Paddle Day 86: Cypress Bogs and Historical Homes

Peaceful cypress swamp

Pleasant paddling down the river through a cyprus swamp, to arrive at historical home in Georgetown.

Mark and his mother, Alice

My peaceful reverie while paddling through the uninhabited swamp was broken by the occasional passing power boat.  Most would give me a wide berth, but one came straight at me, despite my attempt to get out of it's way.  I was starting to panic when I heard a deep southern accent saying, "Dr. Walters?".  It turned out to be Mark and his mother, Alice, coming out to great me.  He had heard about my trip and had been following my blog.  I was behind in getting my blog posts out, but he checked the Delorme website to see my tracks, and realized I was passing his area.  So he took off from work and boated out to see if he could find me.  What a wonderful welcome chat we had there on the water!

Dopey and the Harbor Reserve Yacht Club

At the end of an easy day paddling with the current, I arrived at the Harbor Reserve Yacht Club and saw the boat of a power squadron member I had just met in Socastee.  Hy hosts, Nat and Marsha from Georgetown met me there and drove me down to Nate's family home in historic Georgetown.

Kaminski home, shaded by palms and magnolias

It was great fun hearing about the history of the town and the area.  Every house had a fascinating story.

Porch where Swamp Fox fought the British

They showed me the upstairs porch where Swamp Fox fought the British.  Frances Marian surprised the British at night.  The aim was to capture British soldiers to use in prisoner swaps.  But the British had just publicly whipped their American captives, which deeply offended Swamp Fox's sense of war etiquette.  So when one English officer tried to escape by running out to the second story porch to jump down and run away, Swamp Fox's men surrounded him and were about to kill him.  The young women the officer had been sleeping with ran out onto the porch, robed only in her long flowing curls and plead for his life.  The American's succumbed to her charm and let the British officer live.

Nat and Marsha's side porch, with joggling board

I learned about the joggling board, a device from Scotland whose first use was for patients to lie on and have their body joggled back into shape.  Then it was used as a courting device with the girl sitting at one end of the seven foot long board, and the boy at the other and they joggled until they met in the middle.  Finally, young children were seated on the board when they were dressed in their Sunday finest, so that they could bounce around and have fun without getting dirty.

I had a chance to speak at the Georgetown Rotary Club, a very active and friendly group of folks who joined me for a lovely dinner.  Imagine eating in an outside courtyard in January!

Outdoor courtyard dining with Rotarians

Paddle Day: 86

Date: Jan 5, 2015

Start: Socastee, SC                                          
End: Pawley's Island, SC
Distance: 18.3 miles                                                   
Paddle, hike, bike distance: 1225.6 miles
Motor portaged: 264 miles
Total distance: 1489.6 miles
Max speed:  7.2 mph                                               
Moving ave.: 3.8 mph
Kayak storage: Reserve Harbor Yacht Club                    
Hosts: Nat and Marsha Kaminski