Tag Archives: kayaking

Water Therapy

#hiltonheadisland, Hilton Head Island, therapy, water, poetry, fathoming,

For the past almost month, I’ve been in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina staying with my sister due to family health issues. We are not originally from coastal South Carolina, it’s just where she, her husband, and my mom all retired to after spending vacations there. So, we’ve been visiting for years.

I have mixed feelings about Hilton Head. I like the water – beautiful beaches and a series of scenic sounds, lagoons, and other waterways great for kayaking. I like the temperature, lots warmer than the Frozen Northern Mid-Atlantic this time of year. Not so crazy about the politics, the use of the word “Plantation” in the name of the developments, and a few other things. (Oh, and I have to say that having had my mom in the hospital here twice in the last month, the health care leaves a lot to be desired as well but that’s another story.)

Last year when we rented our own “villa” here for the month of January, I found out you could join the “kayak club” here at Palmetto Dunes Plantation’s Hilton Head Outfitters for a reasonable calendar year price. Palmetto Dunes has 11 miles of kayakable lagoons, and their kayak launch makes it really easy for a “senior kayaker” like me to get in and out quickly and relatively painlessly.

Throughout January, and during visits in April and October, and in the last month, I have more than paid for my kayak club membership in paddles around the lagoons. Eleven miles sounds like a lot, but I have been around the whole of them at least twice or three times now. Different seasons bring different colors and birds and just things you didn’t see the first time, though, so it’s all good.

Being on the water, under your own power, is definitely therapeutic for me. Quiet, just your paddle dipping in and out of the water, watching the sometimes obscenely opulent homes arranged along the lagoon slide by, looking for alligators (I’ve only ever seen one this whole time) and trying to sneak up on the herons to take photos… all good. I can forget everything else for an hour or two. How sad it is that my brother in law passed away a week after Thanksgiving. How hard it is to see my mom so frail and mostly confined to bed. How much I miss my own home and friends back in the DC area.

Here are some snaps of my watery adventures. I hope you all have a peaceful and happy holiday and get to indulge in visiting some of your own personal favorite places and activities. May 2022 bring all good (or at least better) things for us all.

Shifting colors, moving water, amusing boat names.
Even though this is a highly populated area, with homes lining the lagoons, in some parts of the system you can get the illusion of being “in the wild.”
The wildlife is pretty tame. It’s easy to get close to a great blue heron until it catches on to you.
Look carefully as Mr. (or Ms.) alligator is pretty well camouflaged here. And really, very small as alligators go. The lagoons are brackish so not so conducive to these shy critters.
Lots of “happy places” that your mind can return to (even if they are in someone else’s backyard, but you can image sitting out there on a nice day yourself.
Strange (and timely?) dock art.

Peaceful Paddling

#palmettodunes, travel,

January seems like a dream now, one where I was paddling serenely through the placid waterways of the Palmetto Dunes home/condo/golf course/hotel/tennis court/etc complex. [NOTE: They call these “plantations” down there. Nuff said.]

I discovered that for a not too bad price, one can join the “kayak club” at Palmetto Dunes outfitting store/rental area and get unlimited access to kayaks whenever one wishes for a whole calendar year. So you know, frugal person I am, I had to challenge myself to get out there as often as possible.

My goal was to hit all 11 miles of water trails in the “lagoon system,” and I am somewhat proud to say I reached the goal, even did a couple of parts more than once in my seven trips out. In case you are picturing a tropical paradise, it was somewhere between the high 40s and low 60s most of the days I was out there, but you work up some warmth paddling and if the wind is not hitting you face-on, it’s not so bad.

Kayaking around Palmetto Dunes is interesting as a lot of the views are of the waterfront “back yards” of some very swanky homes and golf courses that come right to the water’s edge. Still, there are also a few wilder areas with just trees (lots of pines and live oaks with overhanging Spanish moss), and plenty of birds: the ducks and cormorants who fly straight at you and then veer away at the last minute; the pelicans who dive beak-first at great speed; the herons who stalk the shores waiting for that unsuspecting prey; the ospreys who swoop gracefully overhead, sometimes carrying a big fish in their beaks. No gators or other wildlife in evidence this time of year.

The air is fresh and pine scented and when you get away from the roads and the sounds of construction (seemed like a lot of roof repairs going on for one thing), you hear only the swish of your own paddles slicing through the water. I rarely saw any other paddlers, even though lots of those waterfront houses had kayaks piled up near their docks.

Those folks don’t know what they’re missing.

This is one of the highest end “single family homes” in Palmetto Dunes I encountered on my paddles. Though a lot of times these get rented out for destination weddings and stuff I think.
Yeah, good advice. Though I think the gators kind of hibernate in the winter.
Shot off the bow. It wasn’t always this calm, I was fighting a chilly wind on some occasions. But the effort keeps you warm!