Ashepoo River: Horseshoe Creek to Highway 303 Bridge
Later this month a few of us will attempt a 35 mile, one-day, circumnavigation of James Island. To prepare for this rather long trip, we've been practicing with ~20 mile day paddles.
On June 10th, Jan, Allen, Ralph, and I rendezvoused at the Amoco Station in Jacksonboro and then headed over to Price Bridge Landing for the launch. The Amoco station has a huge parking lot and is at the intersection of Highway 17 and 64. It makes a terrific meeting point for trips on the Ashepoo or Combahee Rivers.
We were underway around 8:30 from the one-ramp landing. This landing is popular but I've always found a place to park so that I don't interfere with the trailer boaters. On this Tuesday morning, there were only two trailers at the landing.
Horseshoe Creek is narrow, winding, and scenic. Other paddle trips that I've taken from this landing include:
- paddling upstream and under the Highway 64 bridge
- paddling downstream, then up Chessey Creek to Chessey Landing, then following a canal back to Horseshoe
- paddling downstream to the Ashepoo, then downriver to a sandbar below the rail trestle.
Today's goal was mileage, so we paddled down to the Ashepoo River and headed upriver. The tide was ebbing so we were against the flow once we turned upriver.
Both the lower half of Horseshoe Creek and the lower section of our river paddle are bounded by old ricefields. However, as we traveled farther up the Ashepoo, the river narrowed and the rice fields morphed to woodlands.
Ralph knew of a place to stop, a private but untended ramp. It was muddy but after a couple of hours in our butt-boats, we needed a break.
As we neared the bridge, the river got significantly narrower and more scenic. On two occasions we had to push our way through vegetation that blocked the channel. Our goal was the bridge and damn it, we were going to the bridge.
There is a throw-in in the right of way next to the bridge. I've never launched from there but Allen and Ralph have a couple of times. A popular trip is to paddle from the throw-in down to Joe's Fish Camp adjacent to Highway 17. From what I'm told, you need to pay for parking at Joe's and make arrangements ahead of time.
After notching our belts for making it to the bridge, we backtracked downstream until we found a slightly-mud-covered sandy bank for our lunch stop.
The return paddle, due to an earlly June hot spell, was HOT. We found a place to get out and cool off in the river. Lots of gators along the river and one eyed us as we stood waste deep in the refreshing water.
Back at the landing, my GPS reported 19.01 miles for the roundtrip.
Some photos that I've taken on various paddles from Price Landing
