South Carolina Swans and Swamps

The Coscoroba

Black Swan

After a long, cold winter and four months at home, we were ready to resume our travels. David had fixed everything he could think of on the trailer and even a few long-standing items on the house. Nevertheless, it’s always a scramble to get out the door, and there are always things left undone, for whatever reason. The casters David put underneath the trailer did their job and made getting out of our steep driveway easier and faster. We left mid-day on a Friday. David remarked several times how much easier it was to drive south than north. We encountered no low bridges! And no tolls for that matter! He did have to adjust to the new radial tires, which are squishier than the bias-ply tires that came with the trailer and caused the trailer to fishtail in the windy conditions we were driving in. We arrived before dark without mishap to our first campground--Poinsett State Park in South Carolina. 

The woods all around were made up of tall skinny pines dripping with Spanish moss. They looked like moss trees. Flurries of squirrels dashed about everywhere, causing the cats to rush from one side of the trailer to the other to watch them through the windows. That night we slept well on our new 4” foam mattress topper that we had bought to put on top of the uncomfortable wire-sticking-you mattress that came with the trailer. It’s the same width, but longer, so it hangs over the edge and fills the few inches of space there is between the end of the bed and the wall. But it provides a little support to David’s feet, which also hang over the bed.

The day after we arrived, we drove to nearby Sumter to visit Swan Lake Iris Gardens, where eight species of swans live, and irises bloom in May. Only the tips of the irises were visible, but we saw six or seven swan species. It’s a pretty place just to walk around in with trails around the lake and a boardwalk through a swampy area. The many camellia bushes were blooming as well as a couple cherry trees and saucer magnolias. When the other trees have leaves and the irises bloom would be an especially nice time to visit.

That afternoon we got out our bikes and started looking for a trail that appeared on our map to run near the campground. After getting a little lost, we found it, but it was sandy and difficult to bike (for me). All around us the ground was black, the air was smokey and, to add to the surrealness, several small fires still burned. The area had recently been burned as part of the park’s prescribed burning program. 

The following day we went to Congaree National Park to hike and canoe. Congaree is a big (24,000 acres) swamp, one of the last remaining tracts of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the U.S. We had been here many years ago, and I remember its being dark, foreboding and mysterious. This time, it seemed bright and airy, probably because we were here in early spring, before the trees had leaves. The principal tree here is the bald cypress, which loses its needles in winter (hence its name). 

In the morning we walked the boardwalk through the swamp, and in the afternoon we went on a ranger-guided canoe trip. I had reservations about canoeing in late February, but it turned out to be a record-breaking warm day with the added plus of no bugs! 

The black river (Cedar Creek) we canoed on was flat and slow-moving, and the pace was leisurely (a bit too leisurely for us or should I say David). The volunteer guides spotted several brown water snakes lounging on limbs overhanging the river and pointed out other interesting highlights we would have missed on our own. On the way back to the put-in David paddled vigorously while one of the volunteers chased after us.