What Animals Live in the Ashley River
By David Kuczkir
The Lowcountry is truly a unique place. A depression-lying littoral expanse stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hilton Head Island, the Lowcountry is replete with virginal bulwark islands, rare and exotic wildlife, and resplendent waterways.
The juggernaut of these waterways is the Ashley River, a South Carolina State Scenic River. Ashley'due south 24,000-acre historical district, with 130 historical national landmarks, is one of the largest in the country. The network of waterways is an all-year playground for canoeists and kayakers. What'southward more, paddling Ashley is tantamount to traveling dorsum to the days when everyday life depended on the ebb and catamenia of the tides.
The 36-mile Ashley River is tidal and flows from her swampy headwaters in Berkeley County, Due south Carolina, to the famed steepled city, Charleston. In February 2014 the conservation organization American Rivers all-powerful Ashley a Blue Trail. According to American Rivers Senior Director Gerrit Jöbsis, "A Blueish Trail is a waterway adopted by a local community that is dedicated to improving family-friendly activities, such as fishing, paddling, and wildlife-watching, and conserving riverside state."
The Ashley River Bluish Trail (ARBT) is 30 miles in length, from Sland's Bridge to the mouth of Towne Creek, and is split up into the due north and the south trails.
The sugariness spot of the ARBT, and of the river, is a 15-mile swath between Drayton Hall, a pre-Revolutionary plantation, and Bacon'due south Bridge. Paddling upriver, the showtime six miles is a no wake zone, home to three earth-renown riverside plantations: Drayton Hall, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, and Middleton Place.
The 1738 main house on Drayton Hall, framed in romantic early-English gardens, is remarkably the but intact plantation firm on the river. The 24 other significant plantations were either burned in the Revolutionary or the Civil Wars, or destroyed in the 1804 hurricane or the 1886 earthquake.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, founded in 1672, has the oldest naturally landscaped gardens in America. Thick with flowering camellias, azaleas, crape myrtles and fragrant magnolias that pop throughout the seasons, the gardens are the birthplace of the American tourism manufacture.
Middleton Identify was established in 1755. Visitors from around the world pay homage to the symmetrical Butterfly Lakes (twin lakes that resemble butterfly wings) and the meticulously manicured gardens. The Garden Club of America has called the 65-acre oasis "the most important and most interesting garden in America."
The river affords gorgeous vistas of the gardens, and of the Drayton business firm.
The Ashley River Heritage Trail (ARHT), a trail within a trail, is a 5.5-mile float between Middleton Place and Bacon's Bridge. "It stretches into the upper reaches where the h2o's skinny, more suitable for paddlers," explains Jöbsis. The environment are intimate, dimmed by the awning of massive oak boughs snaking out over the slow-flowing, tannin-colored water.
The ARHT showcases eight archeological sites comprised of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century shipwrecks and landings that are all exposed at depression tide.
Near the northern terminus lies a well-preserved 1697 trading town, Colonial Dorchester Land Celebrated Site. Archeological digs are ongoing. The 1757 fort is the all-time preserved tabby fortification in the country. Portage along the bank then explore this unique historical landmark.
Both trails only scratch the surface of Ashley's repertoire of things to do and run into. According to Jöbsis, "The bully matter near the Ashley is information technology'south tidal." Plan the tides correct and you can cover a lot of river in one twenty-four hour period. Jobsis' enjoys paddling Ashley'southward myriad of creeks, "They are an excellent sanctuary for paddlers from motorboats and allows 1 to get lost among the tidal marshes."
If you lot Go:
The 55-room Inn at Middleton Place is located on the scenic Ashely River. Rooms have fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling windows that afford sweeping vistas of the Ashley and of the sunrise. Telephone call 800-542-4774, 843-556-0500 or e-mail reservations@theinnatmiddletonplace.com
Outfitters and Guides
Sun and Moon Kayaking provides guides and outfitting services for kayaking. Call 843-452-6917 or email marker@sunandmoonkayaking.com
Charleston Kayak Company provides guides and outfitting services for kayaking, canoeing and paddle boarding. As well offered is a unique guided-kayak tour of the Blackwater Cypress Swamp (Nov thru April). Call 843-628-2879 or due east-mail service charlestonkayak@gmail.com
Menstruation Info: NOAA Tide Predictions for the Ashley River
The article was originally published on Canoe & Kayak
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What Animals Live in the Ashley River
Source: https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/the-ashley-river/
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