Congaree National Park!
A Swamp to Canoe Through
South Carolina is not where you might expect to canoe
through a Swamp! Congaree National Park’s
forest is one of the few “old growth” floodplain forests left. Being from Florida we have spent plenty of
time in low swampy waterways and we were looking forward to seeing what the
Congaree in South Carolina had to offer. We took the opportunity to go in March during our daughter's spring break even though we would only have a few days at the park and in the swamp. The canoeing was good for both couples and we
were not disappointed!
The Visitor Center opens at 9:00, but we wanted to get an
early start on the river – so a great idea was to register for the backcountry
permit the day before. They have maps of
the park and behind the counter they have a waterproof map of the “Congaree River
Blue Trail”. Actually these maps did not
help us very much! They did not have
enough detail for us to ascertain where we were. The recognizable landmarks were the bluffs at
the Heritage Park, the railroad bridge, and the one large sandbar only a mile
from the take out.
We were surprised when the Park staff told us that there
would be up to 10 portages that we would do on the 8 mile portion of Cedar
Creek before getting to the Congaree River.
(The creek from Bannister Bridge to Cedar Creek landing was reported to
have 30 portages! Glad we hadn't chosen that one!) Why so many portages?
Downed trees that haven’t been cleared away are the biggest obstacles in
the creek. We were glad that some of the
“portages” could be passed under or around and we ended up portaging just 4
times. Not too bad. Our next challenge was staying within the
Creek. The creek meanders through the
swamp often over the banks making it very difficult to be sure of which
direction to turn. There are some small
trail markers attached to trees in the creek here and there and when we saw one we were
reassured that we were going the right way. But there were a few times when we
had to double track a short distance back. Another time we found ourselves
canoeing against the flow of the water.
This does cause one to stop and ponder whether you are on the right
track or not. We were glad the water level was where it was (about 3.5 feet
according to the gauge) as we were sure to have gotten lost if more of the
creek was out of its banks.
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| How to Go Around, Under, or Over the Downed Trees! |
We started on a Friday morning in mid-March with a
temperature of 29 degrees. At the
visitor center, the famous "mosquito meter” read “mild”. It had a rating of 2 on a scale of 6. Weren't we lucky? The cold air was keeping
the mosquitoes at bay.
We loved the vegetation – the Bald Cypress and their knobby
knees, Tupelo with their fluted trunk bottoms (as one little girl told us, the
trees look like they are wearing skirts), dangling Spanish moss, resurrection
fern, dwarf palmetto, American Beech!
The dark tannic water of the cypress swamp, we
examine close up, as we meander slowly around the creek’s many bends. The life of the swamp was heard in the call
and pecking of the pileated woodpecker, and the consistent hooting of the
barred owl. An otter was also trying to
hide from us as it swam smoothly in and around cypress tree and tupelo trunks. We kept our eyes “out” for any other wildlife
we might see, particularly looking for any alligators. We are told they are here but it was
probably still too cold for them to be out.
A couple of times we did see small groups of the feral pigs that have
inundated the Park. They would
immediately scurry away when they saw we were nearby. This probably adds to the
difficulty of removing them from the Park.
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| We loved the knobby knees of the Bald Cypress! |
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Can you feel the cold, quiet morning?
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| Our daughter enjoying Cedar Creek |
As we paddled closer to the Congaree River, plastic bottles were
everywhere! It was just too
numerous. It was hard for us to think that
those who enjoy being outside would throw their trash into the river. We came across one dead, cormorant skeleton hanging in a tree wings spread – having been
caught by a hook left on a line to catch
fish without the person present.
Any experienced canoer would cringe to think that they would
only canoe 8 miles in 6 hours! With the
backtracking, portages, and slow life of the swamp – that is exactly how long
it took us. We were told that we would
reach Congaree River using Mazyck’s Cut, but nothing is marked, so worries
start clouding your mind and you think you are on the unmaintained part of the
creek beyond Mazyck’s Cut. If we were we
would not be able to know. But we
finally did reach the wide Congaree River.
Yeah! This part of the Congaree
River is part of the community’s Blue Trail.
The river was actually flowing at a good clip and we were ready to find
a good sand bar (of which we were told there were many) to camp. After canoeing for over an hour, we realized
that we were not going to find a sandbar – they were all mud. So we found some higher ground and camped
near a field of butterweed on the National Park side of the river. Open fires are not allowed in the park. Since the temperature had risen, the
mosquitoes did find us that evening as the sun set. We also woke to find that the river had risen
a foot and there was water in a gut very near the tent. We think that engineers are constantly
managing the water level on the Congaree River.
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| Our campsite among the Butterweed. |
We packed up our supplies, took photos of the butterweed,
and recommenced our trip down the Congaree River. With the quick flow of the river we estimated
that we did over 3 miles an hour. The
temperature rose to a glorious 70 sunny degrees in March. We saw evidence of corrals and corn feeders,
which we figured were used to cull the feral hogs that have overrun South
Carolina and specifically the National Park. We took a picnic where Bate’s
Ferry Trail reaches the Congaree. Next
to it is a small creek spanned by a dismantled wooden bridge. There was an open spaced grassy area that we
used for our picnic. Unfortunately people have used the nearby area too often for their
toilet, littering it with toilet paper.
As we picnicked there, we saw the only sandbar just across the river,
occupied by 3 different families. We
were only a mile from the take out. The take out spot has 2 ramps, a dock, and
was a busy place on a Saturday morning.
The last day we did 9 miles of the Congaree River in 2 ½ hours.
Early Spring proved to be the perfect time of year to spend
some time paddling in Congaree National Park.
We had some good wildlife viewing, had minimal mosquitoes, were challenged by some good paddling
punctuated with portages around downed trees, and enjoyed our time going
through the SWAMP! You ready for an adventure?
