Paddling – Page 14 – Random Connections

Tall Tales and Group Camaraderie

February 28, 2010 Tom 1 Comment

Miscellaneous

I thoroughly enjoyed the paddling trip with the Greenville Canoe/Kayak Meetup. However, it just wasn’t the same as paddling with some of my informal group of friends, or even with Lowcountry Unfiltered. Don’t get me wrong. This was a great group of people, and I loved meeting them. When we hit the river, it was … Read More “Tall Tales and Group Camaraderie” »

Paddling the Tugaloo River

February 28, 2010 Tom 1 Comment

Paddling

I hate that I missed the paddling trip down Ebenezer Creek with Lowcountry Unfiltered a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to get on the water. So, when the Greenville Canoe and Kayak Meetup group sent out an e-mail notice of a trip down the Tugaloo River, I decided to join them.

Alan decided to come along, and I was happy to have at least one person I knew along on the trip. We set out from Greenville and met the group at an Ingles parking lot in Westminster. 22 had signed up for the trip, and the collection of vehicles with boats on top indicated that this would be a large group.

A skeptical policeman dropped by and questioned our sanity for wanting to paddle in such cold weather.

Paddling South Carolina’s Rivers

October 28, 2009 Tom 22 Comments

File – Paddling South Carolina Rivers (KMZ, 1.5 MB)

Google Earth has been one of the best resources for planning river kayaking trips, especially on new routes with which I’m not familiar. I’ll scan the route, locate put-in and take-out points, and put placemarks for certain landmarks such as rapids, powerlines, bridges, tributaries, or other interesting locations along the way. I would then use GPS Babel to convert my Google Earth files to GPX files then upload the data to my GPS so I would have it with me on the paddling trip.

Pretty soon I had a nice little collection of river trips in Google Earth. I began to wonder if anyone else was doing this. It seemed like it would be an excellent resource. There are some excellent books out there, such as Able and Horman’s Paddling South Carolina, and while the maps in these resources are fine for giving driving directions, there is no GPS information. SCTrails.net has started putting Lat/Long coordinates for some of their paddling trails, but not for all of them. So, I decided to make my own collection.

Autumn Paddle on the Enoree

October 25, 2009 Tom No Comments

Paddling

Kayakers – 3

Weatherman – 0

This makes three trips in a row where there was an iffy weather forecast. In each case, if we had followed The Weather Channel’s advice and canceled the trip, we would have missed out on a fantastic day of paddling. You’ve got to pay attention to the weather, but a 60% chance of rain doesn’t necessarily mean a bad day on the river.

Following on the heels of our last successful Enoree trip, David and Rick wanted to paddle another stretch of the river. They had done some scouting, and found a stretch starting at Whitmire that had great river access points. Add to that the fact that David had a new kayak to try out, and we had to put together another trip.

This was going to be a much smaller group than last time. Since the paddle route was longer, this just made sense. We would be joined by Dave W, a good friend of Rick and David’s, bringing our number to four.

Paddling Partners

October 18, 2009 Tom No Comments

Paddling

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people went on our last paddling excursion on the Enoree and Broad Rivers. In addition to our regular Lowcountry Unfiltered group, we had seven others from the Upstate and Midlands. There are several others from fairly close by that would have gone if they hadn’t had prior conflicts. That got me wondering whether or not we should start an Upstate version of Lowcountry Unfiltered. I don’t think I’m ready for that, yet, but my inquiries yielded some interesting things.

My paddling associations have always been informal. It’s always been just whoever was available on any particular paddling day. I’ve done more paddling with my friends Bob and Alan than anyone else, but there are others that join us with some consistency.

null The Lowcountry Unfiltered group is the closest thing to a formal organization I’ve ever joined for paddling. However, the thing that appeals to me most about it is its very informal nature. Apart from having a website, logo, and a set Saturday of the month for outings, it’s a very loosely-defined group. If it weren’t for the fact that some of the trips are a bit far away for me, and the fact that I’m not free every second Saturday, I’d join them on just about every trip.

While toying with the idea of an Upstate group, I decided to check the web to see what others might be out there. These range from the informal to the anal retentive, based on who’s running the group and how many paddlers are involved. Here’s are some observations I’ve made based solely on their websites…

Two Rivers for the Price of One

October 11, 2009 Tom No Comments

Paddling

This time our Lowcountry Unfiltered group got two rivers for the price of one, plus a few ghosts and goblins thrown in for good measure. On Saturday we paddled a portion of the Enoree River to its confluence with the Broad River, then down to our take-out at Strother’s Landing.

Planning this trip proved to be a challenge. The group wanted to paddle an Upstate river, but didn’t have the boats for whitewater. There was also the matter of distance. These guys would be driving for 3-4 hours just to get here, so the paddling trip couldn’t be too long. If they’re driving that far, then the trip needs to be worthwhile, and not a drag through the mud.

My first plan was to paddle a stretch of the Tyger River. It had all the elements I needed – it was remote, full of history, and even a ghost story. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much water when Bob and I paddled it last month. It was more of a muddy hike while dragging boats.

Fortunately, I was able to find a suitable route. We would put in at Keitt’s Bridge on the Enoree near Maybinton and float to its confluence with the Broad River, then paddle down to Strother’s Landing at the Highway 34 Bridge. According to Google Earth, the route would be about 7 miles. This route takes us through Sumter National Forest, so it’s suitable remote, and there’s even a ghost story – The Hound of Goshen.

Scouting the Tyger

September 21, 2009 Tom 3 Comments

Paddling

Our friends from Lowcountry Unfiltered wanted to do an Upstate River this fall. Since I’m the only one in the area that regularly paddles with them, I was tasked with finding a suitable trip. I had scouted the put-in and take-out points on a section of the Tyger River that flows through Sumter National Forest, and thought it might make a good trip. Today Bob Donnan and I scouted the section to see if it would, indeed, be a good paddle. Long story short – it wasn’t. However, it was a good day on the river, and that is always better than a day doing just about anything else.

I had my doubts about this trip. It had been raining all weekend, and when I got up Sunday morning there were flash flood warnings for Oconee County. However, I had the boats and gear already loaded onto the truck, and a phone call to Bob reported that they hadn’t received much rain. We decided to head on down to the river and check out conditions before committing to the trip.

I met Bob at our rendezvous point and we drove to the put-in at the Rose Hill Boat Ramp. Both of us remarked that this area seems “ancient”. There is very little development, and it seems remote. Sumter National Forest covers most of the region, and large hunt clubs have bought up huge tracts of land. The area seems almost mystical, as if just about anything beyond the realm of reality could happen.

Lake Fairfield Paddlefest

September 6, 2009 Tom 2 Comments

Paddling

My nephew, Chip, helped design all of the websites for Confluence Water Sports, which includes Perception Kayaks, Dagger Kayaks, Wilderness Systems Kayaks, Mad River Canoes, Harmony, and a bunch of other brand names. As such, he had an early heads up that Confluence was having it’s first ever public sale at it’s corporate headquarters at the old Perception plant in Easley. Demos and seconds were going to be offered at ridiculously low prices. So on Friday Chip and several of his work buddies headed over and bought a boatload of …well, boats. The most convenient place to try all of this out was at our little lake, so this weekend we held the first ever Lake Fairfield Paddlefest.

Late Friday afternoon the flotilla arrived – a total of six kayaks of various types to add to the five I already have in the back yard. Chip, his wife Anna, and two of his work colleagues, Ed and Chris, were there to give the boats a trial run.

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Jocassee – Paddler’s Paradise

August 16, 2009 Tom 4 Comments

Paddling, Photography

I really wanted to get out on my new boat. With the entire day available for paddling, I decided to head up to Lake Jocassee. I had paddled Jocassee many times, but our excursions were always rather limited. I was stoked to get out on a boat that could actually get me somewhere and see parts of the lake I had not seen before. This turned into a review of a paddling destination as much as a review of the new boat.

It seems that I’m always starting off in a fog. That’s been more physical than metaphysical lately, with a foggy start to last week’s Edisto trip, and now with fog blanketing the Upstate. Most of it had burned off by the time I arrived at the upper boat ramp at Devil’s Fork State Park.

New(ish) Kayak – Old Town “Dirigo”

August 10, 2009 Tom No Comments

Gear, Paddling

I bought my first kayaks when I started working in Spartanburg Five, eleven years ago. The Perception Torrents have been great, fun boats, but there are several problems. First, these are wet boats. There are self-bailing holes in the bottom, so you are constantly sitting in water. Secondly, there isn’t any storage to speak of. … Read More “New(ish) Kayak – Old Town “Dirigo”” »

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