canoeing the congaree

In our quest to fit in a couple more southeast trips before we move, we decided to canoe the largest remnant of old-growth floodplain forest remaining on the continent... South Carolina's Congaree National Park, a baby park just founded in 2003.

I had never canoed before, so I suppose you wouldn't be suprised to hear that we tipped our canoe the first day! Yikes! We both leaned at the same time to dodge a spider web in a hanging branch! The water was actually very refreshing, but looking back I am very glad that at that point I wasn't aware of the aligators and poisonous snakes that can be in the creek.

The weather was gorgeous; the scenery was beautiful although a bit challenging with many s-curves in the creek, the current, overhanging branches and fallen trees. Our adventures included balancing on a log as we lifted the canoe over to continue down the creek.

The second day we passed closely by a large copperhead perched on a stick on the creekbank, a water moccasin in an overhanging branch (that was a close one!), and a red-bellied water snake (which was really cool to see swimming across the water). Once we got our technique down we were able to avoid hanging branches and spider webs in a much more graceful fashion and got through the second day without getting wet... just muddy.

That's just an overview of our trip. Perhaps next time we talk, we'll get into the stories of the crazy ranger on the night owl prowl and the worst storyteller ever.