Camping on the Congaree

When you camp in February you risk camping in very cold weather.  To combat this, we planned our trip farther South than we normally venture.  We were heading into the Congaree National Park.  Going at this time of year served another purpose.  Camping in the swamp before all of the snakes, spiders, and mosquitoes come to life is critical.  

We checked the Park's website and verified the water level in the multiple creeks and in the Congaree river.  The park floods multiple times per year and water can cover 80% of the land.  At the time we took our trip the water was very low and the park was easy to navigate.

We headed out of the overnight parking area and onto the lower boardwalk.  Cypress trees and their "knees" were everywhere.

We left the boardwalk trail where the Oakridge Trail starts and followed it.  We had lunch just before we split off to the River Trail.  We sat on a bridge and dangled our feet over the water.  The water passing under the bridge didn't look very appealing.  It was moving slow and was very muddy.

When we had registered to camp at the visitor center we met a troop of Scouts that were also planning on camping along the river that night.  We were hoping to beat them to the river, but if they beat us we had a plan. We would lure them away from their camp with promises of Snipe hunting.  When they would leave on their hunt we would dump their tents and gear in the river, leaving us with a prime water front camp.

 We set up camp early in the afternoon. The earliest we have ever set camp.  We were located on the river bank along a stretch of sandbar.  The scouts. . . they were our neighbors.  I'm pretty sure one of the boys was carrying a Hello Kitty backpack. . .but that's not important.  We were relaxing on the Congaree river.

So there we were camping on the peaceful Congaree river on a beautiful February afternoon.  We were lounging on the dirt floor listening to the Boy Scouts sing Justin Beiber while Randy was carving a stabbing stick.  Yep, a stabbing stick. He sharpened up a stick to a fine point so that when the wild pigs started moving in on our camp late at night, he could stick his arm out of the tent and stab them all dead.  (See illustration below)

No camp fires are allowed while back country camping in the National Park, so we went to bed early.  The next morning we broke camp and headed back along the River trail.  At the end of the River Trail, we took a right turn and hiked several miles of the Oakridge Trail.  There are some really large trees along this trail and the largest downed tree I have ever seen is on the Oakridge Trail.

We caught up to the Weston Lake Loop Trail and took it back to the elevated boardwalk.  Some of the areas along Weston Lake were dry, but you could see the mud and water lines from previous floods.  Looks like a great place for snakes to live.

We finished our weekend with a great tradition of trying to find lunch in an unfamiliar city.  After chasing each other around the city of Columbia for a while and letting the GPS lead us on wild goose chases, we finally found some pizza.

I really enjoyed hiking and exploring in Congaree.  The level terrain made hiking easy and we didn't try to kill ourselves on the miles.  There were lots of interesting things to see at Congaree and I would gladly return. . . but not during the summer months.