Rutledge Road was the last leg of the journey to the kayak launch. After Hampton Plantation, the road passed through the Germantown community before changing to dirt, and traversing Francis Marion National Forest and White Oak Forestry. Entering the swamp, I crossed the bridge over Wambaw Creek, and prepared for launching at the small landing. […]
It doesn’t take long walking on the Cape Trail to encounter birds. A group of whistling ducks congregated in the first wetland crossed. After passing through some cypress swamp and cattail marshes, the path left the upland and continued along a dike between wetlands.
The entrance to the Cape Trail at Santee Coastal Reserve passed through an area of machines: tractors, a trackhoe, trucks, boats, and a trunk (water control structure) waiting to be installed. The path ahead would travel over miles of dikes. These machines have allowed SCDNR staff to mow, repair and maintain those miles of banks.
There were four crossings along the twenty miles of county highway between Greenville and Spartanburg. Enoree, South Tyger, Middle Tyger, and North Tyger: all rivers flowing together to form one.
River of many names Read More »
Venturing into the Santee Delta, I would neither be on Kingfisher or solo. I would again borrow a canoe, a Nova 17. from my friend Chris Crolley. After several years discussion, joining me on the trip was Ian Sanchez, a man of many talents
We went cruising in a borrowed Nova – a Mohawk Nova 17 canoe. Before the cruise some challenges arose, including a brief turnaround to pick up a map from home. While shuffling through my keys as I walked around the car I missed the canoe stern protruding past the car’s rear
Circling Hampton Island Read More »
This trip would be only the second launch of Kingfisher on the North Santee River at the Poleyard Landing, situated adjacent to the Highway 17 North bridge. The first was a long imagined sail – from the North Santee through the Inland Passage to Charleston Harbor and Remley’s Point Landing (see final chapter of Tracing
7 AM at the South Island Ferry, and what a surprise – the landing was jammed pack with holiday boaters, getting a jump on the July 4th weekend. I had only seen this landing during the week in the past, and it was always a quiet place
Looking for the flow Read More »
I’ve been on the move: not on Kingfisher, and not on the water but many miles on the road. These travels have taken me from the coast to the piedmont and the mountains. Though the movement has been for a meeting, a conference, and several weddings, I have taken the opportunity on these trips to
I had passed this way many times, heading to points north on Highway 17. It has only been a handful of times when I have stopped on the two and a half mile distance across the Santee Delta between the North and South Santee Rivers. Once I came with Dennis Forsythe, who led a group
