidal waterway directly in the backyard of the party. The property was family land of Parham our host. The land had been in her family since it was deeded to them by the King of England during the colonial era. It was a stellar end of a paddle to the coast. We were grateful to meet such generous and nice people. 

Meg of Botany Bay tours. 

Martha who showed is how to crack the crab the right way. 

Good folk, good eats. 

The team is loaded up in the uhaul headed back to Aiken state park. 

Besides the people that made the trip wonderful I want to note that my one pair of smart wool socks have been on my feet for nearly 11 days, they smell great and I never got a misquito bite through those things. 

R & R at the beach

We spent several hours of cleaning boats, gear, clothes and 3 dirty, smelly travelers. We organized a ride and a truck for the trip home. Then we walked down to the state park beach where we enjoyed many well earned hours of nothing but sand and watching the surf. This was followed by a walk and dinner out. 

The dock we came out on. Completely underwater at high tide today. You can see the tiny stream we came up just behind it. 

This butterfly species has been flying along with us for days. 

Shadow sculpture

Chasing the sunrise, paddling past dark

Yesterday was some kind of adventure. We got up and packed in a beautiful sunrise. 

We had estimated 22 miles to beach landing. Along the way we had tide agaist us initially but as we came into the coast we had the favor of the tide. We transitioned into salt water and wider and wider water ways. At one point we ended up in a variable highway of sailboats. The landscape changed from marshgrass to oyster bed and finally we paddled up a marsh stream of live oak. 

The waves became strong enough to break over our bow. And where the water poured in from the marsh and creeks it was like paddling a washing machine. 

We landed on a sunny beach at 430 first time out of the boat since 730. We spent and hour soaking in the accomplishment and talking to the folks. 

Met a man from Black Mountain who grew up here. He gave us some crazy advice on how to get to the park. We paddled up a mash stream to the suggested dock which was 12 feet above water with no reasonable access. We paddled on ending in a marsh mud bank next to hwy 174 where we crawled up and out of the swap like so many alligators. Great fully the park ranger carried all our gear to the campground and we slept happy and dry in live oak campground. 

We hid the boats and collected them in the morning. 

Now a day at the beach and then we figure out how to get home. 

Tidal water

Today we passed into the area of marsh grass and tidal influence. The river got multiples wider and with 10-15 mph head wind it was presenting quite the challenge. We were surprised the difference in time between tide fluctuations at the coast and where we are 20+ miles back. 

We are camped at another landing. Last night's landing with cover was a major game changer given the hours of pounding rain we had last night. There was a weird incident where a man in a big truck drove past at 830. Stopped his car, reversed back toward us, got out walked to the back of his truck, did something with his caged dog (it is a major area for deer hunting with dogs) and then he got back in the truck without saying anything. This put us all in a quandary and a least one of us on edge. 

Gang floating down stream in a pack. 

A change in scenery. At this point we could smell the sea. 

This snake came right through camp. 

Sunset at camp

Cooking in the tent, yep the misquitos keep getting more numerous. 

Paddle out

Another day of adventure. We had been in a holding pattern trying to get a sense of the weather. Winds up to 20 mph plus rain made us think we might take a zero and spend 2 nights at the park. But the park did not have much going except misquitos, the weather seemed feasible and then when I pulled out my snack bar for the day it said "paddle out" so we figured we better go for it. 

We made an easy 12 miles to the bait and tackle shop (the only store that we know of on the river). Turned out it was a local bar with all the characters that you would might expect in a rural river town in South Carolina. 

The trip today was quite beautiful with huge live oak, great pines, cypress, willow, sweet gum in color. There was a peace to the place. We saw ibis, a costal bird. The river and swamp are bursting with water. 

We had our first rain day with on and off showers that increased to a frog-strangler level by late afternoon. 

We are staying at Lowndes landing where the misquitos have again ramped up. We smoked them down to tolerable. An old woman at the bar who says she has lived on the river her whole life only remembers 1 or 2 times this bad in her whole life.

Another day another park

We managed the 23 miles from Colloton SP to Givhans Ferry SP. It was a tiring after yesterday and  we had winds forecast at 10-15 miles per hour. Joseph in canoe more than the kayaks had a challenge. He took it on and Chris and could not keep up. 

Leaving Collington 

Along the way we saw lots of beautiful fall colors most were different than at home and included pink and sherbet orange and a burnt orange. 

We arrived at Givhans where we settled in for projected rain and wind. We are planning to reassess the weather in the morning and decide then if we stay or paddle on. 

Joseph fishing at Givhans. 

He managed to catch a tree. 

For now we are all huddled under tents and tarps keeping dry. 

This map is slightly different because my reception is too poor to use the former map. 

Extra nice folks

I could write a novelette about today. First off we spent 14 hrs in our tent last night where we realized that if we paddled 25 miles today we could camp at Colleton state park where there would be lots of perks. 

On the way we paddled trough lots of high, swift water. At several points there were trees the size of telephone poles bouncing up and down in the water several feet making waves to bounce our boats even from a distance. We caculated we were moving 4 miles an hour, our overall record. 

At one point I realized the bird houses I was seeing along the side of the river had numbers on them that corresponded to the countdown to the ocean. This was both a fun mystery and a great way to mark progress. 

Over the past few days we devised  a plan in the event of separation. 1. no one passes a road without the whole group 2. if you choose between two routes u leave a small piece of TP. This is obvious because new, dry TP looks way different than anything hanging over a river overnight. And the folks at the back get free TP as they paddle by. So far it is working brilliantly. 

We passed I95 and 100 miles today (we completed 25% of the 7 day trip today). We arrived Colloton state park at 3 PM. The improvement in mosquitos has been enormous. We spent a indigestion causing lunch walking in circles with a face net and full cover on and in the end just gave up and paddled on.  

Colleton park is the main start point of the Edisto river trail and we were informed that it is considered not reasonably passable more than 10 miles above here in normal conditions. We were also informed the mosquitos are extreme beyond summer peak numbers due to flooding. 

This is the biggest wasp nest I've ever seen. 3 feet tall? 

The folks at the park have been uncommonly kind and generous. The main ranger, Larry Bonds is a true good natured and interesting man. 14 yrs at this park, he is a catcher and relocater of rattle snakes and has been bitten 5 times but more impressive are his stories of being struck by lightening 6 times. He personally deliverd firewood to our campsite and then later when he saw us drying our clothes by fire (which was not going well) he volunteered to take our laundry to his house and dry it there. I was giddy with joy over clean, dry clothes. On top of that the camp hosts drove us to the store to get dinner. That and hot showers, pick nick tables, bathrooms... It has been a wonderful stop. 

The Big River

We got up and left the dock on an early departure. The days are short and we don't have enough light to get on the river until about 7:30. We get up at 6:00 so we can maximize the sunlight. We usually pack it up at the end of the day around 4:30-5:30 depending on what we can find in the way of a site. It is quite dark shortly after 7:00. 

During our one break we stopped at a road/boat ramp for snack and another reorganization of the boat. Chris realized the value of a well balanced boat after the 5 days of fighting a boat that wanted to constantly spin backwards. While there we were accompanied by 2 fisherman that were having all kinds of trouble staring their boat. One guy had a Monster Energy drink tatoo on his neck- classy. 

This afternoon we made the significant achievement of completeing the South Fork Edisto river, joining the sister river the North Fork to make the main Edisto. The river approximately tripled in size and more important I believe we are really finally through with crawling over, around, under and through trees. But the South Fork kept us working for it until the bitter end. 

The main Edisto is still very high from all the rain a few weeks ago and moving fast. 

Today we saw a family of raccoons swimming through the cypress knees. They were all in a row like ducks. The babies were furry like kittens. Also saw  turkey vulture, and water snake. 

The latest in protective gear. Moved as quick as we could from boat to tent where we have spent the evening.