In just a hundred miles, we saw the character of the river change several times.
Here the land is low and visibility stretches for miles. This was the first band of
cypress trees we saw. One of the things continually impressed on my mind was
the real understanding of how the Seminole were able to hide here and evade
capture or defeat. If you didn't read about it before, it's interesting to me that
there was no such thing as a Seminole Tribe. Seminole is a Spanish word meaning
'runaway' or 'wild-one' and assigned to them by the white man to describe all who
escaped into the St. Johns headwaters. They have since accepted the word
and even obtained a tribal charter in the Seminole name, but they were
originally made up of Creek, Muscogee, Choctaw, and large numbers of runaway
slaves. Their current culture is mostly Creek.
The morning quiet---no wind yet, smooth water, no sound but the chuckle of
the bow wave and the dipping paddle.
We made it into the Isle of Palms just a short time before the storm began
to move in with rain and wind in the 30+ mph range.
The Isle of Palms is also the site of the Airboat Memorial. You can see the
decaying horizontal wood propeller just above and behind my tent with the
names of multiple airboat operators that are remembered there.
This owl was perched in the top of a palm at Great Egret Camp. I was amazed at
how deep his voice was as he talked with another owl a considerable distance away.
I was afraid he'd "Who-who-whoooo" all night, but in the darkness he soon either
moved elsewhere or settled in to watch for critters on the ground below.
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