The South - Part Deux

The South, part deux

In case you didn’t notice from the Mi'ssippi-'Bama-Georgia blog post…we kinda struggle in the South. The people are nice, but if you’re looking for non-Lake/fishing outdoors activities, you generally need a bit of an inside scoop.  There's less to see especially if you are not focusing on visiting Civil War battlefield sites (it’s a bit annoying to see so many Confederate battle flags and road names and read some of the signs glorifying the rebellious [some might say "traitorous"] South).  Plus; our focus has been visiting National Forests and National Park Service sites; there are simply much fewer of these in the east, and especially the south.  On the plus side for us, we have some great friends in the area, and we charted our path to see them.

serious funsies 

After leaving Jacksonville, the state of Georgia promised visits with our friends the Londons in Richmond Hills, and the Newhouses in Augusta. For such friends, going out of our way is on our way; we went east again just to head west, to return back east.  Sometimes the shortest distance between two friends is a zig zag line and it was well worth the traveling! We had great visits and of course great food.  Thanks again Angela for the homemade kimchi and cookies!  Mike and Ashley met us at Rhineharts for some Georgia fried food, and we took the opportunity to revisit our favorite cake place in the entire country.  If you're ever within, oh, 50 miles of Augusta, stop at the Boll Weevil for some coffee-toffee cake; you’re welcome in advance!

Our waterfront home at Strom Thurmond Lake.  We put the boats in right from our campsite.  

While in Augusta we got out to play a little bit in our kayaks and on the mountain bikes.  There are some beautiful campgrounds run by the Corps of Engineers on Strom Thurmond lake, where we once again demonstrated our continued inability to catch a fish.  And from Dawn's year in Augusta we already knew about the Forks Area Trail System (FATS) just across the river in South Carolina, so went back to play. The mountain biking trails through the woods there are super fun, and since our mountain bike handling skills are getting a skosh better, we had an absolute blast playing out there.

The boardwalk in Congaree National Park.  Not a swamp, a "floodplain."

Jake on a branch.  

Columbia SC is only about an hours drive from Augusta, and even though we had visited there before, somehow we missed that there’s a National Park just on the outskirts of town. Congaree National Park is a hidden gem. It’s a small park and definitely just a day trip sort of place with tent camping areas.  That morning we decided to do a trail run in the park – as usual, it was a fun way to see the park. We saw some fish and turtles in Weston Lake and all sorts of woodpeckers on our run. We were also very, very glad we visited during low mosquito season because while it’s “not a swamp, but a floodplain,” there sure is a whole lot of water and places that would make 'skeeters happy.

So green in the floodplain. 

Our trail run left us time to play in the kayaks on Cedar Creek, one of the rivers in the park.  The creek was more open than some of the mangrove trails we kayaked in Florida.  There were no gator sightings, but we did see a rather fat, maybe 4 or 5 foot long snake propped up on some branches. Not sure if he/she was hunting fish, turtles, or kayakers, and we didn't stop to ask.  About a mile and a half downstream, there was a decent sized tree blocking the creek and since we were not interested in portaging around it, we turned around and toodled back toward our put-in point. While in the boats we spent a bit of time feeding the fish; as in, we’d cast out our lines, get some nibbles, and find that the flippered fauna had a worm snack on us.  In a brief moment of stunned glory, Dean finally managed to catch one.  We'd like to tell you it was a whopper, but it was really about the size of his hand so we let the little guy live to tell the tale.  It was a great day on the water, even if our worms had a bad day.

Behold the flippered creature in all its majesty. 

Next stop: Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Mammoth Cave National Park.