River Update

We did the Cooley family landing to Berry's pond a few days ago. I'm happy to say that we did not have to get out of our boats the whole way. It is still a bit mind boggling just how much stuff there is in the river. It has grown up a bit since my last visit with very few places along the way where the riverbank does not look like jungle. Took almost exactly 5 hrs on the water with only one stop along the way. I saw an engine like the ones they use on the dragon tail type rigs. It looked almost like new and certainly salvageable and if I had the room I would have brought it home. When we got to the pond there was a guy just heading up river with this same sort of rig. I told him about it and he said he had a friend that had sunk a boat up there recently. It must have been big water when that happened as it was sitting on a sand bar in plain view when I saw it.

Clifton Beach

Went down to check out Clifton Beach as a possible entry point for a kayak trip. While the entry looks pretty good the take out is on Lawson Fork Creek just above where it runs into Pacolet River. It looks a bit iffy but there are not really many points where the Pacolet River is close to a road down that way.

 

Tamed by the Tyger

Well the Victory celebration may have been a little premature.

After Wes reported that they were able to make the passage from Beech Springs entry on Danzler Rd down to Berry's Pond... I wanted to take the whole trip from the from the Cooley Family landing all the way down to Berry's Pond. It's about 1.5 miles on the river from the Cooley Family landing down to the Beech Springs landing at  Danzler Rd and the whole trip is about six miles. We were in a 17 foot Grumman canoe and it was my partners first time on any moving water. While I have done a fair amount of canoeing I had not that much experience on a river. On the previous trip we came upstream to work on clearing some of the log jams. This was mostly to be a recon trip to see what all was in the river as I had never been on that first stretch. 

The river was fairly low and I felt it would be a fairly sedate trip. We were only about 15 minutes into it when we found ourselves in the river. I think it mostly a result of inexperience more than anything. We were both sitting on cushions which put you up even higher than you would normally be. In hindsight it would probably be  smarter to sit on the bottom of the canoe and used kayak paddles. I think a normal paddling position in a canoe would be on your knees but I don't think my keens could take that very long. 

We were going through an opening in some logs in the river it was a bit narrow and the water was moving faster through there plus we had made a few strokes to help shoot through the gap. We were almost through when we hit a submerged log that upset the canoe to the point I thought we were going over so I bailed out hoping my partner could stay in the boat. It was not to be and we both ended up in the river and the canoe full of water. On top of that we had no bailing bucket either... but the river is pretty shallow most places and we pulled it over to the bank and tipped it over to get as much water out as possible and finished it off with a kayak paddle which had a spoon type blade which worked pretty well. We had the chainsaw along as well and it was waterlogged so we would not be cutting any logs.

 All in all though it was a good trip and educational as well.  While there were no impassable blockages there were multiple places where you kind of had to decide where you were gonna go through and there were quite a few places where there was significant obstructions. One stretch in particular where you just clear one obstruction and there is another is right after it.

We are looking forward to doing it again. I would wind up by saying one of the pluses of this passage is the put in and the take out are less than 10 minutes apart by car and that the put in a take out are both very nice. 

  

Log Jam Freedom Convoy Victory

Wes reports that the South Tyger River passage from the Beech Springs entry down to Berry's Pond is now clear. He and I cleared a few log jams a couple of weeks ago and it appears someone else has helped as well. He made the passage yesterday and says that it is all clear. We had partially cleared a few spots that we were hoping the next high water would help break up even more. 

The long range forecast for next weekend is 80 plus Saturday and Sunday... seems like a good time for a Log Jam Freedom Convoy Victory passage 😊 

Here is a link to the River Height Gage thats on the bridge at Danzler Rd in Duncan When this gage is showing 5.5 ft or so or less...  that is relatively low.

Log Jam Freedom Convoy Episode 1

Getting by with a little help from your friends... we finally got on the river just to see what we were up against. This was shot just upstream of I 85.... this is well below where we put in and mostly worked upstream from Echo Ridge Dr in Duncan.... the majority of the log jams are from there up to the Beech Springs entry on Danzler Rd in Duncan. No real video of actual jam busting... we'll try to do better next time.

Blue Heron Rookery

I had no idea these birds nested in trees. I spent a lot of time on Lake Greenwood when I was young. Saw a lot of these birds flying but I don't recall ever seeing one in the landing mode directly overhead. They have a huge wingspan.

On the River

Finally had some decent weather and good help... unfortunately we did not take any before and after type pics but we did open up a few places including the one just ahead in this pic. Thanks to Wesley Blain for a great day of Log Jam Freedom Convoy jam busting.  

Looking for a few good souls

 

Log Jam Freedom Convoy

Log Jam Busting for fun.... A great opportunity  to vent your covid frustrations on some unsuspecting logs. These logs have had it way to easy and are impeding the natural flow of the Log Jam Freedom Convoy from floating down the South Tyger River from the Cooley Family access point in Duncan... all the way to Berry's Pond and the Tygerberry Landing. 

This is an aerial shot of the TygerBerry Landing on Berry's Pond

Log Jam Video

This was shot near Edisto Dr in Duncan... it is just below where the majority of the log jams are.

It is going upstream towards the Beech Springs entry point on Danzler Rd in Duncan SC.