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North Fork Edisto River March 27-28, 2004 |
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Way back in December a thread was started on P-Net proposing a trip down
the North Fork of the Edisto River. I’ve done a couple long distance solo
trips down some larger rivers and my girlfriend, Marisa, has done quite a
few out and back overnight trips so we figured the North Fork trip would
be a great opportunity to meet some new friends and experience a type of
paddle we hadn’t experienced yet. After a couple of months of back and forth on what route we’d eventually take the decision was ultimately made to make it a single-overnight paddle from the Highway 301 bridge on the west side of Orangeburg, SC down to the boat ramp where Highway 21 crosses over the Edisto. While reviewing the route on my topo maps I came up with a total mileage of about 39 miles, but this was just an estimate. The North Fork of the Edisto is a relatively narrow, black water (but actually pretty clear!) river that flows passively through the lowland of South Carolina. In some places the river is no more than 30 feet wide and during our trip (March 27-28) there were some areas that were wide and shallow (a couple of feet deep). We did the river at what I would guess to be the almost ideal flow since campsites were in relative abundance (the beautiful white sand bar has been found!!) but there was enough flow to keep a fair current pushing us along. The USGS gage at Orangeburg put the river at about 520 CFS and a gage height of 4.6 for our trip. With the river being so narrow the expectation was that trees falling across the river would require a few portages, but since it had been awhile since anyone had run the section below Orangeburg, just how many and how far the portages would be was somewhat of a mystery. The North Fork runs into the South Fork of the Edisto just west of Branchville, and at that point we could expect the river to widen out a bit and the bends to become a bit more gradual. Our planned route from the 301 bridge to the highway 21 bridge (the blue dot is our camp-site after Day 1):
Marisa and I arrived at the landing in Orangeburg a bit early and a few
minutes later another paddler, Alan, drove up. He was a member of the
SeaYakers paddling club although the paddle was sort of a P-Net inspired
paddle. Whatever the case, the more people the better! Soon the rest of
the group showed up. The roster would consist of Wayne (Swedge) who
organized and led the trip, Tripp (TrippS), Jonathan (Seatec), Alan,
myself (BeachAV8R), and Marisa for a total of six of us.
After everyone returned from the shuttle about an hour later we pushed off onto the river. Here is Tripp and Marisa with Alan in his kayak:
The first few hundred yards told the story immediately that this was going
to be a totally different paddle than what I (or Marisa) was used to. The
river was slow moving and serene, but with such a narrow width there is an
intimacy that my other trips lacked. Often the trees would form a canopy
over our heads and the Spanish moss draped over the limbs hung down and
brushed the surface of the river. This was MUCH better than the wide
rivers I had paddled before (the Catawba, Wateree, Santee and Savannah
Rivers).
Within a few turns we could see the challenges this river would provide.
Neither Marisa or I had ever paddled such a tightly constricted river and
the upper portion of the North Fork had plenty of strainers and sweepers
littering the path. Most of the time there would be a gap for us to paddle
under but a couple of times we were forced to do very short portages
either over or around downed trees.
A typical scene on the North Fork: Tripp again. He is one of those eternally helpful guys that you can tell within a few seconds of meeting that you are really going to like. Always there to help out and really skillful with his boat!
Marisa and Alan after our first portage. The tree in the background spanned the entire river and didn’t allow for any easy path through so we trekked around it. It was a very easy and short portage.
Swedge (Wayne) in his “All Terrain Kayak”. Swedge was our trip organizer and leader; a super-nice guy that is as big as line backer. He has a unique kayaking style where he basically shoves the river aside and makes his own holes! I’m pretty sure that if Swedge put his mind to it, he could have gone to the other end of the river and just pulled and straightened the whole zig-zagging mess out! Definitely a super strong paddler you could always count on Swedge to bore into the next hazard at full speed and scout it out for the rest of us. I really enjoyed talking with Swedge on Day 2 when we had a lot of “leisure paddle” time together.
About two-thirds of the way down on our
first day we had our first and only “incident” of the trip. Marisa was
still adjusting to the sharp turns and the need to alternately paddle hard
and aggressively back paddle. In her defense, she is paddling a Cape Horn
14 which has a full length chine down the center, which makes the boat
track beautifully straight during long open water paddles, but isn’t very
easy to turn. She hit one segment a little late and got tangled up in a
sweeper. She actually wasn’t overturned by the current and she stayed
upright for a good 30 seconds, but one of the branches was digging into
her skin and while she was leaning away trying to prevent it from punching
a hole in her she basically leaned out a bit too far and lost her
secondary stability. She went over quickly and exited in a split second.
The water was very cold but she was up and scrambling up onto the muddy
flat in seconds. Tripp was on the scene in a flash and helped corral her
boat and empty the cockpit. I was directly behind her when it happened and
I nosed into the mud and sprung over to help her up. I have to admit I was
scared to death when I saw her flip, but she popped up, shook herself off
and was more embarrassed than anything. It was a warm day (75 degrees
probably) and she was wearing all wicking clothing and she was dry and
warm in mere minutes.
With all the drama over we all got back in our boats and continued down the river. It was a learning experience for both Marisa and I and we were extra vigilant for the remainder of the trip. I was really proud of her for shaking it off, smiling and driving on. And many thanks to Tripp for being on the scene so fast! Everyone we paddled with on this trip were extremely helpful and skilled which really boosted our confidence and set our minds at ease.
Seatec (Jonathan) takes “point” for awhile and scouts out the river ahead. Seatec is hilarious and always has a great story to tell. His story of him and Tripp paddling to Caper’s Island is really funny, especially the part about the GPS floating by..(!):
A short while later we came across another tree down that required a
unique portage “over the top”. With Swedge and Tripp orchestrating the
portage we would each individually approach the downed log. While they
stabilized the kayak the paddler would exit, perch on the log and with
Swedge’s help pull the kayak across the log and place it in the water on
the other side. Then Tripp and Swedge would again stabilize the kayak
while the paddler re-entered the cockpit. It worked really well and saved
us a long and difficult drag through the woods to bypass the jam.
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As the day gave way to afternoon word passed down the line that we’d be
looking for a good campsite. Swedge located a nicely elevated, flat area
with gradual banks to pull up on. It was refreshing to have made camp
early enough in the day to allow everything to be set up in the waning
daylight as opposed to paddling to the last minute of daylight and
settling on whatever mud-flat is available (I’m guilty of doing that a
lot!). The site Swedge picked was perfect and allowed for all of us to
spread out enough that we weren’t crowding one another. Soon we had a central campfire going and we all started preparing our meals. We had a few extra burgers and chocolate bars to pass out! Marisa & Swedge:
We had a great time chowing down and swapping stories across the fire and
reviewed the days paddle. Tripp had to get going early the next morning
because he had a commitment to a family event and he needed to be at the
take-out no later than 2 pm. We agreed to get an early start and we all
hit the sack a bit after 9 pm.
Seatec, Tripp and Alan head out a bit before us on Sunday:
The trip photographer/videographer enjoying a
warm cup of hot cocoa in the morning:
Day 2 was an absolutely stunning day with bright blue skies, not a cloud
in the sky and a temperature of about 80 degrees. The river constricted in
several places and there were a couple of tight squeezes and “bunny jumps”
over some fallen logs, but the portages of the previous day were not to be
seen.
We made good time as we approached the confluence with the South Fork. Here I am after having finally relinquished the camera for a few minutes:
Sandbars were abound on the lower portion of the North Fork, offering a good opportunity to take a bathroom break and stretch our legs:
The scenery around every bend was beautiful, sprinkled with small riverside communities with all kinds of interesting river folks.
Swedge passes a bouquet of trees sprouting from a small islet: We reached the confluence with the South Fork near mid-day and there was a noticeable change in the river as it widened out slightly and the bends rounded out and weren’t nearly as sharp. Without the benefit of the overhanging trees the sun beat down on us and Marisa and I went for the sunscreen. Swedge cools his heels in the water as we start considering a lunch break: You can see the stain of the high-water mark on the trees as Marisa paddles by; finding camp sites at that water level might be much more of a challenge:
We had one exciting point about an hour before the take-out where the
river constricted straight through a cut-through and the current picked
up. The water really started to churn and there were some pretty good
aggressive strokes to slalom through some obstacles and an exciting hop
over a bouncing log that spanned the river and churned up a few standing
waves. It was exhilarating and Marisa was grinning as she hit every move
just perfect! Marisa and Swedge at the take-out: We had a great time on our paddle and really enjoyed the new experience of
paddling with a group of great people and on such a unique and beautiful
river. Everyone made us feel really welcomed despite our being the “new
people” on the trip. The whole trip was a learning experience for both
Marisa and I and we would love to do another (the hamburgers were a bribe
attempt for being invited back!).
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