Capers Island 06

Got the chance this weekend to visit another one of South Carolina’s beautiful barrier islands. Arrived Friday evening in Mt. Pleasant after taking a circuitous route around and about the eastern portion of South Carolina. Checked into the hotel, found some dinner, then called it an early night to be well rested for the trip the next morning. Took off early, but not too early, to catch the falling tide out of the Isle of Palms Marina.

My buddy of a long time, Frank who is VP of Educ. at this place http://www.wildlifeaction.com/ made the trip with me.

Frank and I muggin' for the camera.

A couple of nice houses near the marina.

Turning out into the intracoastal waterway. As you can see in this photo, conditions were very nice and no boat traffic, but that would change quickly.

An endagered Wood Stork?

Immature American Brown Pelicans.

Near perfect day for paddling with a little wind bending the sweet grass.

One of the many islands along the route to Capers Island.

Looking SE towards Dewees Island. The tower you can see in the distance was purportedly used to watch for German U-boats during WWII.

We reached the Southern tip of Capers Island and unfortunately quite a few motorboats had beat us there so we decided to continue on to the Northern tip of the island in hopes of more secluded real estate. There was some pretty descent wave action at the mouth of Capers Inlet so we decided to work our way through the system of creeks behind the island and forgo the ocean paddling, a little disappointing, but prudent. This dock marked the approximate halfway point of our paddle through the creeks.

Frank, wielding the paddle like a weapon, preparing to get back into the kayak after stretching a bit.

After picking our way through about 4.5 miles of creeks we emerged at the inlet between Capers Island and Bull Island, unfortunately there were motorboats here too. I had looked over this area using satellite imagery from Google Earth and was glad I did because the maps we were using during the trip didn’t show many of the smaller creeks.

First heard then saw this commotion occurring to my left (NE) in the middle of the inlet and pulled my camera out to catch a school of dolphin feeding.

If you couldn’t tell that was a dolphin fin that might be an intimidating sight!

More dolphin.

Right before I was able to get this shot off one of the dolphins actually grabbed a fish (a mullet, I believe) in its mouth and then threw it up about 20 feet into the air. I guess its mother never told it not to play with its food.

Capers Island – Ocean side. Extremely calm conditions on this end and best of all, no motorboats. I was told motorboats rarely turn the corner on either ends of the island to expose themselves to the ocean waves – that was true at least on this occasion.

Atlantic Ocean – calm and purring like a kitten. There are a couple pelicans (right of center) riding the waves and if you are able to blow the picture up you can see the watch tower on Dewees Island to the right of them. The last bit of land you can see slightly left of center is Isle of Palms, our embarkation point.

Beached and unpacking.

Looking Southwest down the beach. Tide is just beginning to ebb. The large black object occupying the lower left of the photo is a bike saddle bag that I was using to hold my camera and represents a betrayal of my photographic skills.

Frank's first catch of the day. Sand Shark?

Close up, if this helps in the identification. Tossed him back and he went along his way.

Sunset on Capers Island.

Cheese nips and a little Kung Po Chicken for dinner while sitting back and doing a little evening fishing.

Sunrise over Bull Island.

The launch. Note the very inviting conditions, virtually no waves, thanks in no small part to the low tide and exposed sand bar you see in the right half of the picture. We wanted to catch the tide on the rise and the water pouring back through the inlets and into the creeks to aid us on our return paddle.

More wood storks.

Looking back at Capers Island from the creek that meanders its way behind it, you can see the fairly dense tree covering that dominates the middle of the island. Very healthy looking environment back here.

Back at the dock at the midway point of Capers.

Leaving Capers and looking toward Dewees.

Almost back at the Marina.

Map of the route.