From Bobcat Landing with the South Fork Paddlers
The next Saturday I got up early once again and made the drive down to the Edisto. This time I was paddling with the South Fork Paddlers from Bobcat Landing to Ron Bishop’s private landing. This was a much larger group, with 35 paddlers registered. As with the previous Saturday, this was a route I’d done before. As mentioned before, I’d paddled with this group earlier this summer, but hadn’t written about it. Today’s group was a bit smaller, perhaps because of weather warnings. Quite often there are as many as 80 paddlers registered.
I’ve paddled with this group so much that now I’m greeted by name, which makes me feel great. We even had a couple of the Carolina Splash Mob group join us this time.
As for the weather, it was perfect. We had great conditions for our run. Everything went smoothly.
That’s one thing I really appreciate about this group. A core group scouts the river multiple times to make sure it’s passable. They clear any strainers and make sure that there is at least some path without having to portage. They do the best they can, and things can change overnight, so it’s not perfect, but their efforts are certainly appreciated.
Sometimes the route may require some tricky maneuvering and limbo, but usually it’s easy to see the path. I’ve learned to look for recently cut limbs.
On these trips with large numbers I tend to bounce from cluster of paddlers to cluster, or spend a good bit of time paddling by myself. This time I tended to stick with some of my friends, including the Splash Mob friends.
The scenery was as beautiful as ever. It’s hard to capture the atmosphere of the Edisto in photos, but here are a few.
The time seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were at Bishop’s Landing. We hadn’t stopped for lunch or to linger anywhere, so the 10 mile trip went by quickly.
We had a surprise waiting for us at the takeout. Denmark Baptist Church was doing a hot dog lunch for us. To top it off, the Bishops had cooked up a batch of boiled peanuts for us. It was most excellent.
According to my GPS we paddled 10 miles.
And here’s the time lapse from that trip…
So to great 10 mile trips on the Edisto back to back. That’s not too bad.