May 29. Thomas Allison. The air was hot and full with moisture from the bog that was just down the road from our group campsite; I was awoken by Dean's rustling in my tent to see him packing his things in a virgorous motion, but my morning was not all fun and games.
I proceeded to grab the toilet bag from my tent and find a warm and snuggly place to dig my own sewage treatment plant. As I proceeded, I was stopped by a force of nature so great it made me pull my padagonia short shorts right up to my waist.
"No!", I yelled into my head, but the damage had already been done. The six swells protruded out of my posterior. I quickly grabbed my go-and-dig shovel and ran back to camp to enjoy a creamy breakfast of grits. As soon as I knew it, I was back in the bog fighting with the mosquitoes while trying to retreat into my yellow submarine. Finally, I launched, and I was off into the unknown of the Santee River. The sun was pounding on my skin. It seemed like every pore of my skin was boiling from the rays, but my conscience was cleared by Robert's voice saying, "This looks like the place". This place turned into a lunch spot where we enjoyed PB & J for lunch, and our entertainer was a fuzzy little rabbit that kept Jay mezmerized for at least thirty minutes. This break was short lived. We were right back on the water and enjoying an abundance of animals from a six foot monster alligator to a ginormous wild boar at least weighing 280 lbs. But our journey was short lived by the docks of the Santee State Park where John Palmer was waiting patiently at the dock's after his tiring journey from Brevard, North Carolina.
Read more!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
May 28. Jay Wolfe. My day began in the wee hours of the morning as two owls and two other unknown animals seemed to be talking back and forth around our campsite.
We got off to an early start with granola for breakfast. We were originally only going to go 20 miles today; however, due to the enormous water level, courtesy of Duke Power's dam release, there were absolutely no sandbars to rest on. Everything was flooded out! We barely even had high ground to stop and eat lunch.
Eventually we did find a spot which we thought was a private boat ramp. We stopped for a long break to just relax and catch up on some reading.
After lunch, we soon covered the remaining distance of the 20 miles for the day. Unable to find any decent camping spots due to flooding and severe strainers, we resigned ourselves to a long day of paddling all the way to the take out, a whopping 16 more miles!
Late in the afternoon we reached the confluence of the Wateree and Congaree Rivers! As the Wateree River and Congaree River merge into the Santee River, our Wateree River Trail ended with it. We made the whole trail against all the odds: flooding, sleep deprivation, poison ivy, sunburn, heat rash, crazy amounts of huge bugs and a very sketchy amount of wading through a near waist deep flood plain.
The day was not over yet, though. We paddled two more miles down to an isolated, unused boat ramp deep in the bowels of the swamp. As we paddled through, my imagination ran wild thinking about all the different swamp creatures that could pop up any second and attach us. Thankfully, all we found was tons of fire ant mounds at the ramp area. The paddling part of the day finally ended with a total distance fo 35 miles.
The last challenge of the day involved cooking and setting up camp in the midst of a fierce battle with horseflies, mosquitoes, and fire ants. The group prevailed and now here I sit, safely in my tent writing this blog.
Sometimes the longest and more challenging days are the most fulfilling. Now it's time to enjoy the peace of the night as I drift off to sleep with the sweet noise of crickets and frogs singing in the night.
Read more!
We got off to an early start with granola for breakfast. We were originally only going to go 20 miles today; however, due to the enormous water level, courtesy of Duke Power's dam release, there were absolutely no sandbars to rest on. Everything was flooded out! We barely even had high ground to stop and eat lunch.
Eventually we did find a spot which we thought was a private boat ramp. We stopped for a long break to just relax and catch up on some reading.
After lunch, we soon covered the remaining distance of the 20 miles for the day. Unable to find any decent camping spots due to flooding and severe strainers, we resigned ourselves to a long day of paddling all the way to the take out, a whopping 16 more miles!
Late in the afternoon we reached the confluence of the Wateree and Congaree Rivers! As the Wateree River and Congaree River merge into the Santee River, our Wateree River Trail ended with it. We made the whole trail against all the odds: flooding, sleep deprivation, poison ivy, sunburn, heat rash, crazy amounts of huge bugs and a very sketchy amount of wading through a near waist deep flood plain.
The day was not over yet, though. We paddled two more miles down to an isolated, unused boat ramp deep in the bowels of the swamp. As we paddled through, my imagination ran wild thinking about all the different swamp creatures that could pop up any second and attach us. Thankfully, all we found was tons of fire ant mounds at the ramp area. The paddling part of the day finally ended with a total distance fo 35 miles.
The last challenge of the day involved cooking and setting up camp in the midst of a fierce battle with horseflies, mosquitoes, and fire ants. The group prevailed and now here I sit, safely in my tent writing this blog.
Sometimes the longest and more challenging days are the most fulfilling. Now it's time to enjoy the peace of the night as I drift off to sleep with the sweet noise of crickets and frogs singing in the night.
Read more!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
VOR Trip-end Celebration
Hey guys,
We’re having a celebration of our completion of the VOR 2009 expedition. It will be June 2nd at 6:00 PM in James Island County Park. If you’d like to join us, please contact Rebecca Gill at Brevard College via email: gillra@brevard.edu for details. We’ll be having a Low Country Boil; and the cost to family, friends, and alums will be $12.00. Please RSVP as soon as possible, but no later than 2:00 PM, Monday June 1st. Hope to see you there!
Read more!
We’re having a celebration of our completion of the VOR 2009 expedition. It will be June 2nd at 6:00 PM in James Island County Park. If you’d like to join us, please contact Rebecca Gill at Brevard College via email: gillra@brevard.edu for details. We’ll be having a Low Country Boil; and the cost to family, friends, and alums will be $12.00. Please RSVP as soon as possible, but no later than 2:00 PM, Monday June 1st. Hope to see you there!
Read more!
May 27. Charles Jordan. Today started much later than expected, around 11:00, and we were on the water by noon. This is due to last night's crazyness.
We paddled about 15 miles to an awesomwe campsite high above the water with an easy plafce to retreat to if the water did rise. Chili, cornbread and grits were for dinner, cooked by Kim, Patick and Karen. Yummy!
We have seen lots of bald esgles the past week and while we have been on the river. I have never seen so many eagles before.
This was some campsite experience. Our first campsite and camp area was completely surrounded by water when we made the final move. The water probably rose a solid 6 feet over the course ofthe night and was still that high when we woke up and waded back to where our boats were tied up.
This is referred to as " type II fun" according to Patrick. The classifications are as follows: Type I fun = fun during and after. Type II fun = no fun during, but fun after...when you reflect on it. Type III is neither fun during or after.
CRAZY NIGHT!
Robert's definition of adventure is agony in retrospect. This event is exactly that. Here is a quote from A River Runs Through It that Robert pointed out that fits perfectly for last night: "eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs throught it. The river was cut by the world's great floods and runs over the rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by the waters." Norman MacLean
This even has changed the whole rest of this leg of the trip. We are coming up with a more resonable plan for miles and camping on the Wateree River.
Read more!
We paddled about 15 miles to an awesomwe campsite high above the water with an easy plafce to retreat to if the water did rise. Chili, cornbread and grits were for dinner, cooked by Kim, Patick and Karen. Yummy!
We have seen lots of bald esgles the past week and while we have been on the river. I have never seen so many eagles before.
This was some campsite experience. Our first campsite and camp area was completely surrounded by water when we made the final move. The water probably rose a solid 6 feet over the course ofthe night and was still that high when we woke up and waded back to where our boats were tied up.
This is referred to as " type II fun" according to Patrick. The classifications are as follows: Type I fun = fun during and after. Type II fun = no fun during, but fun after...when you reflect on it. Type III is neither fun during or after.
CRAZY NIGHT!
Robert's definition of adventure is agony in retrospect. This event is exactly that. Here is a quote from A River Runs Through It that Robert pointed out that fits perfectly for last night: "eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs throught it. The river was cut by the world's great floods and runs over the rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by the waters." Norman MacLean
This even has changed the whole rest of this leg of the trip. We are coming up with a more resonable plan for miles and camping on the Wateree River.
Read more!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
May 26. Karen Love. Today was an adventure in itself! We woke up earlier than we have this entire trip...6:00 a.m., packed up camp and headed to the launch site.
There we met with Matt Rice, a representative from American Rivers, who paddled with us for about the first 5 miles and told us all about the organization's projects and programs. We ended up hitting some rapids that we didn't know existed, and it was funny that the representative was with us because he is the man who makes the map! He said when he was leaving that he was going to put a warning on the maps in honor of us. We continued to paddle on a gracious 5.4 mile current, which was a blessed break from the lakes! After a few hours, we took a break for a veggie pita lunch. We paddled until around 3:30 and had class on a sandbar on the side of the Wateree. Jay, Thomas, Jordan and Dean all read us an entry from their journals and then we opened the discussion about Ron Rash's book Saints at the River. After class we paddle on until we hit camp around 7:00. We paddle 31 miles and were exhausted as we stomped down bushes to put up our tents. Today was an amazing day; we saw beautiful, seeminly untouched shoreline with bald eagles, turtles and even a few deer. It was an awesome experience, tainted only by the trash we saw flowing down the river. On this trip we have seen lakes and rivers in bother NC and SC, and as a SC native, I was disheartened to see that the water quality in this state is much worse than the clear, clean lakes of NC. But, that was the very purpose of this trip, to identify and learn about the dangers facing the Catawba-Wateree watershed.
P.S. Thanks for all your support! Your comments mean the world to us!
Read more!
There we met with Matt Rice, a representative from American Rivers, who paddled with us for about the first 5 miles and told us all about the organization's projects and programs. We ended up hitting some rapids that we didn't know existed, and it was funny that the representative was with us because he is the man who makes the map! He said when he was leaving that he was going to put a warning on the maps in honor of us. We continued to paddle on a gracious 5.4 mile current, which was a blessed break from the lakes! After a few hours, we took a break for a veggie pita lunch. We paddled until around 3:30 and had class on a sandbar on the side of the Wateree. Jay, Thomas, Jordan and Dean all read us an entry from their journals and then we opened the discussion about Ron Rash's book Saints at the River. After class we paddle on until we hit camp around 7:00. We paddle 31 miles and were exhausted as we stomped down bushes to put up our tents. Today was an amazing day; we saw beautiful, seeminly untouched shoreline with bald eagles, turtles and even a few deer. It was an awesome experience, tainted only by the trash we saw flowing down the river. On this trip we have seen lakes and rivers in bother NC and SC, and as a SC native, I was disheartened to see that the water quality in this state is much worse than the clear, clean lakes of NC. But, that was the very purpose of this trip, to identify and learn about the dangers facing the Catawba-Wateree watershed.
P.S. Thanks for all your support! Your comments mean the world to us!
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)