Jocassee can be many things. Beginning paddlers can hang close to the bank and still get to some cool geological features and small waterfalls. Intermediate paddlers and venture further up to Wright Creek Falls and the Thompson River and Whitewater River areas. Experienced paddlers can take longer trips across open water to the Horsepasture and Toxaway arms of the lake. Regardless of the route taken, conditions on the lake can change in an instance, turning a leisurely paddle into a real challenge. That was really born out on my most recent trip to the lake.
I was driving on Wade Hampton when I made a sad discovery. Shinola Antiques has closed. There was a real estate sign on the building and a huge dumpster out front.
Lately I’ve been hit with a deluge of old family photos. There are the Wright Family photos we found out on Samish Island. We shipped eleven boxes of albums and photos back to the east coast. Then there are the Taylor Family photos – thirteen organized and labeled albums. Throw in all of the photos I’ve taken in pre-digital days, and the number of images is astounding. I would really like to convert all of these to some sort of a digital format, but it is a mountain of a task. For the past several days I’ve been working on workflow and equipment to make the job go as smoothly as possible. Here’s what I’ve learned…
I’m enjoying my last leisurely morning coffee in the cool air of Samish Island. It’s been a great, relaxing two weeks, but this evening we board a red eye at SeaTac to return to the heat and humidity of South Carolina. With limited Internet on the island, I haven’t done many posts, but I thought I’d recap a few things from the past two weeks that didn’t fit into one of our epic excursions.
The Hole-in-the-Wall is notorious among sailors. It’s a narrow opening between two cliffs that separates the Swinomish Channel from Skagit Bay. The currents can be strong and tricky, the wind howls between the rock faces, and the tides can be extreme. Add to that an old rock breakwater with its own tricky hole-in-the-wall and siltation from the Skagit River, and you get a recipe for a paddling trip not lightly attempted. Yet, that’s just what I did, and I had a blast doing it.
We had a wonderful day heading up into the mountains with our friend, Casper. On Friday we decided to head the opposite direction – west, toward the San Juan Islands. Our plan was to take the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor.
We had already had several very peaceful days on Samish Island. Part of that time was spent going through some old documents and items in the house, and some was spent exploring. As the weekend approached we wanted to get out and do some more extended trips. One of Laura’s former colleagues at Furman, Casper Wright, was now teaching in Washington State, and would be joining us for our explorations.
We have just finished our first week on Samish Island in Washington State. We had made plans last spring to come up here when Laura’s summer research ended and spend some time working on her mom’s house. It’s a chance to relax and recharge, but also to take care of some family business. So far the weather has been spectacular, and has been a welcome break from the sweltering heat of South Carolina.
That term has been tossed about quite a bit during this election cycle. As I understand it, it’s the tendency to only listen to those things that support your preconceived notions, and to disavow any evidence to the contrary. I’ve certainly seen that happen, and the speed of media has simply increased the divisiveness created by such echo chambers. Even so, I’ve decided to create my own echo chamber, and here’s why…
I did it. I downloaded the Pokemon Go app and have been playing it off and on for the past week. My intent was to sit down and write up a blog post, but as soon as I got a few seconds to gather my thoughts, some other blog post or news article had come out covering, hyping, complaining about the very points I wanted to cover. It seemed that anything I wrote would just be additional noise. But, to heck with it…









