We started to see some signs of civilization along the banks. The route opened up a bit more.
Eventually we reached our lunch stop. Long’s Landing was just as covered with vegetation as the rest of the creek. Landing was tricky and we ran aground several yards from the perceived bank. We had to drag our boats the rest of the way. Once on dry land we did our traditional lunch of bratwurst and sauerkraut.
On my GPS I had marked a cypress cathedral. Matt and I have had lots of debates as to which is better, the cypress cathedral in Sparkleberry or the one at on Ebenezer. Having just paddled Sparkleberry I was curious to do a comparison. However, the change in paddling plans meant that in order to reach the Ebenezer cathedral we’d have to continued downstream another couple of miles. That just wasn’t going to be feasible. It also meant that we would miss seeing the site of Old Ebenezer. Oh well, next trip.
We loaded back up and retraced our steps.
On the way out we had spotted orange streamers which obviously marked the route. We decided to follow these markers on the way back. Of course, we did make a couple of detours along the way.
We weren’t able to do the paddle that we wanted, but our out and back trip was still significant. We paddled through 7.75 miles of cypress swamp, most of it covered in duckweed.
Here’s the time-lapse of the trip…
[flickr video=https://www.flickr.com/photos/randomconnections/40868087313]
For both cypress swamp trips I used my new Dagger Axis kayak. It was great in these close environments. With the skeg up it’s highly maneuverable, and with it down it tracks straight and true. Lately this has become my go-to boat. The one thing I don’t like is that gear isn’t as accessible as it is on one of my Pungos. I miss the deck console and easy access to the rear storage hatch. Using a deck bag sort of makes up for it.
This adventure was far from done, though. George needed to get back for an evening event, but Matt and I wanted to explore more of historic Ebenezer.
Continued on Page 3…
According to the link below, the landing closed because the property owners didn’t want to buy a business license and pay the costs that would have come with it:
https://www.savannahnow.com/article/20150618/NEWS/306189786
I grew up in a 150 y.o. brick house {my parents had 3 over their lifetime} so I noticed that brick construction right away. True brick construction is double walled with what is called a “tie layer” where the bricks are laid 90 degrees to the wall to connect the 2 walls together. Practically all brick houses have the tie layer every 7th layer or so, there can be a lot of variation.
Having a tie brick on each layer not only makes the construction considerably more expensive, but also much stronger. The small brick building next to The Bohemian restaurant in Greenville is built like that. I asked the owner, and he told me it used to be a Wells Fargo bank.