November 14 2012 Francis Beidler forest sanctuary, SC

This 16,000 acre sanctuary contains the largest known stand of virgin cypress and tupelo trees in the world. It is a black water cypress/tupelo creek swamp.  Creek swamp means it is a creek that flows thru  braided channels in a 1.5 mile wide floodplain. There is a is a 1.75 mile boardwalk for a close look at cypress trees that are more than 1,000 years old. In the spring they offer a 4 mile canoe trail, but there is not enough water this time of year. It is awesome. Kind of like the redwoods, something you really need to see to get the feel and scale of the the whole thing. We were the only people out on the boardwalk while we were there. Really primeval looking.

Brake for snakes and turtles too. Help, my a gaiter has my head! Alligators, snakes, salamanders frogs and many other animals  live in this swamp. A swamp is a flooded forest, it is not always flooded, depends on the time of year and rainfall. This one  is a fresh water inland swamp.

Seen in the gift shop- May the Forest be with you, Never kiss an Alligator and back to nature.  John on the beginning of the boardwalk with palmettos growing around the boardwalk.

You would never make it back into here with out a boardwalk or boat. The rest of the year there is a foot or two more water here. Traveling thru this area you would be walking on the palmetto high ground, ankle high and knee deep thru a lot of it, and armpit high crossing the lakes and deep channels.  Stumbling over knees , roots and vines. The cypress trees have roots that stick out above ground from their roots called knees. No one really knows their purpose, perhaps to get air for the roots underground?  The older the tree, the knarlier the knees. Here are a couple knees that look like hands reaching up out of the swamp. The tallest knees here are 7 feet tall.

The meeting place tree on the boardwalk. These trees are so really tall, 100-150 feet tall. In the summer there are leaves on things, an understory and a canopy are above you.

In 1989 hurricane Hugo roared ashore near here and the eye of the hurricane passed right over this area. This tree fell and destroyed this part of the boardwalk. Pines snapped and hard woods uprooted and fell and  destroyed 3000 feet of the 6500 foot boardwalk. The cypress all survived just like they have for 100’s of years, they have such a big root system. Here are some knarly knees.

Tight trees and knees. These knees look like they are all screaming.

 

The lake behind these trees. The water in the swamp is tea colored from the tannins from the decomposing leaves. There is an aerial observation deck with benches so you can sit and bird watch. Thousands of birds pass thru here on their migrations  or live here.  There are 300 flora species and 300 vertebrates. It is one of the  richest flora and  fauna habitat there is. A couple of squirrels. It is winter and pretty cold, so we did not see many animals.

Gasp, John has fallen, I hope he can get up. He is photographing this giant bug.

john is crawling into a hollow tree. It is a live tree, and many animals live in these hollow trees. John’s feet in the tree.

We stopped at this general store on the way home. It is like the real, old generals stores were like. Had everything, and no t-shirt or post cards and tourist curios, just a basic good general store. Been there since 1933 and we talked to the old guy who owns it. He says is it one of the last of a dying breed of stores. Good old rural southern place.  They had many pork products, including salted butt. Looked like a hunk of fat. We got some fresh pecans at a roadside stand. From last year we have the proper pecan cracker and I made quick work of them.

John cleaned the heater nozzles, a little routine maintaince. It runs on diesel from the fuel tank. It was starting to back fire. Then he cooked dinner.