We traded out our usual whitewater boats in favor of a canoe on a late October weekend for an enjoyable paddle out to Capers Island Heritage Preserve, a barrier island off the coast of the South Carolina Lowcountry. My cousin Becky Shannon was kind enough to host us the night before since she lives in West Ashley, only about a half hour from where we would be launching.
On the way down to Charleston and Becky’s we stopped to visit Beidler Forest, an 18,000 acre nature preserve owned by the Audubon Society. I had always wanted to see it but had never gotten the chance. We spent about 2 hours walking along the boardwalk that passes over top of the old-growth cypress-tupelo swamp forest and enjoyed learning about this unique ecosystem and looking for the birds and animals that inhabit it. We had been lent binoculars at the visitor’s center and were thankful to have them because it let us zoom in on a sun basking alligator in a pond. Immediately after we saw the alligator a barred owl landed just a few feet away from us, its lunch, some sort of rodent, in its talons. It was seemingly unphased by us and chowed down on its meal right next to us before flying off to a nearby tree to rest and digest. Its wingspan was impressive!
On our way back to the visitor’s center an employee appeared on the boardwalk about 50 yards in front of us and very calmly but firmly announced for us to stop because there was a water moccasin somewhere between us and him. We didn’t have to be told twice and stopped in our tracks, heads on a swivel. Snake stick in hand, the employee inched forward along the boardwalk in search of the snake. What he found (about 10 yards in front of us) was a nonvenomous, shy, and very common, brown water snake. A visitor that had passed by her previously had made the common mistake of misidentifying her. He invited us up to her and pointed out the features that often get them confused with water moccasins (a long mouth which enables them to grip onto fish gives them more of a triangular head which people mistake for a venomous snake as well as their shorter and wider body). She seemed nonplussed by our impromptu nature class and lay politely coiled so we could learn about her. The employee decided she was fine where she was and didn’t need to be shooed off the boardwalk since the center was about to close for the day. We headed back to the car and plugged in Becky’s address into the GPS.
We made it to Becky’s without much trouble which was surprising since it was a Friday afternoon in the Charleston area. When we arrived we were greeted (?) by Becky’s dogs. One of them, BooBoo, the sweet little mix, is always happy to see us, and the other one… well, not so much. PJ is a seven pound Chihuahua with anger management issues so she spends the whole time shrieking at us to get out of her house and to never come back. The only thing that calms her down is when Becky puts her in the wearable baby sling and she is swaddled tightly against Becky’s body.
We thoroughly enjoyed getting to see her and hear about her culinary trip to Italy that she had taken over the summer as part of a program with the community college where she is taking culinary classes. (Becky is a full time database administrator at the Medical University of SC but manages to also take the culinary classes and man oh man has it paid off! Anytime we have gone to her house there are delicious baked goods galore.)
We decided to get dinner at a nearby sushi restaurant and it was fantastic. We got a spicy tuna dumpling appetizer that came on top of jalapeno guacamole, a handful of sushi rolls, and a chicken and vegetable tempura platter to share. We all shared stories of our European adventures from the summer and had fun comparing and contrasting experiences. Becky’s depiction of Italy made Scott and I want to put the country on our short-list of countries to visit on future trips. We made it home and Becky served us cake that one of the culinary students had made in the “Advanced Cake” class. It was a checkerboard raspberry cake and was covered in thick sweet buttercream icing. It was delightful. We chatted a bit more and then went to bed to hopefully get a good night’s sleep since we both knew that the beach camping the next night might not make for the best rest.
Saturday morning Becky fed us breakfast (bacon, homemade bread/toast, and eggs) and made sure we had plenty of coffee before sending us off on our canoe camping adventure. She sent us with pieces of cake from the night before and I joked that that’s what would get me through the return paddle- knowing I had tasty cake awaiting me in the cooler in the car. We made the short drive over to the put-in and parking area which was a straight shot down the “Sweetgrass Basket Makers Highway,” aka Highway 17, where a 7 mile stretch of road is dotted and lined with huts that are home to, as the name suggests, sweetgrass basket sewers. They set up along the highway in hopes of selling their beautiful handwoven baskets, a passed down Gullah tradition, to tourists.
Once we arrived at the Gadsenville Road put-in and parking lot, we didn’t have to wait long. Joey Geiger was the trip leader and pulled in right after we did. Scott and I were happy that he would be leading us and could impart his expertise to navigate our way through the complex labyrinth of tidal creeks and marshes on the 3.5 mile outbound paddle to the island where we would be camping that night.
Packing for this trip was a new experience for me. I am accustomed to the convenience of car camping where you can basically squirrel away as much food, clothing, bedding, camping equipment, frosty beverages, and creature comforts as you wish, constrained only by the vehicle size. To spend a night on an island that is only accessible by boat is a whole nother story. And we would be in sea kayaks and/or canoes… no party barges or cabin cruisers for this crew. So some thoughtful packing was necessary. Scott and Joey both have backpacking experience and that is essentially how you had to treat it: pare down your gear to the barest necessities and be mindful of the weight.
I probably drove Scott crazy leading up to the trip since I lacked a frame of reference for how much would fit into our canoe and my moment of realization came on our test packing run earlier in the week. What do you mean I couldn’t bring the big cooler we normally camp with? And wait a minute! I hadn’t even considered the idea of sleeping on anything other than my cushy trifold mattress, what is this nonsense about a measly Thermarest blow up sleeping pad?
So only the barest of necessities got to come along and it still amounted to a whole lot of gear that still had to fit into the boats. Joey takes the cake on packing though because he managed to bring an entire bundle of firewood in his sea kayak. 
We loaded our boats and were ready to depart. The paddle out to the island took just a little over an hour to make because the tide was outgoing and carried us helpfully along with it. Right after crossing over the Intracoastal Waterway channel (we had to paddle swiftly because there were commercial shrimp boats trolling this watery interstate) we were treated to a dolphin sighting. It breached just a dozen or so yards in front of us- so close that we could see its dark eyes, the shimmer of its smooth gray skin, and hear the expelling of water and subsequent intake of breath through its blowhole as it glided through the water and up to the surface.
Once we got close to the island the breaking waves of the Atlantic ocean greeted us. Joey was able to keep paddling through the breakers in his sea kayak but Scott and I opted to get out of our canoe and “leash walk” our canoe along the shore until we were closer to the area where we would be camping to avoid the risk of getting flipped and swamped. We made it to the designated camping part of the island and pulled our boats up onto the beach (they were heavier than you would think considering how little we were able to bring). It was time to explore and set up camp!
We had been advised by some campers already on the island to avoid the wooded area because the mosquitos were worse there because of the vegetation. Scott and I picked an area that was above the high tide line and not too close to the woods and Joey found some trees a little outside the woods to hang his camping hammock. We did a quick camp setup and then went to check out the “boneyard” beach which is an area of the island where the shore has been eroded away by the tides, winds, and hurricanes and have left dead trees on the shore. Some are still rooted and are in varying degrees of uprightness, and some are driftwood. At high tide the waves crash dramatically into the trees. The overall effect at either tide is a little eerie and looks like an abstract art exhibit. 
After doing some island exploration and a quick swim, Scott and I hung up our hammocks in trees we found on the boneyard and Joey continued exploring. After an enjoyable nap and some downtime in the hammocks Joey made his way back over to where we were and asked if we had moved his stuff. Specifically, if we had taken his camping hammock down and moved his bag of clothes, sleeping mag, and mosquito net. We definitely had not done that but strangely, someone had. Thankfully (but also strangely) the bag with his wallet, keys, and marine radio were untouched. We were all perplexed by the disappearance of his equipment and started hypothesizing about what might have happened and who might have done it. We couldn’t really come up with a reasonable or logical explanation but the theory we decided on was that someone packed it up thinking it was either theirs or their friends. But most importantly, where was it now and what should we do?
We all started off down the beach to talk to the other island campers and see if they had any clues. We were guessing that it must have been one of the guys that was in the camping spot that Joey had taken over once they left so we were in search of them or anyone that might have seen them (one was on a jet ski and one was on a standup paddleboard). While we were speaking with the other campers Joey received multiple phone calls from an unknown number. He finally answered and lo and behold it was the guy that had mistakenly grabbed his stuff. He was still on the island and was actually just a few yards away from Joey. They connected and the guy apologized profusely- his friend had asked him to bring his gear bag to him since he was on his SUP fishing on the other side of the island and he had mistakenly grabbed Joey’s stuff in addition to his friends. Thankfully they discovered it before they left the island but the guy assured us he would have come back with it as soon as they realized the mistake. The guys gave Joey a pound of bacon as a consolation prize and we all got a good laugh out of the experience. I was quite impressed by how composed Joey stayed- I think I would have been in panic mode! 
We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, entertaining ourselves with hammocking, dips in the ocean, and strolls down the beach. The mosquitos that we had been warned of appeared about 5 pm and Scott and Joey set up the Nemo Bugout tent that Scott had brought to give us respite from the little vampires who were relentless in their pursuit of our blood. From our safe haven we were able to make our dinners and still enjoy the beach and waves. We made a little campfire outside the tent which in theory helped deter the mosquitos, but in reality I don’t think they were discouraged one bit. Despite the mosquitos we were still able to enjoy the sunset and the changing colors over the ocean and island as the sun retreated were beautiful. After the sunset, we retired to our tents and hammocks, tired but satisfied after a fun day. 
Once in our tent, Scott and I started off the night enjoying the amazingly bright and full moon directly above us, as we had opted to keep the fly off the tent. However, a few hours later after we were awoken both by one of our camping neighbors’ drones rudely buzzing overhead at 1 am, and the dripping condensation that had formed inside our tent and was now sporadically plopping down onto us (also rude), Scott had to grab the fly and put it over the tent so that we could actually sleep. (Joey reported later at breakfast the next morning that he had been sleeping well until the drone woke him up- he at first thought it was a dramatically bright shooting star until it took a hard right turn and buzzed away.)
The brightening sky awoke us the next morning and we were all outside of our tents to witness the sun break spectacularly over the Atlantic ocean horizon. Seeing the sunrise through the limbs and trunks of the dead trees of the boneyard was quite a sight. Once it started to rise it dramatically climbed higher and higher. The mosquitos were ready and waiting for us again so we escaped into the Bugout tent again for our coffee and breakfast. After breakfast it was time to break down our camp and pack up because we needed to catch the high tide for the paddle back out to the mainland. 
Everything was covered in sand and the mosquitos were still out in full force which made packing less than enjoyable but we got it done. We decided to hand walk our boats to the end of the island to avoid the breakers that were assaulting us as best we could which was still quite the task. The waves were determined to knock us off our feet and swamp our canoe and Joey didn’t have that much of an easier time. When we got around the corner of the island to the calmer channel, we beached the boats to bail them out. Thankfully both Joey and Scott had good bilge pumps and we were able to get enough water out to make them usable again. As we were pumping out the boats we spotted a bald eagle on a telephone pole near us, seemingly gazing down on us and watching what we were doing. A few minutes later another one flew by it and they vocalized to each other. (They don’t sound like TV and the movies make them sound like- they are much more high pitched and whistley. Fun fact- usually the sound you hear them making on TV, commercials, or movies is actually a red-tailed hawk call dubbed over their own calls.)
We got into our somewhat free of water boats and started the paddle back to Mount Pleasant. Joey had pointed out a red roof on the shoreline the day before that would be a helpful beacon and we used it to guide us through the maze of marshes and tidal creeks. Just a little ways into our paddle we were treated to another dolphin show, this time it appeared that an entire pod was nearby from the looks of it. We stopped for a bit to watch them, just as mesmerized as we had been yesterday.
With only a little bit of directional challenge we found the routes through the marshes and over the Intracoastal Waterway and back into the creek that led to our take out and awaiting cars (and cake). This paddle, because of the route that we took, was closer to 4 miles and took us nearly 2.5 hours because of the tide. Thankfully there was no wind which would have made it quite treacherous and that’s what Joey had experienced on his previous trips to Capers Island. Once we were back to the takeout we unpacked all of our wet and sandy gear into our vehicles, loaded up the boats, said our goodbyes, and headed home. Scott and I enjoyed such a different type of paddling experience and were so appreciative that Joey was there to lead it. I highly recommend the trip to anyone that is considering doing it in the future, just bring your most potent bug spray!
Epilogue: The cake was patiently waiting for us in our cooler just as it had promised us it would and we devoured it on the ride home. We were famished, or at least I was, after the paddle home, and the cake hit the spot. So to whichever talented Trident Technical College culinary student so kindly and expertly made that sweet sweet raspberry treat and passed it along to Becky, we salute you and give you an A+ on your advanced cake.
