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CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK
October 2006
This fall, Doug Jonkheer, Wayne Harden, Steve del Vecchio, Steve’s dog Bjorn, and I made a paddling trip through the Congaree National Park in preparation for a club outing there next spring. It began as many other trips…in clear weather with no expectation of anything unusual…but turned out leaving us with a new respect for this swamp wilderness.
First of all, a bit of background on the Park: it’s the newest National Park in the Southeast. Originally established as a National Monument in 1976, it became the nation’s 57th National Park in 2003. Locally, the area is known as the “Congaree Swamp”; however the 22,200 acre park is actually an extensive floodplain of the Congaree River, and not a true swamp. In fact, it is a spectacular floodplain, the largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the U.S. It is recognized as an International Biosphere Reserve, National Natural Landmark, Wilderness Area, and “Globally Important Bird Area.” The forest was also a home of the Ivory-billed woodpecker…and may still be. The park’s floodplain forest has one of the highest canopies in the world and some of the tallest trees in the U.S. The average canopy height (130 ft.) is as tall, or taller than any temperate deciduous forest in the world, including those found in Japan, the Himalayas, South America and all of Eastern Europe…and as such, it provides a storehouse of natural diversity. Some of the trees reach heights of 160 feet – comparable to the Amazon rain forest canopy. There are 30 trees in the park large enough to set records, and four of them are national champions for their species.
All of us were psyched for the trip, given what we knew about the Park. Wayne and Steve had already made a paddling trip through the swamp previously…so they acted as guides for our expedition. The trip turned out to be a true adventure because the Park Service is keeping the waterways as natural as possible…due to the Federal Wilderness designation. This means that there were no established campsites, minimal maintenance of the waterways, and little signage along the canoe trail. Also, one of the Park staff who was a canoeist, and who had recently paddled part of the canoe trail, let us know that we should be prepared for unforeseen obstacles, like blow-downs across the river, which might slow our trip down; and steep banks which might make portaging difficult. The changing weather also turned out to be a factor, along with the fact that it’s common knowledge that it’s easy to get lost in this swamp!
We were planning for a two-day paddling trip for Saturday and Sunday…and a check of the weather around noon on Friday, showed absolutely no rain in the forecast for the area around Columbia, South Carolina, near the swamp. So, we did a short hike on Saturday morning, and started our canoe trip about noon that day. The weather was bright, warm and clear…exceptionally nice, so we decided to paddle only a short distance on Saturday, taking it slow and enjoying the scenery. That would leave the majority of the trip for Sunday -- that should have been no problem since the weather was supposed to be nice all weekend. However, little did we know that a rapidly-moving cold front, which was nowhere in the forecast, swept across the swamp about dawn on Sunday morning, the second day of our canoe trip. This front brought a light cold rain that lasted to midday. Another unforeseen event also happened Sunday morning -- a significant drop in the water level along our canoe trail, which was probably due to an upstream dam. So, the prospect of having to portage over and around blow-downs across the canoe trail in the rain, along with steep-sided muddy banks at the portages caused us to decide to turn around and paddle back to our put-in point. This all would have been no problem, except for the fact that while we were following the canoe trail upstream through the rain, we missed the main channel which was hidden by a downed tree. By mid-day Sunday afternoon, at the point where we finally realized that we must be off the trail, it was too late to try to reach the put-in point by nightfall, so we decided to spend an extra night out. Luckily, our cell phones worked…so we contacted the Park Service to tell them that we were OK; and the outfitter, that we had arranged to meet at the take-out point that we would not need his services. Sunday evening, the clouds moved away, giving us a cool evening, and a beautiful day to paddle back to out put-in point the next day.
For years, I have always thrown my hand-held GPS in my pack, never having to seriously need it. On this trip, I also packed a map of the swamp with the UTM grid coordinate system overlaid on it on which to transfer the GPS coordinates. The combination of GPS and map allowed us to pin-point our exact location on the map -- a place where we thought we might be, but weren’t sure. This is the first time that I have actually used my GPS in a “temporarily turned-around” situation…and it functioned exactly as it was supposed to…letting us know exactly where we were. Wayne also carried his GPS along…and confirmed our location.
Since we did not expect any bad weather at all, we also did not protect our matches and “water-proof” lighters as we should have. So, they turned out to be worthless late Sunday after the rain. Steve’s magnesium and steel spark kit, which he carries on all trips, turned out to be the only way we were able to start a fire in the damp swamp woods that night. So, thanks to Steve, who started our fire for the evening meal, and Wayne who prepared it – we had a feast. From now on, I will be carrying one of those spark kits with me on all trips.
Even though our scouting trip sounded like we might not have had a good time, we actually did. We saw a spectacular floodplain forest and a beautiful waterway that we want to return to next spring with the club. On this next trip, we will be following the correct route, giving us more time to explore the swamp. We will also be (1) checking the weather more closely; (2) getting the operating schedule of the upstream dam, (3) bringing more detailed maps; (4) making sure our GPSs have fresh batteries; and (5) bringing spark kits for those unforeseen wet times. Check out the December issue of Backpacker magazine which has an article on a canoe trip through the Congaree…which in many ways was remarkably similar ours. Check out this website: http://public.fotki.com/DickA/congaree-national-park/congaree-recon-trip/, for some pics of our canoe trip. Hit the tab for “slideshow” to see all the gory details. Our next trip to the Congaree is on the Club calendar for April 20 - 22, 2007 (Fri.-Sun). Come join us!
Dick Ambrose,
WNG Member and Trip Leader
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