Ashley River Park Forest Trail , 2023

 

Emboldened by the success of our 4/1/23  walk around the Ashley River Park Fishing Lakes, we decided today to explore a  more challenging trail that wanders through the low country forest bordering the Ashley River.

The trail starts out from the parking lot near the Park's main
 catch-and-release fishing lake, 

then follows an easy gravel path across a grassy field into the cypress and hardwood forest east of the lakes towards a small fishing dock on the Ashley River.

I don't know whether the fishing is good from this pier, but it is a safe and pleasant place to rest and get a good look at the Ashley River in both directions.  The photo above was taken looking east and downstream  and the photo below shows the view from the pier  looking upstream (west),

 

Getting  to the fishing dock  from the parking lot is an easy stroll, 

  but if you want to continue following the forest trail further downstream (which we did) the hiking gets a bit more adventurous.

Portions of the trail feel down-right Jurassic.

The area is swampy 

and is crisscrossed with small creeks,.

and other hazards

like cypress knees and alligators

Some of these dangers can be hard to spot in the dense native forest understory vegetation (which includes large stands of prickly saw palmetto and bamboo),

so for their visitors' safety, the park has installed long wooden walkways across the wettest sections of the trails.

And, in some sections of the trail,  the park has added soil to raise the level f the path above the surrounding area so that visitors can stay dry and have a clear view of what is around them.

In spite of its Jurassic era-like vibe, this short little trail (It is less than a mile) provides a delightful and relatively safe walk through a low country ecosystem that is usually very hard to see up close. We really enjoyed the walk and are sure to revisit it.

Ashley River Park Walk-about: 4 '23

 Had a nice little walk around the fishing  pond in the

Ashley River Park fishing lake today.

The Club at Pine Forest: 8 '22

 Today, Bruce and I golfed 9 holes each at The Club at Pine Forest.

The course's four-star ranking places Pine Forest in the top 5% of all non-private courses in the United States and making Pine Forest the highest-rated non-resort course in the Charleston area. The golf course is a Par 72 layout designed by Bob Spence, who is the lead designer for Davis Love III.

The course's website describes the course as having extremely challenging championship tees (6,905 yards with a course rating of 73.9 and a slope of 138) to more manageable gold tees (5,782 yards with a course rating of 68.7 and a slope of 121). Meanwhile, the ladies' tees measure 4,990 yards with a course rating of 70.8 and a slope of 115.+ So of course, we didn't expect it to be an easy course to play.

What we hadn't expected when we booked our Tee -off time was that on the day we played, temperatures would hover near 95 F in the shade with the high humidity, bringing the heat index up to 105 F.. On top of that it hadn't rained for several days so the course was so dry we had a tough time driving a Tee into the ground and made controlling our speed on the greens a really hard thing to do.

It was a bit naive to think either one of us would play well under those conditions, so of course, neither of our scores was anything to write home about. I struggled to maintain the height and distance to get over all of the moguls on this links-style course. And Bruce had difficulty walking the steep slopes.

All in all, we did reasonably well but were still disappointed by

our own performances. Oh well, maybe we'll try the course again, but if we do, we're definitely holding off on that game until the late Fall when the temperatures are cooler and Bruce has had his vascular surgery

Golf at Pawleys Plantation: 7 '22

Becoming River People 7' 22

 

My brother, Tony, would be pleased to know that we are fast on our way to becoming "River People" Dorchester and Charleston Counties have both built several public parks on the banks of the Ashley River to allow picnicking, boating, and fishing access on the river. The newest of these River Parks is just two blocks away from our front door with an entrance to that park available to us through our housing community. All of these parks are connected by walking trails. Bruce and I have just begun to explore some sections of these trails.

For More about the Ashley River See: https://www.americanrivers.org/river/ashley-river/

with photo credit  ro Larry Gleason

Fourth of July walk along the Ashley River Trail 7 '22

 

 Bruce and I have  both had our fill of unpacking boxes and have decided that that we want to celebratethe Fourth of July by spending the day  enjoying our new home and community.  So to celebrate,  we decided to take a walk along the Ashley River ,   Dorchester and Charleston Counties  have built a series of Public Parks along  the Ashley River  to provide acces to the river for picnicking, boating, and fishing.  A network of river bank trails connects these parks.

The nearest of these Parks is just two blocks awayfrom our front door  at  the edge of our housing development.  But that park was already crowded with  picnicers celebrating the Fourth Of July, so we opted to drive to the next  nearest River  Park with is only a few miles away off of Dorchester Blvd.  

That Park is more oriented less towards picnicers and more toward  kayakers and other small craft.   We pulled into a large parking lot that had four picnic pavillions lining the north side of the lot  and  a boat launch on either end of the lot.  The parking area and the pavilions were nearly empty except  for  lot of cars with small boat trailers .  Everyone was already out on the water. 

View of the Ashley River from a Picnic Pavillion

 That gave us a chancce to enjoy a cool drink while taking in a view of the river rolling by  while we watch a small sail boat being  launched from the nearby ramp..

Sailboat being launched.

On the South side of the parking lot, we found an entrance to one of the Ashley River walking trails.  

The cool shaded path along the green river bank offered a welcome respite from the oppressive summer heat.  

Bruce was especially appreciative  that the trail was paved 

which assured he had a safe even path to walk on.

The walking  trail stayed pretty close to the bank of the river.  I've never had any experience with rivers environments so I  enjoyed being able toget close enough to really study both the river and the micro-climate habitat it supports

Every so often the river would take a turn away from us and the path ahead of us would widen out into a vast  green field of cattail and other reeds. 

 

The trail continued on through the wetland on a raised boardwalk keeping us high and dry.

Where the river turned to rejoin the path, a large fishing pavilion had been installed. 

The Pavillion also functioned as a nicely shaded rest stop where we could take in the views of other habitats before crossing the river and looping back to the lot where we had parked our car.

PI Beach Walk: 10 '21

It was a beautiful day for a walk on the south end

 of Pawleys Island Beach.   

The sky was brilliant ( but awfully hard on the eyes).

Date Nite 10 '21

We had a lovely light dinner 

on the Litchfield Inn's Ocean Front patio this evening.

It's the first time in a long while that we've felt safe eating out.

Pawleys Island Beach Walk: 4 '21

 

 Pawleys' Island beach was so busy yesterday at 1 pm that we couldn't find parking anywhere on the island. Even the handicap slots were filled. So we got there at 9am this morning. Lots still had open parking slots, we were able to find handicapped parking so Bruce was happy.

The beach was empty enough and the shore solid enough that we could safely take a long stroll to the North end.

Once there, Bruce promptly set about making new friends,

and practicing writing in Hebrew.

(That ought to confuse a few beach goers.)

Bruce was horrified when he got home and realized that a random pre-existing scratch in the sand had added an extra vowel to his "shalom".

But I was totally impressed.

His handwriting in Hebrew is more legible

than when he is writing in English.

Pawley's Island Beach Walk: 1 '21

  There isn't a cloud in the sky and the sun is out.

We decided  it would be a good day to take a walk on the beach, before any winter weather sets in again, so we set off for the North-end of Pawleys Island's Beach

The ocean was a bit turbulent, and the wind sharp,  but it wasn't crowded.

We were quite shocked by how much beach erosion had occurred since we last visited this end of Pawleys Island.  That big circle of water in the foreground of the photo above used to be all sandy beach.

And the channel between Pawleys  Island and Litchfield Island has widened so that its edges almost reach the homes on the ends of each island. This photo was taken at low tide. In the past, we used to be able to walk across this channel at low tide;  I doubt that that is possible anymore. 

Some of that sand washed directly offshore, where it is causing rougher wave action than we've ever seen.

Can you feel that riptide pulling you into the Atlantic?

Even the surfers were staying out of the water today.

All the more room for us to roam the beach without having to wear a COVID mask, or make wide detours to aid contact with strangers. 

First of the year PI Beach Walk: 1 '21

 

The rain stopped long enough today to allow us to take our 'First of the Year' beach walk on Pawleys Island.

It was gray, and a little windy, but not too cold, 

and,  we pretty much had the whole South end of the island to ourselves.

New Year's Eve Dinner: 12 '20

 We're celebrating New Year's Eve at home this year

With a homemade dinner of 

 classic Beef Bourguignon and mashed potatoes

Bruce loved every bite.

(I followed Julia Child's original recipe with near religious fervor.  No creative deviations on this recipe.  Its a definte keeper:  https://cafedelites.com/beef-bourguignon/)

December 31st Beach Walk 12 '20

Ever since we moved to Pawleys's Island  

Bruce and I have made it a tradition to visit Pawleys Island Beach 

on the last and the first day of each year.

Most years, we take a long walk along the shoreline,

but today it's been raining hard all morning. 

 We counted ourselves lucky to catch a short break in the clouds

 which allowed us enough time to dash to the beach.

It was obvious from the dark clouds 

which were closing in from the west of us

that there wouldn't be enough time for us to take a walk on the beach 

this year.

And judging by the height of the tide on the marsh,

if we lingered too long,

we might even be at risk of  the high tide flooding the streets

 leaving us stuck on the island

until the tide receded.

 

So we contented ourselves 

with watching the

glow on the marsh magically change,

as the sun slipped in and out of the clouds.

By the time we got home, it was pouring again.  

We'll try again tomorrow to take a beach walk,

 but the next several days are predicted to have a high probability of precipitation, so we probably won't get to take our first 2021 beach walk

 until Monday, Jan 4, 2021, or later.