Capers Island Mini Excursion - Saturday and Sunday

So, for those of you who frequent the beach, particularly those who have stayed the night right on/just off of the beach, you know what two of my complaints probably are.

1) The noseeums (spelling). These little devils are only here on Earth to make our lives miserable, and they do a damn good job of it. They are also so tiny, that the slightest crack in your "defense" allows a flood gate. I woke up several times swatting and scratching Friday night that I was more irritated by the bugs than I was by the heat. Seriously, why were these little boogers put on this planet?

2) The sand. Just like the little bugs, sand can come from anywhere and it will get everywhere. You might as well not even try to clean it out of the room (or in my case tent) until you are ready to leave. Seriously, a losing battle.

But despite all of that, I wouldn't trade camping on the beach this past weekend for anything because the sunsets and sunrises mixed in with the sound of the waves crashing really make up for it. Despite the little bugs and the sand in places it shouldn't have been, I was really relaxed.

Something that I really like about camping is that, depending on where you are and who you are with, you go to bed when the sun goes down and you wake up when light starts breaking. It really helps you maximize your day, I feel. Anyways, we woke up Saturday and Sunday just before sunrise. Both days we wanted to get out with the tide. Seeing as high tide was around 6:30 each morning, it wasn't too much of a problem. So we took our time eating breakfast (freeze-dried scrambled eggs with bacon bits for me) and then packed up. We decided to pack up all the valuables and just leave tents, sleeping bags/pads and clothes just in case. But, really, we never had anything to worry about because there were plenty of people around to watch our stuff.

So, Saturday we had all day to kill, but we really wanted to get most of the paddling out of the way before the heat of the day. So, below is the route we took. The yellow dot attached to green line is our campsite, then we went out through the one channel and out along Bull Island. We may have made it further, but I'll get into that in a second. We then turned around and back-tracked into the intracoastal waterway and then back to our camp.

So, why the backtrack there along Bull? We had originally planned on going all the way around Bull Island, timing it just right to use the lowering tide to carry us out and around, and then the slack and incoming tide to take us into the intracoastal waterway and back along the back end of Bill. However, just a little ways into the first stretch Dave noticed a change in the winds. It was enough to somewhat spook him, and for good reason. If the right or wrong wind pops up, then we could have been facing larger swells and even whitecaps.

Not a pleasant paddle.

Instead of risking it, we decided to turn back. Now, while we were out there paddling both out and back we noticed an ATV on the beach. Every so often, it would stop and we could see 1 or 2 people getting off and going up into the dunes a bit. We guessed that these were people looking for turtle nests, and probably helping preserve or track them. So, as we rounded back into the channel (which I'll describe in just a second), we decided to hike up and meet the people doing this to ask a few questions.

Now, when I said we rounded the channel, I mean we came in like a wrecking ball... that was suddenly stopped. We got to practice our surfing and riding waves a little bit... until we hit the newly formed sandbar. At low tide, it really is an extension off of Bull Island. So much so, we had to get out and walk our kayaks in to where we could paddle again. But all we needed to do was just beach them for our short hike.

And that's what we did. We made it only a few dozen yards before the ATV came up and we talked with the gentleman and lady on it. Turns out we guessed right. They were tracking and monitoring the loggerhead turtle nests along the beach. We didn't really get to ask them too much because they seemed to be on a time crunch but we were able to see where two nests might have been due to the tracks from the mommas.

Only problem was, neither looked in tact. One had raccoon tracks leaving it so it might have been robbed, or the would-be-thief may have spooked the momma and she decided to try again another time. The other, we couldn't really tell at a distance what was going on, but we also decided to not intrude on the area.

Seeing the nests reminded me of a few pictures I've seen recently by the Charleston/South Carolina Aquarium when they have released animals back into the wild. I really want to make it down sometime to witness that because I think it would be so awesome to see.

Anyways, after a little bit more of walking, we went back and got into our boats and decided to take on the intracoastal waterway. We made our way inland for a while and along the way saw one large ship with a white dome on the front. We're not sure what it was, but I'm guessing it was some sort of research vessel.

It's also interesting to note at this time that traffic was really picking up. We saw lots of boats with families and friends racing out to claim their areas for the day on Bull and Capers. I mean, it was Saturday, after all, and the summer, so why not load up the boat with food and drinks and hit the beach?

Once we hit the actual intracoastal, we turned around and slowly made our way back. This is where one of the cooler moments of the weekend happened. I had just turned my GoPro off when something surfaced right off the port/left side of my boat and exhaled. It was a huge head, probably one of the biggest I have ever seen in the wild. Dave saw it as well, so I have my backup, there. This thing was a huge loggerhead turtle with about a 6" wide or bigger head. He/she was up just long enough to exhale, inhale and then gone. Too. Stinkin. Cool. I absolutely love kayaking for these moments. Sure, I could get a better look at a turtle on the Discovery Channel, but how many people can say that a turtle blew its nose on you (ok, it wasn't THAT close, maybe).

By the time we got back to where we starting a crowd was starting to form on both Bull and Capers. It's a really popular place for people to motorboat out to, if you hadn't figured it out already. There were a lot of people around, so we beached our boats on Bull again with the intent of hiking along one of the paths on the interior of Bull. But, to our dismay, we found that these trails have been closed off, at least on the south end. They may be open still to tour groups, but we weren't about to risk getting into trouble, so we took an even longer walk along the beach collecting sea shells (sand dollars were really abundant here) and talking about various things. We made it about a couple miles away from Bull's bone yard - which is quite the hike! - and then turned around.

Once we got back, we ferried across to our campsite, which was quite crowded, and hung out in the water the rest of the day. Again, no sense in overworking ourselves in the heat of the day and the water was really refreshing.

Another cool instance Dave, Ian and myself had came just a short while before dinner. I wasn't paying close enough attention, but I caught a glimpse of the action. Just inside the channel, there was a huge splash and a flash of gray/brown (dark). Turns out, it was a huge ray jumping out of the water. I know it was big, but Dave was staring right at it and says it had a wing span close to his own, and the wings were even curved under. Damn. What could make something like that jump out of the water? And I had no idea we had rays that big just inside our waters like that.

Again, why would you rather sit on your couch?

Sunday morning was very similar to Saturday except for the fact that we completely broke down our campsite and were headed home.

Now, before we get to that, we did get to witness a little drama the night before. We were joined on the beach by a group of teenagers or people in their early 20s. They were down a ways, but apparently at some point in the night, one of the girls got mad and decided to walk it off. They went looking for her and she came by our area hollering that she was coming back (and apparently had a dog with her, too). She was met right at our tents by a couple people and her boyfriend.

Now, none of us left our tents, but we were able to listen in as she explained, with a drunken slur, that she had talked to her mom for 3 days and the relationship with the guy was an unhealthy one. The boyfriend was pretty foul-mouthed and obviously drunk as well and they kept interrupting each other. I was about to yell, "Better not dump him until he takes you back to the mainland!" when Ian piped up with, "There are people here trying to sleep!" That got them at least whispering and moving back towards their camp.

I'm slightly, only slightly, interested in knowing how the rest of THAT night went for them.

Anyways, there's your bit of beach drama. Now, back to the fun stuff. Below is the map of our course for Sunday. Blue is the first bit of our trip, the yellow dot in between is where we stopped for a few hours to let the tides even out and to get some lunch, and the purple bit is our "home stretch."



So, to get back out into the open waters you know we have to go through that channel. Well, this particular morning, as we were making for the channel to break through the breakers, I caught a glimpse of a dolphin. Then another, then another pair and another... There were six, including one whose dorsal fin had been chopped/bitten off. Makes you wonder what happened to that poor guy, but he swam just fine, it seemed. The pod stayed with us and surfaced and swam amongst our three boats as we made our way through the breakers and out of the channel.

The above picture is a screen grab of video I took during this awesome sequence. Again. So. Stinking. Cool.

Once we broke through, one of the dolphins stayed with us for a while as we made our way down Capers. He/she even swam next to me for a second after I repositioned my boat closer to the inland.

After that, it was really hard for anything to top my morning.

We continued south and went in between the north part of Dewess Island and the south beach of Capers. Because the tide was still going out, we decided this would be a great place to take a break until the tides changed. As we were heading down, we noticed two campsites and their campers so we began walking up the beach to see if those people were around to just chat with. Two guys were breaking camp further up the beach and were actually paddling as we were walking their way. One was in a whitewater play boat (very small and loaded down) and the other was in a Pelican boat (not as small, but just as little room for gear). It seemed quite silly for them to be fighting the tide in those boats, and sure enough, they stopped to take a break eventually.

We walked down through the bone yard again and turned around, and once we got back, thought about hiking some more, but ultimately decided to stay on the south beach and just relax. Why push it, right? Just like on the north end of Capers and south beach of Bull, this area became a very popular place around 10:30-11. There were a bunch of families just out enjoying the day and even a tour boat flying a jolly roger. Also, we had a group of 8 other kayakers show up and a family of 3 also joined in. It really is cool to see so many people getting into kayaking.

Around noon, we decided the tides were about to turn, so we headed in, using a slightly different route from Friday. We continued our cut between Dewess and Capers and made our way into the intracoastal waterway. This was extremely busy with lots and lots of traffic and we were constantly fighting wakes from various boats and jet skis.

FYI for those motor boaters out there, we don't mind a little wake, but all we really ask is that you acknowledge us. Wave, give a big nod, flip us off for all I care. We just want to know that you see us kayakers and small boaters. I can deal with your wake after that.

The only really exciting parts of this last stretch were when we also almost got run over by a ferry from Dewess that came around a corner, never slowed down and just headed out into the flow towards Isle of Palms (jerk). If we hadn't been paying attention and slowed down, we could have very well been right in that thing's way as it came into that intersection.

Another FYI, kayakers and man-powered boats are SUPPOSED to have the right-away followed by sailboats and THEN motorized boats. But, as you can see, motorized boaters don't seem to take that into consideration.

The other really cool thing was we saw two feeding frenzies of dolphins fishing. It was really just cool to see them jumping, flipping their tails and churning up the water to contain the fish.



All-in-all, this was an awesome trip. It was only my second time camping out of a kayak and first time tackling the ocean in a kayak. While you could possibly do it in a smaller boat, you need to consider using the right boat, a long sea kayak, for this. Unless you're just looking to drag it out there and play in the surf, you'll be miserable trying to "cut" or rather push through the other stuff. And camping out of a kayak is always a challenge. Having to figure out what all you can take and need versus what you can live without can be a bit of a headache. Dave says 1 gallon of water per day is a good start, I went through 4 gallons in roughly 2 days (half a day of kayaking and camping on Friday and another half on Sunday with a full day on Saturday). You also learn it's not so bad to drink warm water, as long as it's fresh. But, that first sip of ice cold water once I got back to the marina and changed felt so good going down.

Capers Island Mini Excursion - Friday

I know I haven't really paid much attention to this blog, especially since I started the burger quest one, but I also haven't done a whole lot of kayaking that I felt like blogging about. That is, aside from earlier this year when a group of us went down a long stretch of the Edisto River (I really regret not writing about that one, honestly). Don't get me wrong, I love kayaking no matter what and even just going out and spinning in circles in a pond or rolling in a pool would keep me entertained for a while. But, I'm not going to bore you with reports about that.

Unless I am able to develop a new roll that nobody else has, but that is a long shot, there.

However, I finally went on a trek/mini expedition that deserves requires a post. Partly because Dave Rochelle (my local kayaking idol) wants me to have something ready to present to a forum in a few months, but mostly because I love sharing my experiences out on the water, and this was one that needs to be shared.

I need to come up with a creative title for it, but it is, in essence, the next step in my progression as a paddler and the middle or meat of an awesome three-week sandwich that will see me go from paddling two different boats in a lake, to camping and kayaking along the coast, to working on more of my whitewater skills in Tennessee. Man, am I spoiled, or what?

You may recall that last year (2014) I went on a weekend trip into the Okefenokee Swamp with Dave, my dad, and a few others from the Canoe and Kayak Club of Augusta (GA). That's really what caused me to start this blog, honestly. That was my first experience with having to camp out of a kayak and learning to pack everything you need for a camping trip into a kayak. Before that, I was learning whitewater and before that, it was basic paddling, safety and rescue techniques.

So, it is only natural that I keep going, right? Well, this trip up a small section of the South Carolina coast was just that: the next step in Milledge (IV) becoming a better, more experienced paddler.

Without further ado, here is my weekend trek to Capers Island - Part 1 of 3

On Friday, June 12, 2015, Dave, Ian Buckley and I set out from North Augusta/Augusta/Aiken and headed to the coast with the intent of paddling from the marina located at Isle of Palms up to the north beach of Capers Island and back over a three day stretch. In that time, we planned on covering at least 24 miles (I may be off a hair here) or more depending on weather conditions and we would be at a location that did not have any of the basic necessities that we all take for granted practically every day: indoor plumbing, fresh water, AC, electricity, AC, ice, prepared food.

Now, luckily we were just a semi-short paddle (or boat ride if need be) away from all of those in case the proverbial poo hit the proverbial fan. Also, Dave is a very experienced paddler and hiker, and always has plans B through Z covered. He had ways to listen to the constantly changing weather reports, a radio with proper channels to listen to the Coast Guard frequencies, he had a personal location device (I think I got that wrong, but you get the picture), and he also had a chart of the area as well as the most up-to-date tide charts for the days we were scheduled to be out there. As well as the cell phone number of the local sheriff's department. The man really knows what he is doing and is teaching me a lot in regards to taking this types of trips.

First thing first, though, before leaving, I had to get a different boat. For those of you who know me, you know that I fairly recently sold my Liquid Logic Remix 69 in favor of purchasing a brand spanking new Liquid Logic Stomper 90. I went from one whitewater creeker to another. And neither of those would do for this trip. My dad and mom also have two boats that are 12 and 13 feet long, but they are wider and more equipped for rivers and lakes, not swells and surf.

Luckily, our club president, Bernie, had an extra boat: a 17' Perception Eclipse that he has held onto as a loaner and he was gracious enough to loan it to me (Thank you, again, Bernie!). What was even better, or maybe worse for my bank account, was that as soon as I sat in the boat a couple of weeks ago to test it out, I fell in love and it fit me just about as perfectly as a boat could/should. I now know what my next boat will be come the off-season... but don't think I'm trading in my whitewater Stomper just yet. No sir.

Anyways, we had to have nice, long boats to cram some of the following equipment into each of our boats (and even other stuff I forgot): 3-4 gallons of water, 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 2 dinners, small snack bars for during the day, extra paddle, helmet, tent, sleeping gear, eating utensils, water bottle(s) for during the day, PFD (wearing that one), sun protection, bug protection (if you want it), water shoes, hiking shoes (if you wanted), changes of clothes (let's get real, I may have worn the same outer pants and shirt, but I still changed my underwear. I'm not THAT hard core), toiletries (TP, shovel for small trench digging, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant), GoPro cameras for documenting... 

By the time it was all said and done, both front and back hatches of my boat were tightly filled to where I literally couldn't fit anything else in there even if I wanted to. So the longer the boat, the better for that, as well as it helped in the swells. But I'll get to that in a bit.

Now then, before I get into the real meat of the journey, let me show you what we did. For reference:

• Orange is Friday's first leg, 
• Red is Friday's second leg,
• Green is Saturday (note: it is out along Bull Island and back then out to the inter coastal and back)
• Blue is Sunday's first leg,
• Purple is Sunday's final leg,
• The Yellow spots are the three important points or stops for reference.

Anyways, back to the story and Friday's portion of the trek:

We met at Dave's house and were on the road by 6:15 AM. Probably the biggest thing to remember throughout this entire trip is that all of our paddling was done with 2 things in mind: first and foremost, the tides ruled when and where we could go but we also did keep an eye on the second part, weather and heat. We did most of our paddling in the morning and early afternoon.

As we got into Isle of Palms, we hit our first big snag as there was a bad wreck on the bridge heading onto the island. I could tell that Dave was a bit nervous about this because we did not want to be paddling against the tide, we wanted to be riding the tide as it went out for low tide.

However, we were making such good time ahead of that, that we didn't have an issue, really. We were able to get to the marina still in plenty of time and the three of us packed our kayaks efficiently and in a timely manner. Dave did point out here it was more important to make certain we packed everything properly and not worry about the time. If we needed to, we could wait around until the next tide change, but you could also tell that none of us liked that idea (besides, we all would do plenty of sitting around waiting/relaxing later).

Let me tell you this, a fully-loaded kayak is an absolute bear to handle... on land. It took all three of us to muscle the boats down the slippery boat ramp one at a time to get into the water. But once we were on there, it really was almost a breeze. I was honestly surprised at how well my boat handled under load. Although, looking back, I could have shifted a little more of the weight to the back to help with the skeg/rudder.

Anyways, we were off and rolling around 11:30-noon. We paddled for about an hour and that took us along the intracoastal waterway for a small stretch before we hung a right just after clearing the northern tip of Isle of Palms to cut between there and Dewees Island. I don't know a lot about the area, but Dave informed Ian and me that Dewees is privately owned but you can still get off the water onto the beach. And that is where we took our first break, a quick lunch on the southern-most tip of the main portion of Dewees Island.

For reference, the picture above is a closer view of the marina (towards the bottom and a quarter of the way in from the left) and where we stopped for lunch (top and a little more than the same distance in from the right).

We only took about a 15-30 minute break for lunch before we were off again, and that is A-OK with me. I was ready to get a little wet and experience this trek a bit more.

So, this is a closer view without the line of where we went after lunch, but we took off from the southern-most tip of Dewees and had to swing out pretty wide at this time of day to clear a couple of sandbars that have formed over the last few years. It's interesting to note how much the coast has changed according to Dave over the last 5, 10, 15 years. The biggest changes to the area have been the addition of those two sandbars you see between Dewees/Capers and Capers/Bull but also the erosion of Capers Island's front shore. Seriously, just Google Capers Island Bone Yard and you'd be amazed to see the images (note, not real bones, trees. It's almost 75% or more the beach).

Like I said, we had to go pretty far out into the water and at our furthest point, Dave believes we were about a mile off shore. This was mostly because we were trying to avoid the more shallow waters where breakers were forming. Those could cause us a lot of problems, especially if we weren't paying attention.

But we still had to deal with the swells. We were really lucky all weekend as the seas were relatively calm and only rolling around a foot to 2 feet most of the time with an occasional three-foot swell. This is where the skeg/rudder really came in handy. A lot of people think it is for turning, but it really is more for helping the boat track straight. Yes, I used it and some edging to help with some turns (handles like a dream, surprisingly for such a long boat), but it really helped me out in the swells when I was focused on staying straight.

As we got further and further along, you could really start to see Capers and what Dave and others have said. It is amazing how the forest is right along the beach, but not because it grew that way. Now, you may not believe in global warming, but climate change is definitely happening. And, again, whether you believe we, as humans, are to blame for this or it's cyclical (or a little of both), the tides really are rising. The best evidence is right there on Capers' front beach.

Also as we were paddling, I noticed a lot, A LOT of jelly fish in the water. I hate jelly fish, but these supposedly can't sting you.

Yeah, right.

After nearly 3 hours of paddling, total, we came to the really fun part. As I said before, at the north end of Capers a huge sandbar has formed and it has created 2 channels into that inlet. Since we were camping on the northern beach of Capers all weekend, there was no sense in going around and coming back, so we made a beeline and cut through the breakers of the first and smaller channel.

You can really see the sandbar here, but you cannot see the breakers in that first little channel. They were a lot of fun and Dave had to give me and Ian a little instruction to begin with. The biggest thing to remember when playing in the surf is to let the boat go and to not tense up. As soon as you tense up, you are probably going to flip over. If you don't feel comfortable with a particular wave, just back paddle and it will pass you by, allowing you to try again.

But why would you back paddle? Seriously.

I know, there really are times when that can come in handy, but I had so much fun catching a couple of waves and even had one turn my boat at which point I called upon another thing Dave taught me - lean into the wave and edge and you can surf along the wave. Just have your low brace there to help. And, sure enough, I caught a couple short rides that way and it was just so cool.

After we finally punched through, it was just a very short paddle over to the beach where we scoped out where high tide had been before so we could pitch our tents. We also made sure to pay attention to where the wind was going to be coming from (mostly south to south-west all weekend) so our tents wouldn't blow away. We needed a breeze to keep us cool and keep the no-see-ums and other bugs at bay, but not gail-force winds. FYI, you need a permit to camp overnight on Capers Island and the only two locations you can camp on are the northern tip and the southern tip (then again, I don't know why you'd want to camp amongst the thick foliage on the outer beach or in the marsh areas on the inner part of the island.

After all of that, we went for a short hike along the shore to check out the bone yard up close. It really is amazing to see how the shoreline is claiming the trees and forest. I mean, it is just taking out huge, old trees. But I was also surprised to see more than 10 dead horseshoe crabs. They were all along the beach as we hiked. But, we couldn't stay long because the tide was quickly coming back in and it was close to dinner time.

Now, you can bet I had no problem falling asleep, even on some hard-packed sand. But not before we were treated to one of the coolest sunsets I have seen in quite some time. It was really a good start to the trip.

The Nantahala Falls chewed me up, and spit me back out

When was the last time you were so excited for something that you could barely sleep. I'm talking Christmas Eve night as a kid. The night before your first big date with someone new. That first time before getting a new/"new" car. That kind of excitement.

But at the same time, I'm talking about something semi terrifying. The night before your first day of school at a new school (hello freshmen heading to college or high school). The night before an interview for that first or next big job. The night before you sign your name for that first house.

It's been a few months since I experienced that, and even longer since I experienced that in regards to kayaking. But last week, ALL of last week, was like that for me because this past Saturday, I tackled the lower end of the Nantahala River. I feel like I should have put a drum roll in there somewhere.

I have been kayaking now for close to 10 years. In that time I have tackled a lot of different types of waterways, especially rivers, in a variety of boats. I have been on the Edisto, Savannah and Augusta Canal more times than I can count. I have been on the Broad outside of Athens, GA and both the Hiawassee and the Ocoee (if I'm remembering that retreat correctly). I have also been on lakes and ponds galore. And while I may have gotten a little excited from time-to-time for some of those (particularly when I was learning to whitewater kayak on the Hiawasee and Ocoee about 4 years ago), I have only once felt the level of excitement and trepidation as I felt last week leading up to my trip this past Saturday (April 25, 2015).

Now, I absolutely LOVE whitewater and that mostly comes from the times I was able to go whitewater rafting in middle and high school with various groups. There is just something about the roar of the rapids and getting splashed by that cold, bone-chilling-cold water. It just gets my heart pumping and has me ready to dig in with my paddle.

Since I bought my first whitewater boat (y'all remember my white Liquid Logic Remix 69, right?) I have been itching to do more whitewater. The last two years, I have continually said, "This year I am going to do more whitewater. I am going to tackle more rivers and get better, especially at my roll while in the rapids." Well, up to this point, I have failed that as if it were a New Year's Resolution. But not this year. I have already made sure of that.

To try and make sure that I did not fail at tackling more whitewater this year, I joined a few groups on Facebook. Kayaking clubs and groups that have a lot of whitewater enthusiasts. And when the first big trip for novices/intermediates was announced, I jumped at it.

Before I go any further, let me just say thanks to Foothills Paddling Club (FPC! as I heard several times on the trip. And let me say, they were well-represented on that river). Special thanks go out to Michael Pea and Judy Putnam for setting the trip up and to Mark Miller, Kenny, Ken and the rest of the group for making it such a fun trip. Once I got to know everyone a little bit, y'all made me feel really comfortable and I can't wait for the next trip.

Now then, back to the trip itself. A couple weeks ago I purchased a new boat. I have been looking at the Stomper series by Liquid Logic since they were announced, but because I haven't been doing a lot of whitewater, I wasn't sure if I should go ahead and jump at it, yet. Well, Jesse at River Runner in Columbia had one Stomper 90 left and gave me a very good deal so he could have room for a new shipment and I jumped at this opportunity as well because I thought, "Maybe if I bite the bullet and get a new boat, I will want/have/need to do more whitewater." And so far, it's worked. The maiden voyage of my lime green jelly bean was an easy trek down the Broad River (my second excursion on that river) a few weeks ago. It gave me just enough opportunity to try out the new boat and get comfortable in it as I was already committed to the Nantahala trip.

Now fast forward to last week on Friday, because that is really when I started to get some nervous feeling. It was probably more excitement, but I could barely sit still all day, especially as the afternoon drug on, and on, and on. That night, I could barely sleep. I needed to, because I was in for a long day that included 8 total hours of driving and then 4 hours on the river, but I was just too excited. And that carried over into Saturday as I took off a little earlier than I had planned. You see, I didn't want to get left behind on my first trip with the group and I had never been to where we were putting in. So I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time in case I got turned around. How early was I? Well, Dunkin Donuts opens at around 6 AM. I got there and they weren't open, yet. That's how early I left my house.

So, I finally got my coffee and donuts and I hit the road. I won't bore you with that trip (or the return trip, really) but I will say this: it rained and it looked like my first big whitewater excursion was going to be a soggy one long before I hit the first rapid.

Fast forward again, this time to getting to the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center). If you are wanting to go whitewater rafting, I am pretty sure I would recommend this place. It really looked awesome and reminded me a lot of the Whitewater Center outside of Charlotte. I'm betting the USWC modeled itself after the NOC. It's just outside of Bryson City, NC, so now you have a general idea of location.

(The orange dot is the put in. The take-out was at the NOC)

I bought my day pass (looking back I wish I had gotten the season pass because that would have made me definitely go back again. Guess I just have to go back to buy a season pass and use it, now) and then I went up to the put-in where I started meeting the group. And this was where you can cue the nerves. The NOC was going to be our take out spot, so I had to drive up along the river to the put in. You know how they say if you're scared of heights then don't look down on a bridge. Well, I looked down at the river as I was driving along it and I started to get butterflies in my stomach. The water was REALLY churning and I was starting to wonder if I could do this and if I would make a fool of myself.

Oh boy.

The put-in for us, was also the take-out for the upper section of the Nantahala and there were all sorts of kayakers. I mean, it wasn't even 11 AM, yet, and there were people who had already run the upper section and were going back for seconds. It was craziness to see how many different people and kayaks there were already, but they all seemed to know each other and were really having a great time.

It took a little while from when I arrived to when we put in but that was mostly because we had a bit of organizing to do in regards to who was leaving vehicles where. It's pretty tough to get 18 people organized, especially when there is so much going on around you and you don't have cell service, but we managed and got on the river.

And thus the fun began.

It's really hard to describe the entire trip because there were stretches where nothing really exciting happened, we just floated along the waves, and then there were sections where we were doing a lot and really battling. I will say this, the river really didn't give much of a break except for a couple of times. It was really cold water. And I had a blast. I'm pretty sure I didn't really stop smiling unless I was concentrating on the rapids. The water was very choppy and it was a lot of fun to hit several of the rapids and then catch an eddy after before the next set of rapids.

The two rapids that I remember distinctly were the last two. Bump and the Falls. Bump has an old road sign hanging over the river that says "Bump" and it is just that. It's a bump in the water and you can either go easy to the right or go for it on the left. I decided to go about middle, but favoring that left side. So. Much. Fun!

And then there are the Falls. If I were to describe it, I would say it's a two-level rapid. You hit the first level or hole and you have to be ready for the second. There is luckily an eddy just before, but I sadly didn't take it and feel like I should have. There are three lines you can take. One is straight through. Mark and Judy both demonstrated and made it look easy. They both just barely caught the lip of the first hole and used it to propel themselves through the drop and into the second. From there, they took different lines. Mark curled a bit to the right and then punched through while Judy went straight on and punched right through the middle of the second rapid. I also watched a few other paddlers take different routes. One to the far right that seemed tricky because of the way the flow was going along with some sizeable rocks and then one to the far left that seemed the easiest way through.

Well, I like a good challenge so I opted to try my best at following Mark and Judy's lead... and didn't quite make it. Something I remember from horseback riding is that the horse will tell on you. If you have too soft or too hard of hands on the reins, it shows in the way the horse responds. If you don't have a strong leg on the proper side, that will show in how they transition and move as well. In kayaking, sure you need to be able to paddle, but if you don't use your hips and thighs properly, the boat tells on you. And boy did mine have a story to tell.

I hit the first part fine, I think. I made it through and used it to propel me forward, but when I hit the wave of the second, I lost it and flipped over to my left. Dangit. I was semi prepared for this and was glad I went to that side because it's my strong side for rolling. However, I've never rolled in all that gear (helmet and dry top) or while still moving. AND I've only once rolled in water as cold as that river was. It took my breath away with a quickness. I had one really good chance at rolling back over and thought I had it, but again, my hips and thighs didn't lie. I didn't use them enough either in the rapid nor when trying to roll back over. So I had to swim.

There's really no shame in swimming (I watched plenty of people swim throughout the course of the trip and there at the end in particular). But I really wanted to roll back over. I WILL roll back over next time.

The best part of that swim, was how prepared people were to help out. There were lots of people on the sides throwing lines to the swimmers and a couple other boaters (like Mark) ready to help push boats to shore and coach swimmers (like myself) through the freezing swim. And at the end, Mark took a moment to talk to me and one of the other swimmers, Kenny, about what he noticed and that was the hips and how it affects your balance in the boat. I have to say, my favorite part about joining these types of trips with "older" kayakers is their willingness to talk to you and share their experience and coach you up. It really helps you get better.

I cannot say enough about this trip, but then again, I don't know what else to share because it was just a lot of fun. So, instead I will let the video do the talking. It's not quite ready yet, but when it is, I will edit this post and share some screen shots as well as the clip of it.

The short version of the trip: HERE

Lake Jocassee and Devil's Fork State Park

Lake Jocassee April 25-27, 2014 – 2014 has really been the year of new places to paddle for me. So far, I have camped and paddled in the Okefenokee Swamp, paddled the Broad River in Georgia and paddled a new section of Horse Creek. So, to keep up with this trend, my parents, a few friends from the kayak club and I went up to one of my favorite areas of South Carolina: the upstate.

This past weekend, Dad took us to Devils Fork State Park on the banks of Lake Jocassee, which was a new experience for all of us, I believe. In the upstate, there are plenty of different lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, and even after this trip I have plans to head back up there and see even more. It also helps that it is just gorgeous being up in the hills/mountains.

Like most of the lakes in our state (I’m pretty sure, I may be wrong), Lake Jocassee is man-made and here is a bit of information on it from lakejocassee.com:

“The name Jocassee comes from the legend of a Cherokee maiden. An Oconee tribe, the ‘Brown Vipers’ led by Chief Attakulla, inhabited the west side of the Whitewater river, while a rival tribe, ‘The Green Birds’, lived on the east. Legend says that a young Green Bird warrior, Nagoochee, was not afraid to enter Brown Viper hunting grounds. On one occasion, he fell and broke his leg and was convinced he was going to die. Then he heard Jocassee, Attakulla's daughter, who brought him back to her father's lodge and nursed him back to health. Jocassee eventually fell in love with him, but in a later battle, Cheochee, Jocassee's brother, killed and brought Nagoochee's head back on his belt. Legend has it that Jocassee went into the water and did not sink but walked across the water to meet the ghost of Nagoochee. The name Jocassee means ‘Place of the Lost One.’

“The Jocassee Gorges area was once home to the part of the Cherokee Nation; it now lies 300 feet (91 m) beneath the surface of the lake, near the Toxaway River. Nearby Keowee Town was a major hub in the Cherokee Path that connected Cherokee towns and villages throughout the area. Early 18th century traders delivered as many as 200,000 deerskins annually to Charleston, South Carolina and local Indians became well supplied with European firearms, ammunition, tools and clothing as a result. However, mounting discord between Europeans and Cherokees led to war in 1759. In 1785, General Andrew Pickens hosted a large gathering of Indian chiefs leading to a treaty that gave all of the Jocassee gorges area, with the exception of northern Oconee County, to the United States; the Oconee mountains were not ceded until 1815. European settlers, mostly of Scottish and Irish descent, came from Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as from Charleston. Land grants in the Jocassee area go back to 1791.

“Lake Jocassee is 7,500 acres of water with 75 miles of shoreline. The lake is at an elevation of 1,100 feet. The lake is used for recreation and is used by Duke Power to generate 610,000 kilowatts fo electricty with its Jocassee Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Station that was built in 1973. The dam is 385 feet high and 1,750 feet long.

“Duke Power and the state of South Carolina provide the Devils Fork State Park and the Double Springs remote campground, both managed by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.”

So there you have it. Similar to Lake Murray, Lake Jocassee is man-made for energy and has also created an excellent place for exploration on land, on the surface of the water as well as below. This definitely makes me want to get my scuba certification this summer to be able to explore the different places that had to be flooded to create the lake.

Side note: it’s interesting to think about how many people were displaced by the government for various projects just in SC over the history of our state and country. Lake Murray, Ellenton, Jocassee are the most recent and there are probably more that I don’t know about or haven’t named going back to when the first settlers landed/migrated here.

Here is a map of Lake Jocassee. The lowest red dot is about where our campsite was located, the middle dot is the location of the boat ramp we used (I think) and the uppermost red dot is the location of a waterfall we found.

Back to the weekend, Mom and Dad went up Thursday to settle in and with Mom along, there wasn’t as much “roughin’ it” as with the Okefenokee. Mom and Dad have a small, 18’ camper and so we slept in a little bit more comfort. I still made them cook over the fire a few times and it was still not quite a 4-star hotel and I know a few friends who would have said, “Hell no!” to even the idea of camping in a camper. I joined in Friday evening after work and got up there around 8-8:30 after leaving around 5:15. By the way, if you have ever done traveling with a Garmin or other devise that gives you an estimated time, who doesn’t enjoy trying to beat that time. Kind of like, “Challenge accepted!”

As I was getting up there, I had to stop a few times to admire the sunset over the various bodies of water (and Clemson University) and even stopped on a bridge at one point because I saw nobody ahead of me or behind me. So, I quickly snapped a couple pictures with my phone but, wouldn’t you know it, by the time I’m pulling away someone is driving up ahead of me. They’re in a black Jeep Wrangler so as I pull back into my lane and start going I give them a smile and a wave expecting to get one back… instead I get a mean-mug face from both the driver and the passenger and not one, but two birds from the driver. OK, asshole. Sorry for causing you to have to slow down a little bit. In my book, no harm, no foul but apparently he felt the need to show his displeasure. I’m deeply hurt… really, I am.

Anyways, if you have done any driving at dusk and into night, you know that it can be a little difficult to find places that you are unfamiliar with so it took a bit to find the campsite in Devils Fork State Park (man, that’s a great name that leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling all over while driving at night). But I eventually did find the spot and hung out around the campfire until around 10 or 11 (I tell ya, we're some party animals!).

The next morning, after not getting a whole lot of sleep due to a bunk that is just barely long enough for me to fit in diagonally, we woke up around 8 to get the day started. Breakfast was bacon and scrambled eggs over the fire with coffee to wash it down (honestly, I love camping and the cooking that goes on and there is no sarcasm at all. It is just a lot of fun). We were joined by Bob (you’ve met Bob before via this blog) and then it was off to the put-in at one of the boat ramps.

At this point, I will also point out that we were not the only people on the lake Saturday, obviously. There was also a bass tournament going on that day, so while I didn’t hear them at first light, there were a bunch of boats zooming around all day and apparently they had quite the send off that morning. This caused us to have a bit of waves to deal with all day long because for whatever reason these nuts prefer to zoom from cove to cove as fast as they can. Wouldn’t that alert the fish to their presence?

Now, I mentioned we had a group. Our group for the weekend included Jimmy, Virginia, Eric, Mary, Bob, the parentals and me. Before we took off, the foursome from lunch went in search of Jimmy and Virginia who were out walking the dogs and wanted to meet up with us after getting ready. Eric and Mary said they would join us later after having put in closer to their campsite.

So, Dad, Mom, Bob and I went to a boat ramp that wasn’t closed (another one that we had thought about was closed because of all the trucks and trailers from the bass tournament). One of the cool things about kayaking and canoeing I have found is how many people are at least trying it these days. It never fails, other than Okefenokee and Horse Creek, I always seem to come up on a few people or a couple groups of people giving kayaking a try. Jocassee also had a few of these groups and as we were putting our boats in the water, there was a group of 10-12 people that appeared to be renting kayaks and taking a tour from a local out-fitter. Let me just say that has been one of my dream jobs for quite a while. I know guides don’t make a lot of money and you have to be creative in how you do it because seasons change and people only want to go kayaking or rafting from late April through early September so you’d have to find another, winter-time job. But the idea of getting to kayak or raft almost every day sounds pretty awesome to me. So, if I ever hit the lottery, you can bet that 1) my Facebook account with disappear and 2) I will take on a part-time job doing that as soon as I can.

Anyways, back to kayaking. We let the group do their mass seal launch and, honestly, I was hoping to see one of them flip within the first 50 feet. But no, no entertainment of that kind, sadly. After giving them a head start and waiting a minute for Jimmy and Virginia,  our group got in and puttered around for a minute. But Mom was ready to go so we had to take off and to start our exploring.

Now, before I said that Lake Jocassee was very similar to Lake Murray. This isn’t fair to Jocassee because it is, in my honest opinion, heads and shoulders above Murray for a few reasons. The first is the water color and quality. It is mountain/spring water coming from several mountain rivers and streams and is clear and has a blue/green color to it. It’s refreshingly cool/cold (will get back to this in a minute) and is just great. If you’ve ever been to Lake Murray, you know this isn’t the case there (I always seem to feel so dirty getting out of Lake Murray… like I can’t scrub my skin hard enough). The other reasons include waterfalls you can paddle/boat/hike to and very little development/houses along the banks. So, for me, Lake Jocassee is much better and once we got into our kayaks, I just couldn’t get over how gorgeous the water was or the surroundings of small mountains.

We made our way up the west bank from the boat ramp and took our sweet time exploring coves and inlets. Along the way, Eric and ____ caught up so at one point we had a solid group of eight kayakers paddling along taking pictures but the biggest thing we were all after was to find a good waterfall. This had Eric and Dad bent over a map and GPS unit a few times, but eventually we just used the map and used our eyes to figure it out.

There are several larger falls around the various banks, and we were also able to find a very small fall early on before hearing and spotting another higher up on land.

Now, remember when I said the water was cool/cold? Well, along our journey we found a rope swing that I just had to try. Come on, if you know me, you know that I am not one to shy away from something like this. So, with Dad holding my boat, and Bob filming from below, I donned the GoPro on a head strap and went for a quick ride. And boy was that fun even in the temperature of the water caused me to come up singing soprano for a minute or 15. This time of year, the water was downright frigid and if I hadn’t been awake before hitting the water, I was after my plunge.

From here, we kind of got strung out a bit. Eric and ___ ended up cutting across the biggest expanse of the lake to head to the other side (they headed for a sheer cliff face that was created and say they saw an eagle… dang, I should have gone with them). The rest of us went up and found a small waterfall in a cove where a few bass fishermen were trying their luck. It seemed like everyone we talked to was not having any real luck with the fish biting that day. I guess when they’re not hungry they’re not hungry.

I took some video and pictures at this small waterfall (OK, I took a lot of video of the waterfall as I was trying to practice some free-shooting and that can be seen HERE) and we tried our hand at casting (notice, casting, not fishing because when there’s nothing being caught, all you’re doing is working on your cast) but also had no luck getting any bites. Then we all headed back, slowly checking out various spots again from time to time.

I know what some of y’all are thinking. That’s HIGHLY anti-climatic. Well, it’s a giant lake and there is plenty more to explore, but it’s not like we were playing peek-a-boo with gators or dodging rocks in whitewater. It’s just a nice, peaceful place to kayak and explore nature.

Along the way, I found a Luna Moth out alive in the waves so I decided to help my karma a bit and picked it up and made for land to a small out-cropping of rocks and trees next to some girls sunning on a rock (OK, I’ll admit, being a guy I MAY have landed closer to them because they were good-looking and not because that was the ONLY out-cropping with a good tree for my new-found friend to dry off on. But, I did make sure to show them the little guy and they seemed pretty interested in checking him out so…)

Once our group of Bob and the parents got back to the boat landing, I decided to practice my rolling a bit and got in three good rolls before we headed back. Practice makes perfect they say and I want to make sure I can easily roll myself back over as I want to do more whitewater this summer and that is kind of an important skill to have at the ready. I really want to practice rolling back over without a paddle.

FYI, for anybody reading this who is interested in learning to roll or how to rescue yourself from a rolled over kayak, our club is having a rescue clinic on Saturday, June 21. When we get closer, I’ll post more about it. But it is an excellent time every year for people to try new boats they’ve never been in/on or to learn different techniques for rescuing yourself and others while out on the water. You can never be too safe or have too much water safety knowledge because that PFD and whistle will only help you so much.

After getting back, we all kind of did different things but I wasn’t ready for a nap, mostly because I knew if I napped now, I might not sleep as well later, so I went for a hike. It was a solid 2.5 miles or so and really let me see some cool things around the park. There are two real trails around Devils Fork and the one I took was quite… a challenge. When I say it was up-hill both ways, I’m not just blowing smoke. Sure, there were downhill portions as well, but it seemed like there were more up-hill portions than downhill so I got a solid workout in because of it. But, it allowed me to see more of the park and coast line between our campsite and the boat ramp we used to put in earlier.

I would definitely recommend giving Devils Fork State Park and Lake Jocassee a try for the camping and kayaking. I hope to go back again later in the summer to see the other side of the lake as well as try to find a few more waterfalls and animals.

Next up? Well, I honestly don’t know. Might have to start thinking about another first…

Rope swing and rolling video can be found HERE.