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Georgia or South Carolina in mid November?

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i have two weeks in mid November that I can use to get away and do some paddling here in the east coast. I am looking at Georgia or South Carolina for some flatwater paddling or canoe sailing. Car camping or backcountry, either would work. Any suggestions from the experienced paddlers out there?
 
I grew up in the Carolinas (and tidewater Virginia) but I haven't paddled there in November. Okefenokee NWR is awesome. In S.C., the Edisto River area is nice (blackwater rivers), and the Congaree. A nice but small gem is the upper reaches of Lake Juniper in Cheraw State Park--nice cypress swamp. I've been meaning to go back there (and paddle the Everglades), but the idea of driving back East is demoralizing (from Montana).
 

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i have two weeks in mid November that I can use to get away and do some paddling here in the east coast. I am looking at Georgia or South Carolina for some flatwater paddling or canoe sailing. Car camping or backcountry, either would work. Any suggestions from the experienced paddlers out there?

Greg, I haven’t done much in (eastern) Georgia, other than Cumberland Island Nat’l Seashore, an odd barrier island with even odder history, and Crooked River State Park

Cumberland Island NS
https://www.nps.gov/cuis/index.htm

Crooked River State Park (watch out for submarines)
https://gastateparks.org/CrookedRiver

In South Carolina there is Edisto and Four Hole Swamp of course. We have used Carolina Heritage Outfitter for shuttle service.

http://canoesc.com/

Or no-shuttle Sparkleberry Swamp at the far end of Lake Marion.

https://www.scpictureproject.org/sumter-county/sparkleberry-swamp.html

Also in SC the Waccamaw, especially the upper section from Lake Waccamaw down into SC. Not sure about a shuttle there, I’ve always had a friend. Much of the 30 miles downstream of the NC/SC border is owned by the Waccamaw River Heritage Reserve and managed by the State, with paddle-in camping permitted within the Reserve area (5000+ acres). Camping is also (need permit) allowed along 27,000 acres of Waccamaw NWF downstream of Conway.

Don’t overlook North Carolina in November, maybe my favorite temperate month to paddle NC. The few North Carolinians I see on the water in November are dressed in layers and shivering while I’m in shorts and a tee shirt thinking about putting sunscreen on.

North Carolina does an admirable job with State “Paddler Parks” and with Wildlife Boating Access areas, designated pull off and parking along paddle-able rivers for launching small boats, often every other bridge crossing or so.

The Lumber River is one such North Carolina “Paddler’s Park”. There are a couple private shuttle services available, and a couple of nice walk-in sites along the river at the Princess Ann access/campground (site 7 or 8 recommended).

https://www.ncparks.gov/lumber-river-state-park

Hammocks Beach SP in North Carolina is another, in-out no shuttle needed and Assateague-esque, but far less visited in November. Not a very long paddle in, but a wonderful place, especially to run up a sail. Sites #8 or 9 if you want bbeachfroont just behind the tall Atlantic dunes, or (my favorite) site #12 on the route in, far enough away from the beach not to be sand blasted.

https://www.ncparks.gov/hammocks-beach-state-park

Or even little Merchants Millpond SP, often described as “a gem of the highest magnitude”, also a paddle in-out no shuttle needed. Individual Sites # 2 or 3 recommended. The group sites are even nicer still, but need a minimum group size of 8 people.

https://www.ncparks.gov/merchants-millpond-state-park

For day sailing maybe Pettigrew State Park and the oft breezy 16,000 acre Lake Phelps. Don’t steal the display of firewood stacked outside the plantation slave cabin (we had good reasons).

https://www.ncparks.gov/pettigrew-state-park

If in the Carolinas a Pocosin Pond (aka Bay Lake or Carolina Bay, hereabouts a Maryland Basin or DeMarVa Bay; geeze, I’ll just stick with Pocosin Pond) is worth a visit. This Wiki description and Robeson County NC LIDAR image is freaky enough to want to know more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_bays

Jones Lake is essentially a Pocosin Pond State Park bordering Jones Lake. Salters Lake is another Pocosin pond within the Park; if you ask the Rangers will lead you in, unlocking dirt road gates along the way, asking you to close up when you drive back out. Unblemished/undeveloped Pocosin Ponds have fascinating features, and too many are developed at the more desirable sandy beach end.

There are 500,000 of them along the eastern coastal plain, something not fully appreciated until the advent of flying over in early bi-planes. Looking down those early pilots must have been WTF?

The Jones Lake SP Visitor’s Center and information about Pocosin Ponds is among the best State Park visitor displays I have seen, worth a long look to appreciate what weirdness you are paddling. And may have Delmarva paddled in the past without realizing.

https://www.ncparks.gov/jones-lake-state-park

Or Singletary Lake SP for a Pocosin Pond day trip (group camping only)

https://www.ncparks.gov/singletary-lake-state-park

Jones Lake SP is happily a short drive from the best paddling on NC’s Black and South Rivers. Two of the finest blackwater streams I have ever paddled. No shuttle service that I know of, but you could put in at Hunts Bluff or Henry’s Landing and easily paddle upstream into the Three Sisters area

https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/black-river-preserve/

Or put in at the Wildlife Boating Access on Ivanhoe Rd and paddle up and back (or down and back, depending on the flow) along one of the nicest strainer-free sections of the Black (Section 5 in Paul Ferguson’s Paddling Eastern North Carolina)

For paddling eastern NC or SC Paul Ferguson’s guidebooks are my bible. Hey look, the exact same use-friendly format as Gertler.

Eastern NC guidebook
https://www.amazon.com/Paddling-Eastern-North-Carolina-Ferguson/dp/0972026827

SC guidebook
https://www.amazon.com/Canoe-Kayak-...ks&sprefix=canoe+kayak+,stripbooks,168&sr=1-1

Blah, blah, blah. I should stop about the paddling delights of eastern North Carolina. The NC/SC border is often as far south as I get, with good and ample reason.

Greg, please feel free to PM me about eastern NC. You can probably tell it is a beloved paddling area.
 
More NC Paddling

A couple more possibilities in eastern North Carolina.

Milltail Creek/Alligator River, Alligator Nat’l Wildlife Refuge. Slim possibility of seeing a red wolf, maybe a better possibility of seeing a flight of A-10 Warthogs thundering downriver at treetop level.

Back to possible (probable) sailing venues, a few places behind the Outer Banks:

The Maritime Forest in Albemarle Sound/Kitty Hawk Bay. The Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary in Currituck Sound. Inner and outer loops in the marsh off Roanoke Island/Manteo Sound. Whalehead Bay in Currituck Sound north of the Corolla Light.

The Alligator River is in the Ferguson guide, Milltail Creek and the stuff behind the Outer Banks is in Ed White’s slender (out of print/available used) guidebook Exploring Flatwater Northeastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks

https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Flatwater-Northeastern-Carolina-Virginia/dp/096616721X
 
Greg, I hope you are enmeshed in trip planning and pondering the coastal plain possibilities. Thinking more about an eastern NC/SC wander, there is a lot of State Park camping with immediate river or lake front access near enough I-95. That proximity and car camp/day paddle combination makes a travelling wander more spur-of-the-moment, wake up and go paddling pleasurable. Or make camp and head off paddling for the evening.

Apologies if you are already familiar with camping along that inter-State corridor. Some of my favorites in close proximity to I-95.

Little Pee Dee SP in South Carolina. 11 miles from Dillon SC. The riverfront sites are obvious on the campground map. Caveat, Little Pee Dee is the only one I haven’t visited, but one a friend highly recommends the riverfront sites. I may have to visit soon, just to see.

https://southcarolinaparks.com/little-pee-dee

Santee SP in South Carolina. You can dang near see the park from the I-95 while driving over Lake Marion. Lake Marion is 110,000 acres, plenty of room to sail, and by November most of the powerboats are gone. (May vary on opening day of waterfowl hunting seasons)

Santee SP is also good base for Sparkleberry. There are some tent sites that have good waterfront access, and if you want to go up-scale for a couple nights, luxury waterfront cabins, and even cabins out on piers over the lake, with your boat on a dock 30 feet away. Think full kitchen and bath and cable TV plush.

https://southcarolinaparks.com/santee

Just a little further south, Colleton SP in South Carolina, just east of Canadys SC. Smaller and less developed than Santee. On a bluff above the Edisto, conveniently right across the river from Carolina Heritage Outfitters for a day trip or downriver camper shuttle

https://southcarolinaparks.com/colleton

I think Colleton is nicer, and closer, but Givhans Ferry SP, downstream on the Edisto, is another possibility.

https://southcarolinaparks.com/givhans-ferry

If already heading east from Colleton or Givhans, Edisto Beach SP might be worth an Atlantic side visit. If you like marsh paddling the serpentine creeks off the Edisto, Big Bay Creek and Scotts Creek, are grasslands wonderful. The park campsites are kinda blah and tightly situated.

https://southcarolinaparks.com/edisto-beach/trails#jump

(BTW, some of those smaller SC parks lock the front gate at 8pm. If you call ahead, even without a reservation, they will horror system give you the gate code in advance of arrival. Southern hospitality)

North Carolina has a few State Parks conveniently close to the I-95 corridor, but I have a friend’s expansive swamp riverfront an hour off I-95 and for the last 30 years have had little need for paid camping en route that near south.

East of I-95 in North Carolina Jones Lake SP and Lumber River SP are a little further away, but both have a lot to offer paddlers.

Again, apologies if I am preaching to the choir; snow birders fleeing south along the I-95 corridor may not be familiar with the delights of SC and NC State parks.
 
Mike, you have several chapters of a book right there! I have done the state parks along the
edisto when I did a descent of that river from about the fall line downward. Colleton is a gem, small and hidden. Givhans Ferry is ok, but that walk from the beach to the camping area (and up that cliff) is a killer at the end of a day.

Santee is big - campsite and water. Good sailing, and a good base for hitting other local areas, plus the cypress forest just NW of it. No real waterfront sites for leaving boats at though. I once spent several days there after blowing the engine in my van on I-95 nearby, back in the days when there were gutter mount boat racks. For fun, try calling a rental car company and telling them you will rent anything as long as it has gutters for your racks! Weirdly enough, we rentrd the same make and model as the blown van, and simply transferred the entire boat load by unbolting the four gutter clamps and lifting the whole mess off one van roof and on to another.

My last trip down that way I scouted Jones lake and park, and singleterry. Also, Suggs Mill pond looked very inviting. looking like I will combine those with the blackwater paddling you mention. If time allows, a couple days tacked on to do Sparkleberry.

Thanks.
 
My current eastern Carolina paddling library:

Bannon and Giffen - Sea Kayaking the Carolinas
Bob Benner and Tom McCloud - A Paddlers Guide to Eastern North Carolina
Ferguson - as you mentioned.
Gilbert and Shufer's series, Wild River Guide to Coastal Waterways, Wild river guide to North Landing
river and tribs, and Wild River guide to Dismal Swamp water trails. (And I hate capitalizing on an Ipad!)
Ed white's exploring Flatwater

Sadly, I have never found the equivalent books for SC or Georgia.
 
Santee is big - campsite and water. Good sailing, and a good base for hitting other local areas, plus the cypress forest just NW of it. No real waterfront sites for leaving boats at though.

I’ll have to see if I can find an old trip report from Santee. We scouted all of the campsites and I thought there were a couple that, while not directly on the water, still had decent direct access. A couple of the cabins do, and all of the pier cabins are on (over) the water.

Sadly, I have never found the equivalent books for SC or Georgia.

Ferguson’s South Carolina guide

https://www.amazon.com/Canoe-Kayak-S...s%2C168&sr=1-1

I’ll have a look through the guidebook shelves and see what I can find for Georgia.

To be clear, Jones Lake and Salters are not big bodies of water, you could paddle (slowly) around the perimeter of either in an hour. Salters is nicer if only for the lack of anything man-made (except a birding platform at one end).

EDIT: I didn't find the tent campsite notes, but found best cabins for water proximity #'s 30, 22 and 23.
 
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Looks like it is gun season for deer down there now. Wondering how bad that will be.... Jones and salters are in a state park, but all the rest of the paddling near there is in areas that can be publicly hunted.
 
Since you have two weeks just drive a little further south down to the Ocala National Forest. Silver River, Juniper Springs, Alexander Springs, Salt Springs and the Ocklawaha River are very close to each other and very different from each other. Camping can be primitive car camping to staying in State parks. If you never been in the ONF before it is worth the trip.
 
Looks like it is gun season for deer down there now. Wondering how bad that will be.... Jones and salters are in a state park, but all the rest of the paddling near there is in areas that can be publicly hunted.

Deer firearms would be the season that most concerned me, and I don’t know what the seasons are in SC/NC. The Carolinas, being Church-going areas, may have regulations like Maryland; no firearms hunting on Sundays or somesuch

Likewise I do not know the regulations for the National Wildlife Refuges in NC/SC, paddle-able times outside migration, etc. Most of those NWR’s are conveniently along the coastal plain.

https://www.fws.gov/refuges/refugeLocatorMaps/NorthCarolina.html

https://www.fws.gov/refuges/refugeLocatorMaps/SouthCarolina.html

The State Parks (Hammocks Beach, Merchants MillPond, Jones Lake) and big open sailing waters (Pettigrew/Lake Phelps, the stuff in the bays and sounds behind the Outer Banks) should be safe enough. I have never had problems in duck or goose season, provided I avoided blinds and decoy spreads, but even then try to avoid opening day of the splits.

I have certainly heard gunshots along the blackwater streams; the land along Black and South Rivers is almost entirely privately held or controlled by timber companies (although the Nature Conservancy owns a stretch of peculiar fern bank a mile or so above Beattys Bridge on the Black).

That said, I’ve seen more bear and wild turkey along those swampy rivers than deer, and heard more shots being fired in the woods around my house than along the Black or South. Eh, make that “More frequently heard shots”; I was slowly attaining up a heavily strainered section of the lower South and heard someone bust off a 30 round clip, bapbapbapbapbap + 25 baps.

By golly I guess that’s far enough upstream for today.

In reality I am more concerned with careless plinkers and target shooters than with most hunters. The closest I have come to being shot was on the Potomac Paw Paw Bends, where some idiot target shooting without a backstop was visibly landing rounds in the river up ahead, and on the upper Monocacy, when a kid with a .22 put an evil Doppler-effect round hissing past inches from my head.

Got a blaze orange hat or vest? Or your old prison coveralls and an ugly orange rec kayak?

Seriously, I think my wearing a blaze orange cap has been beneficial when encountering hunters, signaling “Yup, I understand” from the get go.

I found one Georgia specific paddling guide on the bookshelves. A Paddler’s Guide to Southern Georgia; a Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to the Streams of the Western Piedmont, Coastal Plain, Georgia Coast and Okefenokee Swamp (Sehlinger & Otey, 1980)

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/a-...MI5qWm-sTB5QIVxp-zCh3AYQJ6EAQYAiABEgKWpfD_BwE

I am admittedly spoiled by Corbett/Gertler/Ferguson, and not fond of the maps or format in that guidebook, but it seems fairly comprehensive. For all I know I may have missed some gems along the Georgia coastal plain; if you find something to recommend on thereabouts please share.

I’ll be interested in where you paddle and what you discover. Kinda like the DelMarva, there is more paddle-able water on the NC/SC coastal plain than I’ll see in a lifetime. I need to get back to the Carolinas this fall or winter.
 
i have two weeks in mid November that I can use to get away and do some paddling here in the east coast. I am looking at Georgia or South Carolina for some flatwater paddling or canoe sailing. Car camping or backcountry, either would work. Any suggestions from the experienced paddlers out there?

Well this suggestion could have you paddle into South Carolina. The last 60 miles of the Lumber River winds its way through a swamp wilderness, NC State Park campgrounds/landing along the way provide overnight lodging. End the trip at Rice Cove landing a couple of miles before the confluence with the Little Pee Dee River, or keep on going on to the Littel Pee Dee

Not much room for raising a sail, but it makes a fine paddle.
 
More NC and SC Blather

Greg, I was going to PM you this, but some of it may be useful to other folks pondering a Carolinas getaway. Hope it catches you before you leave.

For a downriver canoe camper on that coastal plain Will Derness is right, the Lumber is hard to beat. Especially with the benefits of State Park lands along the way, established (upscale) campsites along the river and local shuttle drivers possibilities.

The Lumber River State Park Rangers at Princess Ann have been very helpful; they had a list of local guys who would do an inexpensive meet you are the take out, drop their car off, ride with you to the put in and drive your car back, leave the spare keys somewhere style shuttle.

I probably shouldn’t say this, but one trip the Rangers called shuttle numbers for us from the HQ office phone and, when they got no answers, followed behind as I dropped off our van downsteam and drove me back to the put in. In a plainly marked State Park truck, asking only that I hide under the dashboard as we went through town. That was off season; we were the only people camped at Princess Ann, and the Rangers are attuned to paddler needs, wants and questions.

A cautionary caveat about North Carolina temperatures in November. I was on the NC coastal plain one Thanksgiving and started out sleeping under a sheet with the truck fan going. In the space of a November week I was sequentially under a sheet, a 30/50 flip bag, a 20F bag and a 0F bag. One night I left a beer out and it froze. YMMV earlier in the month.

I am admittedly a fan of paddling and camping behind oft-windy barrier islands, but Hammocks Beach SP is truly wonderful off-season, and the passenger ferry stopped running on Oct 27, so it’s paddle in only time. If you bring your Sea Wind, or any ruddered hull, take care to load it stern first on the floating platform launch rollers.

The Park suffered hurricane damage and some facilities were closed (actually the whole park was closed for several months), but everything seems to be back up and running. I have thoroughly enjoyed every trip to Hammocks Beach; it’s a short paddle in but there are gobs of day paddling opportunities behind the island and around the nearby Huggins Island Maritime Forest (although Swansboro is overly visibly from the backside of the Huggins). Good day sailing opportunities too, or even playing in the runout of the Bogues Inlet surf if you are daring.

I love the history of that place, from ownership as a Yankee Doctor’s private hunting island, willed at his hunting guide’s request to the NC black Teacher’s Union, who tried to develop it, turned over to the State as a briefly “Blacks Only” State Park (reachable only by boat?) and eventually opened to all with the Civil Rights Act.

Add to that the one-time civil war fortification on Huggins Island, and the usual NC barrier island pirate tales and sea battles near Bouge Inlet. Fascinating place.

https://www.ncpedia.org/hammocks-beach-state-park

Some Hammocks Beach caveats: There is (was?) a palatial bath house on the island. I have never availed myself of it, or even gotten very close; it is a mile hike from my preferred campsites, so I bring a wag bag and bucket system. Most of the sites (except #14 on the paddle in route) are very clean and near pristine.

Also, no campfires are permitted anywhere, which is part of why the sites are so clean. The Rangers have always permitted me to use the Fire-in-a-Can after bringing it in for a demo. I did not bring in the portable toilet for a demo.

For Hammocks Beach tides use Bouge Inlet, plus an hour or more for infilling or draining the marshes and HQ launch. The inlet channel to the beach camping sites # 1 – 11 can be inches, maybe not even plural, deep get-out-and-wade at low tide. From site #12 that landscape change is fun to sit and watch.

https://www.saltwatertides.com/cgi-bin/neatlantic.cgi

Maybe that’s just lazy me; I enjoy just sitting and watching tidal changes in the landscape, or at least walking down to a tidal channel and thinking “Dayum, that all looks very different now”. Hiking along the low tide exposed sandy flats and trapped pools is a natural history lesson in itself.

Obviously I really enjoy that place, even with the constant “Is that thunder?” sound of artillery fire from Camp Lejune and occasional low-level flyovers of Marine aviation. Those are kinda loud, but infrequent and awesome to witness up close. If you hold up a beer when a Marine helicopter does a low level pass they may show their appreciation.

Hammocks Beach would be high on my list, along with some Black River and some Pocossin Pond appreciation; it is less than 100 miles and three mostly rural country roads from Jones Lake/E-town to Hammocks Beach/Swansboro; NC 41, NC 111, NC 24, turn into the park. Two well-marked turns simple is a good thing when I’m driving pre-dawn to arrive early, especially on unfamiliar roads. Well pre-dawn; the school buses start running early in rural NC.

The camping area at Pettigrew SP/Lake Phelps is only 13 sites and fairly “rustic”. I liked that part, but most of the sites are kinda blah, and the lake is not walk-the-boat-over accessible. With a real sail Lake Phelps (2[SUP]nd[/SUP] largest natural lake in NC) could be a hoot and a half. Restored plantation house and slave cabin, dugout canoe dredged from the lake. Probably worth a stop if you are headed in that direction anayway.

The kept-open sections of the Black are as good as smaller blackwater rivers get, and Jones Lake is the nearest State Park for camping. The Corner Café, just up the road in Elizabethtown has killer breakfasts and even better local conversation, everyone small town knows everyone else, and their family.

And the local Food Lion carries a decent selection of craft beers.

Maybe skip E-town and the diner breakfast, and get out on the Black near dawn. I started paddling on the South and Black in the mid-80’s, leading sunrise group trips from a friend’s nearby property. Dawn on a blackwater river is a special time for seeing the local fauna, or just to be there.

On the Black River the dependably open sections are Ferguson Section 5. Ivanhoe Wildlife Boating Access to Beattys Bridge, 7.6 miles (passing the confluence with the South, with lots of old oxbow meanders) that can easily take a day if you explore off to the side where the wild things are. The Ivanhoe WBA is an A+ put in, Beattys Bridge a B-, lots of wide shoulder parking, but a short steep climb up to the road.

The South River seems to vary in paddle-ability from year to year and storm to storm. Some of the landowners along the South have refused the State’s help in removing Post-hurricane strainers. I would not recommend Section 10 at the bottom of the South, but things change from year to year. One of the upper sections of the Black was a horrendous strainer-fest one year, and clear sailing a few years later (water levels matter).

FWIW I have notes about the various put ins/take outs along all off the South and most of the Black. The Wildlife Boating Access areas are all good, some of non-WBA road crossings are simply awful (ie, Wildcat Rd on the Black is a D-, NC 41 a D, Butler Island Bridge Rd on the South a D+, NC41 on the South a D, etc, etc). A good put in and take out make a trip more enjoyable for me, and if I’m going to suffer I’d rather do so at the start of a trip when I’m fresh.

Ferguson Section 6 (Beattys Bridge to Hunts Bluff, 11.9 miles through Three Sisters, with plenty of oddities along the way), is likewise a special place, although so special and well known it sometimes has other paddlers and club/guided group trips afloat. You could put in upstream at the private Henry’s Landing, eliminating a mile or so near the head of tidal.

Either section could usually be done as a paddle up/float back without a shuttle. Only one gauge, on the Black River near Tomahawk. Anything above 2-ish feet is floatable.

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nc/nwis/uv/?site_no=02106500&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

I installed a 12 foot tall stick gauge on the friend’s property along the South, at the same (very low at the time) river height as the Tomahawk gauge. That stick gauge on the South is surprisingly consistent with the USGS Tomahawk gauge. At the 11’ mark either of those rivers is at flood stage and spilling over into the lower floodplain even in the higher banked areas. Still do-able with good boat control, and sometimes scanning ahead for bank side trees leaned canopy inwards /__\ , denoting the actual river channel.

On blackwater rivers a stand of conifers is usually a sign of (at least 1[SUP]st[/SUP] floodplain) “high ground” camping space, and a stand of beech or other hardwood higher elevation still. Like barrier islands I have a penchant for the peculiarities of backwater rivers.

The Alligator River/Milltail Creek are nothing really special, mostly convenient if you are headed that way between Pettigrew and the Outer Banks. Merchants Millpond is special, but it is an hour’s drive east of the interstate, and even paddling into camp and paddling up into Lassiter Swamp you could see it all in a day or two.

Apologies for running long, as usual. I love that area, and think coastal NC is a semi-undiscovered off-season paradise for paddlers, and NC is doing its bit to make it easier and more accessible. I wish more southern States would see that light.

Have a great trip. Please let us know where you paddled and what you thought. And if you find someplace new to recommend . . . .

. . . . .Ellipses”, I never knew what those were called!
 
Thank you for all the suggestions and information. I am going to start with several days of base camping at Poinsett stste park in SC. This will give me several days in Sparkleberry swamp, put me in easy proximity to the Congaree NP, and let me get some sailing on Lake Marion out of Rimini or the Santee SP.

Mike, I am intrigued by a number of your suggestions for NC around the Pocasin lakes, just not so sure about doing it in deer rifle season.
 
I suggest the Okefenokee or Suwannee River. Google them and you will find all about canoeing trails. The Suwannee River wilderness trail is great and it is in north Florida. Not Georgia but just south of Georiga. You will find all the information you need. We have crossed the Okefenokee several times and love it but it is probably too low now. We have canoed the Suwannee from the Okefenokee Swamp to Suwannee River State Park. You would like the trip. We have done this trip several times. Outfitters at White Springs or at Spiirt if the Suwannee Park. You can camp on sand bars or use the free river camps.
 
This thread has been working on me since it was started a month ago. We're ready to leave Ontario a few days from now, but the weather forecast in the Carolinas isn't looking that much better than here. We might just keep driving south till we find warmth. Anyway, thanks especially to Mike M. for all the ideas which have helped light a fire under me.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions and information. I am going to start with several days of base camping at Poinsett stste park in SC. This will give me several days in Sparkleberry swamp, put me in easy proximity to the Congaree NP, and let me get some sailing on Lake Marion out of Rimini or the Santee SP.

Greg, I’m thinking you are back from “down south”.

Where all did you paddle? Sailing? Any Pocosin ponds? Was the unseasonably chill Arctic jetstream an issue?

Did you end up in southern Georgia or Florida? I was looking at the weather and temps, and might have kept heading south.

Asking for a friend in London.
 
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