The Southern Sassafras: Sunday @ the Broad River!

Sweethearts!!

Nate & I decided it was time to explore more river options over the weekend. Our favorite spot & most people's is to hang out down by the Riverbanks Zoo on the Saluda river. There are lots of big rocks for hanging out on, plenty of deep swimming holes & the water is always fresh & cold there. When the water is cold you can be sure there won't be leaches lurking around, at ready, to attach to some poor unsuspecting, juicy human being. The unfortunate thing about the location at Riverbanks Zoo is that the zoo is planning on fencing it off. Everyone is up in arms about this, but the zoo feels its a liablity to allow access down there. People park on thier premises and some abuse thier priveleges by going down there drinking too much alcohol and getting hurt. Whereas others go down for more wholesome outings, fishing, swiming, tanning, tubing, kayaking etc. Sadly for those people (that includes Nate & Me), the other population has ruined that access. Some fishermen have been coming thier for generations, catching fish to provide meals for their families. Hopefully in the long run the city will continue to see the river as an asset, and continue to develope the river areas into accesable parks and walkways for the population to enjoy. This is hopeful as there are already three of these parks created along the congaree, broad & lower Saluda rivers. As mentioned before though, this is the most atractive location for water sports etc. With all that being said, Nate& I have been on a mission to explore every inch of the beautiful rivers that all pour through the downtown of Columbia. Our city, our home. We are determined to experience it all and possibly find a great little spot for hanging out, swimming, fishing, putting our kayaks in and relaxing an afternoon away.

So off we went. This past Saturday's river mission brought us out to Harbison State Forest. A place I've visited back in my college years to do an Owl Prowl and spider sniffing outing. A lot of fun and learning but that is a story for another day. We parked our car, unloaded the dogs and picked up a map of all the trails. We immediately gravitated towards the most direct trail route to the Broad river. It even showed there was a boat put in, even more exciting. We could scope it out today, and bring our kayaks next time if all looked well. Oh did I mention, at the start of the day we had planned on going on a kayaking adventure? That was quickly scratched when Nate went to load up the "Yaks" & mine was infested with cockroaches or as they call em' down here palmetto bugs. Nate sprayed my boat down but good with bug "killer" and we decided for health reasons it would not be wise to go out in the boats today! Lucky break for the dogs, they would get to go on our river adventure.

Dogs in hand we headed out a trail into the woods, that would lead us to the boat launch and the big ol' Broad river. It was a beautiful walk through pine, oak, & other southern natives I have yet to learn. The river was in sight, a huge island of rock ready to be descended upon for fishing, swimming and relaxation. Our trail ended, right at the boat launch as the map had so clearly pointed out. A little creek, with a 10 foot steep incline of clay mud, leading down into the water. Luckily there was a staircase down, but no foot bridge to cross. Just a murky little creek, that if you dared to cross, which we did, only to greet the other side a steep, slippery, muddy clay bank to climb out of. I think others had struggled with this passing so someone had tied a slick nylon rope to a tree, with loops tied into it for grabbing every few feet as you try to repel up the bank to the forest floor landing. Well that was all such a disaster, quicksand in the bottom of the creek, red clay mud all over our arms and our legs from falling back in to the creek multiple times as we tried to repel our selves out of the creek up the bank and to safety. Yikes! And to top it off we had our geriatric dog with us that needed much assistance. Thanks to Nates strength she made it across too. Phew. Across the bank...looking across and thinking....we will have to do this on our way back...ohhhh great! ANd this is the boat launch???? Looking quite dicey, not sure we will use this as a future access to the river for kayaking.

Well, we made it across, what we will now call "cripple" creek. And off to the island of rock amidst the river for a bit of fun and relaxation. It was gorgeous out there. We got in some swimming and some fishing too. No catch, but a beautiful new place to behold. Oh did I mention....crossing back over "cripple" was about as much fun on the way back as it was on the way in. All in all worth the adventure & the tale to tell. Not sure we will be bringing any of our company there in the future. As per our return? Maybe another trail? Another way in? we'll see.? I think we'll save that for another day.