Random Connections – Page 102 – A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

Beethoven’s Ninth Video

July 17, 2012 Tom No Comments

Music

Videographer Valdas Katovas recorded our spring concert, a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and Greenville Chorale. This video is the entire fourth movement. You can occasionally see me on the front row of the Chorale, next to the tympani and behind the trombones. Beethoven No 9 from Valdas Kotovas on … Read More “Beethoven’s Ninth Video” »

Goodbye, Oregon Storm Watcher

July 17, 2012 Tom No Comments

Family

Monday we learned that Laura’s uncle, Larry Plews, had lost his battle with kidney cancer. Uncle Larry was an aerospace engineer, having worked at NASA during the 1960’s, and eventually working at Edwards Air Force Base as a civilian contractor. Larry authored several books on aerospace design and testing. Upon retiring from Edwards AFB, Uncle … Read More “Goodbye, Oregon Storm Watcher” »

Rainy Paddle on the Edisto River

July 16, 2012 Tom No Comments

Paddling, Photography

Not only was it a second Saturday and time for another Lowcountry Unfiltered kayak trip, but this month we were set to repeat one of our legendary treks – running the Edisto River from Mars Old Field Landing to Messervy Landing. We’ve come to refer to this as our “beer commercial” trip. It’s always a trip with rope swings, lazy river paddling, home brewed beer, and lots of wildlife.

However, we wouldn’t be alone on the river. According to the Edisto Floaters Facebook page, this was also supposed to be the day for their “Megafloat”. From the description, it was supposed to be bank-to-bank inner tubes. Part of the discussion on their page was that singles should wear a red shirt to advertise their availability. Sounded like things could get very interesting on the river.

Going Google

July 13, 2012 Tom No Comments

EdTech, Internet

We’ve done it. This week I flipped the switch to transition our school district to Google Apps, with GMail as our primary e-mail system. We had been a Novell/Groupwise shop every since I’ve been in the district. Novell had been a reliable, rock-solid product. However, their latest version was on a linux-based platform, and it … Read More “Going Google” »

Exploring Upper Jocassee

July 9, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Paddling, Photography

I haven’t done much paddling with the Greenville Canoe and Kayak Meetup lately. Since they merged with the Asheville organization the group seems to have lost its identity, having been subsumed into that group, and many of the trips just didn’t appeal to me. However, one scheduled for this past Saturday really caught me eye, and I decided to give it a chance. It turned out to be a perfect day paddling on Lake Jocassee, and I’m now glad I gave them a shot.

Brooks Wade, owner of Jocassee Lake Tours, had offered to load our kayaks onto his pontoon boat and take the group to the upper reaches of Jocassee. The area is hard to reach unless you’re a very strong paddler with a very fast boat, or unless you break the trip into a two-day venture. But the rewards are spectacular – waterfalls and pristine mountain scenery. Of course, I couldn’t pass this up.

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Jocassee Falls – A Preview

July 1, 2012 Tom 2 Comments

Gear, Geocaching and Maps, Paddling

My brother, Houston, recently informed me that he starts feeling anxious when I don’t update this blog often enough. I’m afraid I’ve given him ample reason to be irritated over the last week or so. I just haven’t had much about which to write. The usual excuses apply – work has been nightmarish, Laura’s sister and mother have been visiting, and a massive heat wave have combined to keep me away from any explorations this week. OK, so maybe those aren’t so usual.

Regardless, I’ve still got several projects in the works. So, to allay Houston’s anxiety I’ll provide a sneak preview…

If you build a dam here…

June 26, 2012 Tom 5 Comments

EdTech, Geocaching and Maps

While kayaking on Parr Shoals Reservoir last Saturday, Alan and I started discussing lakes in general. Specifically we were talking about the placement of dams and the hydrology of water backing up to fill in the space. We laughed at one of the last scenes of “O Brother, Where Art Thou“, where the lake comes flooding in as a torrent, rather than rising gently as it should. As far as movies go, “Deliverance” was a more realistic view of how lakes are created.

As the conversation proceeded, I reminisced about the time I participated in the SC-MAPS project when I was a teacher. This was a three-day workshop where we learned how to use topographic maps and satellite imagery in the classroom. This was long before the days of Google Earth, so the ability to look at overhead images of where you live was still a novelty.

One of the activities they had us do was to draw a line across a river connecting contour lines at the same height. This line would represent a dam. Then we were to trace the contour line at that level all the way around, outlining the area that would be inundated by the new lake. It was a tedious process, but the results were fascinating. The lakes always turned out much larger than we expected.

As Alan and I talked, we wondered if there was some automated way to do this using Google Earth, so when I got home I started searching for a method. The automated systems I found were complex, requiring advanced knowledge of ArcGIS, hydrology, and GIS techniques in general. Even so, I think I’ve found a simple way in Google Earth. Here’s how…

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Rambling through Greenwood

June 26, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Photography, Rambling

I got a note from fellow explorer Mark Elbrecht the other day mentioning that they were offering tours of Cokesbury College as part of Greenwood’s Festival of Flowers. Mark was able to do the tour on Saturday, but I was off paddling Parr Shoals. My brother Houston was in town, so we stopped by to pick up my sister Glynda and headed down toward Greenwood.

The route from Gray Court to Greenwood cuts across the Laurens County countryside. Southwest of Hickory Tavern we found ourselves at Boyds Mill Pond, an impoundment on the Reed River with a small hydroelectric plant. We stopped to take a few photos.

The river below the dam has several fishing access spots. One point looked like it would be an excellent place to launch a kayak, but it was very trashy. There were several folks fly-fishing downstream.

Paddling Parr Shoals

June 25, 2012 Tom 1 Comment

Paddling

Saturday Laura had to meet with new advisees at Furman, so Alan and I decided to do some paddling. We wanted to find a place that was fairly close to Greenville, and that we hadn’t paddled before. I’ve had my eye on Parr Shoals, just east of Prosperity, for some time now and that’s where we decided to go.

Parr Shoals is on the Broad River, and is just north of where we put in on our marathon paddle from Peak to Harbison State Forest. Parr Shoals, along with its sister reservoir, Monticello, are often overlooked. While Parr Shoals is fed by the Broad River, water is pumped from the river into Monticello, then returned to Parr Shoals via tailrace. Both reservoirs serve as impoundments for the V. C. Summer nuclear power plant, one of the first nuclear power plants in the Southeast. Construction is currently underway for additional reactors.

We were joined by Alan’s son, Joshua, a recent Furman graduate himself. We met early Saturday and Alan and Josh followed me down I-26 to the Pomaria exit, then on across country to the Cannon Creek Landing on Parr Shoals.

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