Paddling

Yesterday I went on a spur-of-the-moment paddling trip with my friends Joe and Brian. I've wanted to paddle the Turkey and Stevens creeks ever since a missed attempt in 2001. The area has very steep banks and the water level is often too high or too low for safe paddling. Combine that with busy schedules and it's a creek you can't paddle too often. But Monday's steady rains had provided the right amount of water for a run, so we jumped at the opportunity.

(See the photo album)

We parked two vehicles at the take-out (SC 23 at the Modoc Bridge) and drove up to the put-in (Edgefield County Road 68 at the Key Bridge) in Brian's truck. As we were preparing, we saw a huge limb break from a tree across the creek and crash to the ground. It reminded me of the "if a tree falls in the woods" philosophy question. Well, we heard this one fall!

By the time the boats were loaded, the fog had burned off and the sun appeared. The put-in is on a slope with some muddy wooden stairs and a space next to it for sliding boats. We had to lower the boats down the slope with ropes on the bows and sterns of the kayaks. Then it was off on the Turkey Creek! The water level was running at nearly 4 feet when we got underway, and was still rising.

We got underway at about 11:45 AM and were soon in a totally wild area surrounded by huge trees and steep banks, leading up to high bluffs. The temperature was perfect: 60s increasing to the low 70s by the afternoon. Every once in a while we'd round a bend into an area where the bluffs blocked a lot of the sun, and the temperature would drop noticeably.

This area was apparently affected by glacial activity, and we passed several interesting rock formations along the banks. Some rocks appeared to have been compressed flat layers, then turned upward at an angle and broken off, leaving a jagged edge. The rocks I saw in the middle of the creek were smoother, but I'd hate to impact one of the sharper ones hidden by high water.

The water was flowing well and we moved quickly downstream. It wasn't long before we hit a fairly strong rapid...at least it was the biggest one I've ever paddled in my flatwater 14.5 foot kayak. I made it through unscathed, and even enjoyed it. Brian had gone through first and snapped a great shot of my run.

Along our route we passed dozens of large cypress and sycamore trees. It's unusual and wonderful to see the cypress trees in a rocky and hilly setting; I'm used to seeing them in the lowcountry swamps. Brian and Joe noted that they didn't see any smaller cypress trees and wondered if the conditions had changed since the big ones took root. As we reached the confluence with Stevens Creek, a breeze blew in and a big cloud of pollen drifted down from one of the trees on the bank. I'd never seen such a thing.

When we reached Stevens Creek, the creek widened a bit and straightened out some. There was a little less whitewater too. Joe and Brian had paddled this stretch nearly a year ago on a Palmetto Paddlers trip, and Joe had told me of a visible drop-off in the water that we had to run. I was anticipating it the whole way, but the drop never came...apparently the higher water covered it all up.

At one point we came to a small rapid and I rode up over a concealed tree that slowed me down for a few seconds. I turned and saw Brian coming up on it, thinking that he knew about it, but he didn't see it and it caught him and turned his shorter kayak sideways. He made a nice save by scooting across while bracing himself on the bow of Joe's kayak.

The wildlife was quite active. We spent a lot of time floating with the current and quietly listening to our surroundings. There were ducks, hawks and other birds along the way. We spotted several deer up on the high banks, and even saw one exiting the water for higher ground. Joe and Brian saw an otter pass right by my kayak, but I was looking for it further in the distance and missed it. I did get to see a beaver make a close inspection of our group. One beaver spent a long time slapping its tail, possibly to warn others of our visit. We also ran across several turtles enjoying the sun.

It didn't take us long to get down the Stevens Creek and before we knew it, we heard traffic on the Modoc Bridge and saw the stairway for the take-out. The take-out was similar to the put-in, but did not have a space next to the stairs for sliding the boats out, so we had to haul the boats right up the stairs. Brian got out first, but his boat slipped his pull rope and Joe and I had to chase down the kayak in the steady current. Once we were out, we sat down for lunch, since the water level really left us no good place to stop along the length of the trip. We finished around 2:30 PM...it was a quick 7+ mile trip!

I used GPSVisualizer to make a map of the trip. I used the color-by-speed option and you can see where some of the rapids were by the higher speeds. You can also have a look at the GPS track coordinates and a graph of the water levels for February 21-22.

Many thanks to Brian and Joe for including me on a fascinating trip!

Some links:

• USGS Water Gauge at the Modoc Bridge
• South Carolina Trails' Turkey/Stevens Creek Description (and map)
• Canoe Augusta's Turkey/Stevens Creek page (dated but good info)
• Sumter National Forest Turkey/Stevens Creek Flyer (PDF)

Yesterday I got out for some paddling on Lake Greenwood. It was only in the 40s, but the sun was out and there wasn't much breeze, so it turned out to be an enjoyable and comfortable trip. I'm trying to get back in paddling shape for a camping trip this spring.

The water level is typically low this time of year, which I assume is so that people can work on their docks and there's some storage volume in expectation of the spring rains. But this winter the level is about as low as I've seen it. The depth is no problem for a kayak, and it's neat to see areas normally hidden underwater. I'm not too keen on seeing all the tires along the shore that are exposed. They couldn't have fallen off cars in the all the places I've seen them, so I guess people put them there to attract fish, but it really makes the lake look like a trash heap. Lots of birds around including seagulls, ducks, and coots.

I made a loop around "my" part of the lake between the two bridges, something like 3.5 miles. I brought the GPS along and made a map with GPS Visualizer.

I finally got around to getting my two kayaks off the garage floor and more efficiently stored. I built a simple wall-mounted rack on the side of the garage. So far it's working great. Originally I was going to build it out of 2x4s and pattern it after a design I saw on the web, but while browsing the home-improvement store, I saw some heavy-duty shelf brackets, and decided I could just build it with those. I carefully attached them to the wall studs with 3 inch screws. Then I bought some water-pipe insulation and slid it over the tops of the brackets for padding and to create a less-slippery surface. I fixed these to the bars with plastic zip-ties. I'm using bungee cords to help keep the boats from accidentally slipping off the shelf brackets. I attached the bottom bungees between the shelf brackets, and the top ones between the upper shelf bracket and some eye-bolts I screwed into the studs.

It remains to be seen if there will be much horizontal force that causes the brackets to try to spread apart. The brackets are certainly not as strong in that direction. If it becomes necessary, I think that I could run a small wire horizontally between the brackets to keep them from spreading. I probably won't have to, but we'll see.

This wall-mounted method replaces a homemade rope-and-pulley system that I used to have. It was a pain to get the kayaks off the floor...it took two people to do it, and it was always tricky to properly clear the garage door when it was up. The result was that the boats spent the majority of their time on the garage floor. Hopefully that'll be a thing of the past!

Two of my paddling trip photos were published last Sunday in the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper, The State. They were small parts of a big two-page spread covering the various aspects of Congaree National Park (which sadly didn't make it to the web). One was a landscape shot from the Congaree Bluffs, and the other a photo of my wife paddling the Cedar Creek. It's fun to see my stuff in print, and great to see a big writeup about a place I love to visit. Thanks to my friends in the Palmetto Paddlers for introducing me to lesser-known parts of the Congaree (and sending me a copy of the paper).

This isn't the first time I've had a photo published in a paper. I had a bird photo published in the Orlando Sentinel in 2002. I need to get more photos online...I'm always way behind, and you never know what someone is interested in. I just love going to the places and capturing the images. Maybe someday I'll be able to make a living at it.

Yesterday I snuck out for a couple hours to paddle on Lake Greenwood, just down the street from my house. It was hot and sunny, but as I don't get out as much as I used to, it felt good to cook in the sun. I paddled up to the northern trestle bridge, and to the quiet inlet above it, one of the few undeveloped places in the northern part of the lake. There I saw a pair of blue herons, many Tetragnatha spiders hiding low-hanging trees, and a few clouds of buzzing midges.

As I headed back, I heard a train's horn and saw dozens of grackles burst from the nearby trees as the train appeared on the bridge. I found it odd that the CSX locomotive was facing backwards as it hauled its cars; I've seen rear-facing engines before, but always behind a forward-facing one.

After the train departed I stopped on the rocks under the bridge and inspected a beautiful pink wildflower, hibiscus-like and growing on some sort of vine. There was a calm nook there to park my boat, so I jumped out for a quick swim.

On the way home I stopped to see a lakefront construction site in my neighborhood from the water...there go some more trees . I chatted with an onshore neighbor, and saw several turtles sunning themselves on the driftwood near the boat ramp.

I took my GPS along and used GPS Visualizer to make the map. You can tell the USGS aerial photo is old because it shows very little development in my neighborhood, and the quiet inlet in the northwest corner no longer has a beach of any sort...it's eroded all the way up to the treeline.

Last Monday I joined the Palmetto Paddlers for a trip to the North Fork of the Edisto River. This river joins up with the South Fork near Branchville to form the Main Stem of the Edisto (it then later splits again into the North and South Edisto rivers near the coast).

We paddled the popular section from Shillings Bridge (Orangeburg County road 74) to the Orangeburg Memorial Gardens. It was my first chance to paddle this section and it was very enjoyable. Paddling South Carolina says that this section (to 301-601) is 7 miles and should take 2.5 hours. After it was over, we were on the water for nearly 8 hours and my GPS claims it was 8.5 miles. Deadfalls, low water, and a leisurely pace all contributed to our trip time. But it's something to consider if you were to run this section during a time of year when the days are shorter.

It was a hot day but there was plenty of shade under the verdant trees surrounding the narrow river. There were only a few sections where you were out in the sun for very long. The river was loaded with fallen trees. I think I was able to get around all of them without leaving my kayak, but some were fairly tricky, and occasionally we needed the help of a saw, or a shove from another paddler. Many of the downed trees were covered in poison ivy, and more dangled down from overhead branches. It was not something I expected to deal with on the water. I had gloves, but a long-sleeved sunshirt would have been a good idea. Another pitfall was the periodic wasp nests that were hanging from low branches. A couple paddlers were stung as they drifted by.

We saw lots of wildlife, mainly birds and snakes. Sean, a master snake spotter, found plenty of them, including a tiny rough green snake. Most of the other 23 snakes spotted that day were brown water snakes. We did come across one cottonmouth while trekking through the swamp looking for great blue heron nests. There were several nesting herons in a big cypress. The other birds we spotted that day were smaller, including kingfishers and prothonotary warblers.

Most of this section is wild and secluded. As you get closer to Orangeburg, some houses start to pop up and later you pass a lot of houses and other properties. In one area near the end, we came across some serious clear-cutting. Acres of trees near the river had been removed with noisy machines and the smell of cut timber was on the air. Not a cool thing to see on any day, but surprising to see on a holiday.

This was a fun paddle and I hope the river can remain wild despite the nearby development.

Click here for a map of the trip.

Thanks to Lee Olson for the photo of me.

If only I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I could combine two of my favorite sports!

(By the way, I don't think the guy mentioned is the Oracle billionaire.)

Tuesday I went with a couple friends to paddle the Tyger River (map). This was a scouting trip for the official Palmetto Paddlers trip this Saturday.

Despite being cloudy and cold, this was a fun trip. We started out at the Highway 49 bridge and ran the river to the Highway 176 bridge. It was all flatwater, but it was moving swiftly in places. There were a few deadfalls and strainers blocking our path here and there. We had to portage 100 yards around a large obstruction. Brian and Joe did some work clearing it, so hopefully the weekend paddlers won't have to stop for it.

The river is beautiful and there was hardly a sign of human activity along most of this stretch. We passed under one small bridge and by a forest service road. If not for the occasional garbage that had washed downstream and the abandoned 12-foot boat, it would've looked totally wild. There was a lot of bird activity. We saw wood ducks, a flock of wild turkeys and a few herons. Not much else stirred on the cold day. The terrain was interesting too, varying from forested floodplain to steep rocky bluffs.

Some Union county locals want to dam(n) the Tyger and turn it into a 5300 acre lake. Their argument is that it will bring economic development to a place hurt by the decline of textiles. I prefer the river. South Carolina is loaded with lakes created from dammed rivers already. That area is also some of the best deer hunting territory in the state from what I've heard.

Hopefully the lake will not happen, but paddle the river while you still can!

I have finally posted my paddling trip story for Capers Island. This was a weekend kayaking and camping trip on the South Carolina coast. I took my time and put together a photo album and a topo map including our GPS track. Hopefully it was worth the wait!