March 29, 4:50AM 2001

Time to go kayaking.  I had loaded my boat and gear the night before and pull out by 6:00AM headed from my home near Athens, GA to Buckhead in Atlanta.  Light rain greeted me as I head west on Highway 316 but this quickly becomes a downpour as I approach Winder.  I listen intently to the radio traffic report, knowing that a wet Atlanta morning often spells doom for the morning rush to work.  Fortunately, even though the rain was heavy, no major problems developed.  That is as long as you don’t consider six inbound lanes choked with vehicles moving along at 25-70mph, often suddenly, a major problem.

When I arrive at Dale’s shortly after 7:00 he has fried egg and bacon sandwiches and fresh brewed coffee waiting.  After breakfast we load his boat and gear in the pouring rain.  We dry out a bit before leaving and decide to stop by REI on the way so I can pick up a rain suit.  The forecast called for clearing, but after getting wet loading Dale’s boat, I was in the mood to buy one.  We get to REI at 9:00AM but find that they do not open until 10:00.  Not willing to waste that much time, we head east on I-20.  Near Augusta, we take the bypass south, cross over into South Carolina and follow Highway 78 southeast.  Dale is driving and the rain is constant and heavy.  At times we can hardly see the road.  I imagine we looked pretty funny in a pickup truck with two kayaks driving through pouring rain.  But we knew the weather forecast and about an hour from Beaufort, SC the rain stopped and the sky began to clear.  By the time we hit Beaufort, the sun was shinning.

We continued through Beaufort and across some of the Sea Islands (Lady’s, Dataw, St. Helena, and Harbor) to Hunting Island.  Hunting Island is located approximately 16 miles east of Beaufort, SC and is the location of Hunting Island State Park.  It is a large park, occupying most of Hunting Island and has facilities for camping and day use such as the beach, hiking trails, and an old lighthouse.  It has nearly 300 campsites and is the most visited state park in South Carolina.

We explored the island, checking out the campground, beach areas, lagoon, and lighthouse.  Several days of heavy rain had just passed and the wind was gusting to 30 knots or better.  The weather report called for good weather over the next few days so we decided stay at a motel in downtown Beaufort for the night and launch our kayaks the next day.

We checked into the Best Western Sea Island Inn located on Bay Street next to downtown Beaufort.  Our first floor room and parking just outside the room allowed us to bring in our gear so we could prepare for our trip.  Taking advantage of our location, we walked down Bay Street to Plum’s, a great restaurant overlooking the Beaufort waterfront.  After dinner we went shopping for supplies, then completed packing up our gear and planning our kayak trip.  Our plan was to paddle from Hunting, head south, find someplace to camp, and return to Hunting the day after.

 March 30, 6:00AM

Friday was a beautiful day with clear sky and light wind.  Not finding a place downtown for breakfast, we stop on Lady’s Island at a McDonalds.  We stopped again at a store on Harbor Island, which is just before Hunting Island, to pickup a few last minute items we had forgotten earlier.  Arriving at Russ Point Landing on the south end of Hunting Island, we found that the local gnats, which turned out in great number, greeted our arrival.  A brief discussion led us to head back to the campground store to find insect repellent.  A park ranger recommended Skin So Soft, but this item was out of stock.  We settled on another brand and asked questions about the area and camping.  The ranger said that he camps on the beach of Pritchards Island, which in uninhabited.  Pritchards is the island south of Fripp Island, which is across the inlet from Russ Point Landing.  It sounded like a good place to go.

Russ Point Landing, on the south end of Hunting Island, is on Fripp Inlet, which separates Hunting and Fripp Islands.  Fripp Island is a gated community island.  We planned to paddle out of the inlet, head south, passing Fripp on the way to Pritchards Island, where we would camp for the night. 

Since we had prepped our gear the night before, loading the boats was easy.  The gnats were aggravating and we repeatedly sprayed ourselves with the repellent we purchased at the campground store.  It did not appear to deter the gnats very much though. 

The weather had turned in our favor.  The sky was clear and the sun bright and warm.  A light wind blew up the inlet, but not enough to deter the gnats.  The highs were expected to be in the upper 60’s and the low at night in the mid-40’s.  A sweep of clouds and possible showers were expected during the day – the last arm of a large low that had brought the rain we had driven through.  But it would pass quickly and sunshine was expected for the next few days. 

Since it was warming quickly and the inlet was flat and calm, Dale was concerned about getting too hot paddling.  So he decided to wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt.  I considered dressing light, but went ahead with my splash jacket and paddling pants, although I did lighten up the layer under.  We left Ross landing with calm winds, sunny sky and flat water.  Tide was about midway to being high, so we were paddling against a light current.  It was about 9:00AM when we launched.

After about a mile we crossed under the Fripp Island Bridge, and staying close to shore, headed out of the inlet.  We had noticed on the chart that the main channel went straight out for about a mile and that sand bars and breakers were noted on both sides of the channel.  However, we planned to slip around the island and miss the breakers (and the long paddle out the main channel) by sticking close to shore.

As we approached the ocean and began to turn around the point, the seas and wind increased.  The sky began to darken as clouds moved in.  Five to six foot seas were kicked up by the incoming tide and wind.  Waves were coming from two directions making conditions even more difficult and tricky.  As we paddled around the point, we could see that the breakers were worse around that point and that they came very close to the beach near mid-island.  Turning southwest to follow Fripp Island, the waves were from behind us, sweeping over us and occasionally nearly swamping our boats.  Dale, who was ahead of me, realized there was no way through the breakers, and signaled that we should land on the beach.

Although we had gone through some rough seas, it had been exciting and exhilarating.  I had even gotten a taste of fear a couple of times when the waves had pushed over me!  Once on the beach we decided that we should portage the boats pass the breakers that came close to shore near mid-island.  This was a distance of about 1.25 miles!  Not that we realized it was that far, since on a beach distance can be deceiving.  We each floated our boats in the surf and walked them through the crashing waves for about a quarter mile.  The surf was beating us up and we decided that it would be easier for both of us to take one boat and then come back for the other.  After we had both boats at the new launch point, we took a break for lunch.  Few people were on the beach when we landed, but as the sky began to clear, more people were out for a walk on the beach.  We talked to several people, or rather got questioned about our kayaks by several people.  After lunch, we launched through the surf 

Paddling along the beach of Fripp, just outside the shore waves was pretty easy.  But as we approached the end of Fripp, we could see breakers around Skull Inlet, the passage between Fripp and Pritchards Islands.  The closer we got, the more breakers we could see.  Seeing that it would be difficult to get through the breakers to Pritchards, Dale decides we should go up Skull Creek and find a campsite.  But as he worked his way towards the mouth of Skull Creek, he missed the entrance.  I was following Dale as he headed for the creek, but was caught by a large wave from behind which swamped my boat and flipped me over.  Finding myself upside down, I attempted to roll back up but only made it halfway, which was enough to get a good breath of air and go back down again.  On my next attempt, I caught a bit of the bottom with my paddle, which helped me get upright.  Regaining my composure, I found that I was being swept into the beach surf and approaching some rocks.  I also found I had lost my hat and water bottle.  I recovered both items and noticed that Dale had stopped in the middle of the creek mouth.  It turned out to be a sand bar, which was rapidly being exposed by the now outgoing tide.  Paddling over, we discussed our options and agreed to head Skull Creek.  But, since we were pass the entrance and the tide was going out quickly, we would have to drag out boats across the sand bar to the creek.  A second portage for the day! 

After getting into the creek, we paddled a short way and landed on a large sandbar.  Dale had dress lightly and had become rather cold from the wind and seas we had experienced.  We had been on the water (or dragging boats) for nearly six ours – it was approach 3:00PM – and we were feeling rather exhausted.  It was time to find a place to camp.  Our original plan was to camp on the beach side of Pritchards Island, however now we had decided to go up Skull Creek.  We hoped to find a spot of high ground we could camp on, but coastal creeks do not always provide such a place.

Skull Inlet was sheltered and fairly calm.  Skull Creek was an easy paddle in spite of the outgoing tide.  We paddled about a two miles and found high ground that looked like an ok campsite, however the chart showed that there might be a better site further in.  After paddling another mile, we found a great little island, about an acre in size that had a small sandy beach to land our boats.  The island was a good ten feet above high tide, was fairly clear except for some palms and pine tree.  There was even a fire ring and firewood stacked up!  Obviously we had found a popular local spot, which we dubbed “Skull Island.”  We had paddled about nine miles but it had taken nearly eight hours!

We tied our boats up and unloaded our gear.  Gnats were bad for a while but went away as evening approached.  After a brief rest and changing out of wet clothes, we set up our tents, started a fire, and cooked dinner.  For dinner we had taken along a dehydrated camping dinner to see if we would like to carry that type of food on future trips.  We quickly decided that it was just slightly better than starving and that future provisioning would not include such fare.  However, it (along with a few extras we brought along) satisfied our hunger and made us feel human again. 

Staying up late we enjoyed the fire and watched the quarter moon that was high overhead slowly sink into to west, gleaming over the creek water.  If we looked north across the back of the island we could see the lights of Fripp Island.  Although we had paddled about three miles up the winding creek, we were only about a mile from the ocean and could hear the waves breaking on the shore.  A light wind swept up from the south.  Standing by the fire, we managed to get Dale warmed up and dried all of our gear.  Around 10PM we noticed a boat making it’s way through the creek approaching our island.  We were curious who would be out here at that time of night until we finally concluded that it was crabbers check their crab traps.  We had noticed the crab trap buoys on the way in.  We turned in around 11PM.

March 31, 8:00AM

The next morning we cooked breakfast and started getting our gear together.  Around 9AM a fishing boat anchored off our island and after about 30 minutes it left.  Another fishing boat arrived shortly after.  By this time we were loading our boats and getting ready to leave.  After a final check of the campsite, we headed down Skull Creek along the back of Pritchards Island. 

The paddle to the Story River was about three miles.  About mid-way we passed “the narrows”, a section where the creek narrowed.  As we paddled through this area, we could hear a large boat approaching us.  As we rounded a bend, a large boat was coming our way very fast.  As soon as the captain saw us, he slowed the boat to idle.  As he passed we heard his tell his passengers “first time I’ve seen kayakers back here!”  We encountered a few other boats, and all were courteous and slowed as they passed.

At the end of Skull Creek we turned north to follow the Story River back to Russ Point Landing.  The Story is a wide river, appearing to be a half-mile or more in spots.  The tide was just starting to come in when we left the campsite and by now was approaching high tide.  As we paddled up the Story River, the tide changed and we rode the tide around the back of Fripp Island and to Russ Point Landing.

Our paddle back had covered about 10 miles and took only 4 hours.  Catching the tide was a big help, but not having to drag boats over the beach was even better.  Our friends the gnats were waiting for us at Russ Point Landing, so we hurried to pack and leave.  We did encounter one friendly person at the landing who commented about a lack of fisherman being out on the water.  According to this guy, “just because the fish aren’t biting is no excuse not to go fishing!”  We enjoyed his comments (he had brought along his “good looking girlfriend”), as he was quite a character.

We drove back into Beaufort and checked into a hotel.  After cleaning up and getting organized we felt much better.  We concluded our adventure by having dinner at Steamers on Lady’s Island and enjoying the local seafood.  A large bucket of steamed oysters, along with steamed shrimp and grilled scallops filled us up and reminded us of why we like the oysters from this area.  They have to be among the best found anywhere.  Steamers is the kind of place that has buckets built into the tables – a serious shellfish place.  Too bad they were out of blue crab, another favorite.

April 1, 8:00AM

On our final day in Beaufort, we had breakfast at Shoney’s before hitting the road.  The drive back to Atlanta was much better than the drive down, since it was now sunny and warm.  However, the wind was kicking up and it felt like there were gusts up to 30+ knots.  Our timing of the weather had worked out perfectly.  We had arrived as the rain left and left as the winds picked up.  Although we had wanted to spend two nights camping on the water, we had made the best of the conditions and had had a great adventure.  The area around Hunting Island offers a lot of variety for kayakers and we had just touched on a part of it.  However I did discover later that the area also has the most extensive breakers on the east cost, offering a lot of challenges and a quick way to get into trouble if you are not careful.  We had not paddled the big water of St. Helena sound, saving it for another trip.  And of course there is still Pritchards Island, which we will have to return one day to do.

The next morning a quite stillness lay on the water.

Our campsite

To the sea

You can see the creek from the campfire

Checking the boat