Capers Island Kayaking

January 2005

Capers Island is located just off the coast of Charleston, SC and is a relatively short paddle up the Intercoastal Waterway from the Isle of Palms Marina. Since Marisa had to work I made this trip solo and the plan was to spend Sunday and Monday night on the island returning on Tuesday.

As luck would have it, on Saturday evening I was paged to fly a trip from Kissimmee, FL to Baltimore and I didn’t arrive back in Charlotte until about 5AM on Sunday. Not wanting to miss my trip I just packed my car, threw the kayak on the roof and headed down to Charleston.

I already knew the tide tables for the period I was going to be paddling and unfortunately the tide was going to be dead low and starting to rise on my paddle out to Capers Island.

With only about a 1 mph current against me it only took about 2 hours to leisurely paddle out to Capers and I arrived just after noon on Sunday. Learning the lesson from our last Capers Island trip I continued out the inlet through a small “cheat” canal that the currents had formed and went out around the southern point of the island to a great campsite that we had spied on our previous trip to the island. The weather was beautiful with a bit of a sea fog occasionally scudding across the sky, but the temperatures hovered near 70 degrees.

Arrival on the island (do you have a flag!?). You can see the little “cheat” canal behind the kayak which allowed for a sheltered swing around the island from the inlet. Unfortunately the low tide meant a long drag across the sand up to the camp site.

My campsite was right up around the corner of the north side of the island.  I had to drag my boat from the low tide water across a hundred yards of beach up above the high tide mark.  Nestled in among the pine trees my campsite was in the perfect location.

At low tide you can see there are massive amounts of stumps and downed trees in the surf line, apparently victims of hurricane Hugo way back in 1989. Apparently it re-shaped a significant part of the seaward side of the island.  Whatever the case, you sure wouldn't want to attempt a surf landing in a kayak with all that debris in the surf zone!

The beach is totally pristine, with no occupants on the island the 3+ mile length of the island is a shell collectors dream. I only saw a total of about 6 people for my entire stay on the island; people that just spent a couple hours walking the beach looking for shells before returning to their boats on Sunday.

A nasty surprise awaits underwater during high tide if you come across one of these oyster shell beds. The razor sharp shells will slice your boat up pretty good, never-mind what they would do to your feet!!

On Sunday I pretty much just set up camp, cooked dinner (cheese-burgers and beans!) and went to bed early at around 6PM because I had been awake for 28 hours or so. I slept for a full 13 hours, recovering from a few nights of night shift during the previous week. The night was cool and bundled up in my sleeping bag I was at the perfect temperature.
 

Monday I rose early and cooked breakfast (eggs and hash-browns) before setting off for an exploratory hike of the island. I walked a couple miles up the beach (north) before coming across a dirt road that entered into the dark tangle of barrier island woods. Walking along the road under the canopy of the trees was incredible; it was very peaceful. The road bisected the island and there were several off-shoots that wandered off in directions parallel to the beach. I continued to the termination of the road which ended at a park service maintenance facility that appeared to be unoccupied. This was located on the waterway side of the island. Heading back south through the center of the island I came across what appeared to be an alligator trap, but nothing was in it.

A little later on during my stroll across the interior of the island I saw this 7 footer laying in the mud on the side of one of the swashes.

I resisted any urges to play Steve Irwin and jump on his back and continued to the dock at the end of the island before reversing direction and completing the loop back to my camp-site.

Back at camp I ate some lunch and shared some Combos with my new friend.

I walked around the beach for a bit in the late afternoon looking for “the perfect shell” but my standards must have been much too high since nothing leapt into my pockets.

As the sun set I built a small fire to warm up to and made dinner (cheese-burgers again..delicious!)

I went to bed at around 9PM knowing that I had an early morning wake-up on Tuesday. In the middle of the night, around midnight, I awoke to a sniff-sniffing sound outside my tent. Rolling over and trying to be quiet I must have made too much noise and scared the intruder away. A few minutes lying still though and he came back. Back-lit on top of a sand-dune I could see the wily raccoon making his way down toward my camp-site. He scampered over to my kayak, deftly pulled the cockpit cover off and grabbed my plastic baggie with 2 bagels in it! He was off for the woods as I tried to untangle myself from my sleeping bag and get the zipper open on the tent. He was long gone by the time I got my shoes and headlamp on. So much for breakfast.

I went back to bed and slept soundly until the raccoon made a return visit at around 3AM, I chased him off and he didn’t come back. My alarm went off at the un-Godly hour of 4:45. I had to get up that early in order to catch the incoming tide back into the inlet so that I would have an easier paddle back to the marina.

I quickly broke camp and was on the water by 5AM. It was pretty nerve wracking pointing out into the small surf in the pitch blackness. With the uneven contours of the bottom there was no telling how shallow or deep the water was so the waves broke unpredictably. In the pitch black dark I couldn’t see the waves coming so it was very dicey. The current, as planned, was sweeping me sideways into the channel between Dewees Island and Capers and soon I was in the safety of the calm inlet headed for the intercoastal waterway. Paddling along in the dark the light of Charleston gave a warm yellow glow to the south-western sky and it was very peaceful and quiet paddling along in the inky blackness. My bow wave and paddle strokes stirred up phosphorescence in the water and it was mesmerizing to watch it twirl about into my wake.

I stuck to the south side (left) of the ICW very close to the shore because of a barge and tug team that was slowly closing on me from behind. The glow of his hugely powerful spotlight swept across the tidal flats and buoys marking the channel and it was very cool. I was probably making about 4 to 5 mph and he must have only been doing 7 or 8 because I actually arrived at the marina after an hour and a half and he was still a good quarter mile behind me.

I had the car loaded up by about 7AM as the sun was turning the eastern sky pink and headed back to Charlotte.

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