Lost in Congaree

September 30th, 2010

I arrived at Congaree National Park, with no expectations. Congaree sits 20 miles East of Columbia, SC and about the middle of South Carolina. Few people have even heard of it. I only found it thanks to Google Earth.

Once I arrived, it was hard to understand why it lay so quietly. This beautiful national park boasted zero fees for admission, camping, and even canoe tours (though I unfortunately did not have time to try them out).

When a national park/monument gets enacted it has an option of charging fees. The federal government will fork over 'X' amount of dollars for the park, anything required beyond that is up to the park. The kind lady running the visitor center informed me that of the 170 odd national parks 100 are free, but many of their amenities (like parking) may be not. Congaree, however, charged for very little. They manage this by cutting down on the staff and luxuries. There are no showers, no electricity, water, or RV hookups. To get water I had to borrow a 'key' that turned on the spigot on one side of the visitor center. This makes Congaree a popular back country camping destination, and contained only 7 normal campsites.

The campsites turned out quite primitive. All seven of them were spread around a small pond, and only accessible by a long trail. These walk-in sites required you too carry your stuff up to 300 meters into the sites. A small sacrifice to camp free at such a beautiful place.

It being a weekday in the off-season in a park nobody knows about, meant I was 1 of the 2 visitors in the entire park.

For the only time on the entire trip, I was alone and secluded. I chose a campsite 2 down from the other guest. With the campsites spaced so far from each other, I couldn't even see my neighbor. That being said, I did have 200 meters to carry all my stuff, which luckily only took a few trips.

Surrounded by trees, birds, and quiet, it was quite amazing

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With my camp set up I went adventuring. Although I was in the deep forest, I still was in the lowlands, and therefore did not worry about bears. So I took with me everything for a long journey, planning to return late in the night.

Congaree national park is the largest tract of old-growth floodplain forest remaining on the continent. It contains some of the tallest trees in the east, and some of the highest canopies in the entire world. What saved this piece of land was it's location in the floodplain. Growers and foresters alike found this swampy location very hard to profit off of, and by 1976 was finally turned into a National Park.

Old growth forests are the mecha of biodiversity in the science world. Taking hundreds of years to reach, these forests contain huge trees, large dead snags, and a rich diversity of plant and animal life. In the United States, few (and I mean few) tracts of old-growth forest even remain. Most were cut down for wood and never allowed the 200 years to grow back. This habitat being specifically an old-growth floodplain forest, one that regularly fills with water, is so rare I couldn't find another example of it online. I suspect somewhere in north central America such as Idaho, however.

With all that said, I am in love with this area, and expect pictures would do it more justice than words. So here's the results of my 5+mile hike around the boardwalk and river trail:

1. Containing some of the highest canopies in the world. These trees are counted as "champion trees". Which means they are the largest of their species in the nation








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3. You can see how flooded the area is. This moist understory features many fungi and mosses. It even boasts bio-luminescent fungi, though I never found any.





4. The beautiful boardwalk.










5. In most cases the boardwalk was necessary to protect the fragile moist ecosystem below it.









6. To cut cost, most of the boardwalk and bridges were made by local boyscout groups.









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8. The boardwalk did ended once the flooded ecosystem subsided, and the rest of the trail continued along the river.





9. I walked along the trail along the river, till I suddenly heard a loud chattering and splashing. I turned just in time to see a black mammal scurrying off into the other side of the river. And there on the other side of the river was a family of river otters, racing away from me. So I did the natural thing at this time, sat down, and waited. Eventually the otters returned, curious to see if I was still there. They swam up to this pool, then did the strangest thing. It started barking at me.
10. This guy, on the right side of the tree, would periodically poke his head from the side of the tree and bark at me. Then quickly hide again on the other side.





11. Till eventually I had two otters poking their heads from the side of the tree. Barking at me, then hiding behind the tree again. This went on for perhaps 5 minutes, before I gave up on taking better pictures and left them.




River Otters...easily the coolest thing I have seen yet.

12. And so I went back on to my walk







13. This just shows the diversity of the trees, where my camp was mainly pine, there now is a broad mixture of species, including bald cypress with moss hanging from them.




14. Night started winding down as I hit the lake. Make sure to check full size picture on this one.









15. I found this guy hopping across my path. Oak Toad







16. Notice how well he blends in with the surroundings.







17. I completed the circle, and I ran into a couple of bug collectors like these. Researchers placed them throughout the boardwalk while I was hiking. The collector work by attracting the bugs with the bright light, once there the bugs fall into the bucket and are unable to get out. This is thanks to the funnel like opening at the top of the bucket. I'm guessing it's was a study on the various species found in the park.



As I walked in the growing darkness, with my headlamp on, I began hearing my favorite denizen of the night. The Barred Owls. These owls generally are deep forest owls, not seen much in neighborhoods. They're best distinguished by their ridiculously cool call. Click on the link and listen to it. It's unmistakable and quite creepy in the dark. I counted as many as 5 owls calling to each other around me, as I walked along the boardwalk. It really is an amazing thing to experience. I even sat under a tree with one calling in it, but I couldn't find him. I took some recordings, and I'll try to get that up as soon as I can.

With my journey wrapping up and night clearly set in, I traveled back home. I felt confident traveling at night due to the reflective trail markers stapled on the trees. My spirits high, and confident in my location, I began gathering firewood for my camp. This was about the time the reflective tape disappeared, to be replaced by dark blue paint on the trees. Withing 5 minutes I looked around and realized, I was lost. I back tracked many meters, just to find out everything looked the exact same.

I Matt Boone, admit I suffer from over confidence, and occasional lapse in paying attention.

But before my Mother comes in yelling at me, I will admit I never was infact lost. I had a gps, map, and a light to my west. I merely was sorta-lost. So ego thoroughly shot down, I took off towards the light.

I made it to the parks field houses and took the road the rest of the way back. The night contained another first, as it was the first night it rained on me. Because of this, the rest of the night was fairly uneventful, and with morning I regretfully left Congaree.

Next stop Greenville