I'm not a big fan of cities but if I had to pick a favorite I guess it would be Charleston. I'm camped at the James Island County Campground. To get to it you have to drive down a mile of residential area. The road is lined with large live oak trees on both sides. Long thick branches draped in Spanish moss spread themselves over the road from one side or the other. This forms a tunnel or canopy for you to drive through that is really pretty.
The park itself has a climbing wall, a bouldering wall, a flat water slalom course, conference centers, a couple of miles of paved trails for walkers, runners, bikers and skaters and more. They even have a modem hookup for traveling folks like me. Right now (mid-October) they're getting ready for the Christmas Festival Of Lights. This is 2-3 miles of various scenes using Christmas lights. I was here last year for it and it was really great. Sponsors put a lot of time and money into it.
This morning I drove over to the eastern side of the Charleston Harbor to Mount Pleasant and the put in at Shem Creek. Today is just about perfect with temperatures in the upper 70's under a bright sunshiny sky.
I paddled out of Shem Creek against an incoming tide of 1.5 knots or so. I went out past several private docks with walks stretching 100 yards or more through a marsh. After passing under the SC 703 bridge I passed several waterside restaurants and then finally 30+ trawlers, some with fishing nets hung up to dry.
Out in the harbor I saw several 1-2 masted sailboats tucked in behind the lee of an island along with a smaller houseboat. Looking off to the right I expected to see the Yorktown aircraft carrier but it appeared to be hiding around a bend in the harbor.
Charleston Harbor is about 4-5 miles long and about 4 miles wide. Off in the distance I could see Fort Sumter guarding the entrance to the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean. At least I assumed it was Fort Sumter. All I could see from this distance was a little island with a flag flying over it. It was at Fort Sumter the first shots of the American Civil war were fired. I'm not sure but I think the battle between the first two iron clad war ships was fought here too. The Monitor and something else.
Fort Sumter was the first leg of my goals for the day. I was going to travel down the eastern shore to Sullivan's Island and then cross the two miles or so to Fort Sumter. I wasn't sure what was going to happen with the wind and tide so since conditions were good now, I headed on a diagonal across open water to Fort Sumter. The eastern shore was all houses and docks anyway.
Clouds of brown pelicans and seagulls swarmed around a trawler returning from... well, trawling. The trawler threw up much bigger and steeper waves than expected and I thought I was going to get wet. The Acadia rode up and over them pretty well though and only the bow got wet.
I passed a 15-20 foot sailboat lying on its side in a few feet of water and another one without a mast moored to a crab pot. There's still another 6 weeks or so of east coast hurricane season left. I haven't the faintest idea if any storms are brewing anywhere. The hope and assumption is someone will come along and tell me to go away (evacuate) when the time comes.
Half way to Fort Sumter I spotted my first dolphin of this trip south. I swam along for a short while 100 feet off my beam and then disappeared. I would catch glimpses of two more later on.
I was enjoying a light wind, minor chop and the first gentle swells I've experienced in some time because of all the inland paddling I've been doing. It was just as well the conditions were benign because I wasn't wearing my PFD or spray skirt.
3/4 of the way to Fort Sumter the water began getting a little lumpier. The swells steepened and rose to two feet and I was getting some wave action too. Being a mature and sensible individual I pulled the spray skirt out from behind the seat (the cheapy PFD is a permanent fixture on the foredeck under the bungees).
The cockpit of the Perception Acadia is wide enough to move your feet and legs around enough to slip the spray skirt over them. The spray skirt has a Velcro waistband making it easy to slide up under my big butt.
With all the warm water creeks, rivers and small lakes I've paddled recently, I haven't worn the PFD or spray skirt. That's perfectly acceptable to me and don't consider myself at any kind of risk. Now that I'm back on the coast in colder and bigger water with bigger boats I've got to get back into safety mode again.
From the water, Fort Sumter is just a bunch of red brick walls on an island not much bigger than an acre with a few flags flying overhead. Two large tour boats showed up while I was there and several more could be seen in the distance so it must be a big deal. I didn't get out and walk around though.
The next leg of today's trip was the Battery. The Ashley and Cooper/Wando Rivers merge to form the Charleston Harbor. The Charleston Battery is where the rivers merge. This is an area of completely restored houses of varying colors from the 1700 & 1800's with (probably rich) people living in them. You can spend hours wandering around the streets and alleys admiring them.
Right on the harbor are the mansions. These are also various pastel colors and are pretty impressive, even more so when viewing then as you walk along the seawall.
The last leg was back across to the eastern shore where the Yorktown aircraft carrier is anchored. Well, it's the namesake of the Yorktown. I think the real Yorktown went down at Midway or Guadalcanal. $10 buys access to the aircraft carrier, a large Coast Guard cutter and a submarine for self guided tours. The aircraft carrier has many different fighter jets and helicopters on display and a Medal of Honor museum for Audie Murphy and company.
When I got back to Shem Creek the outgoing tide was moving along at 2.5 knots or so but I just took my time and didn't have any problems getting back. The whole trip took me about 4 1/2 hours. It could be tailored up or down to meet requirements of someone else.
A trip up the Ashley River last year took me past the Magnolia Plantation. The Francis Marion National Forest, Georgetown and a couple of Wildlife Refuges lie to the north of Charleston. I had wanted to stop off there for a week or two but camping is limited and the only campground I could find was full of fishermen, even late on a Sunday when they should have been heading home.
The ACE Basin National Estuary Research Reserve and more Wildlife Refuges lie south of Charleston. I'm hoping to have better luck down there.
Gnats and noseeums still pretty active.