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The false spring of early November has finally eased into more typical fall like weather but not before confusing some of the small leaf rhododendron into blooming out of season. Birds are arriving daily. Large rafts of Bonaparte’s and ring-billed gulls are floating on both the surface and the breeze. We’re watching grebes practice their…

Wet The air this first week of December is an ocean of suspended wet. Not rain, just… wet. We swipe at boat seats one last time with a not-quite-dry towel and cover them with an almost dry blanket, admonishing “Sit! Quick! Before the seat gets wet again!” Swaddled in blankets, we cruise out into the…

DELIRIUM. That’s the state our dog Mica nearly enters whenever we take her to the coast, as we do most every Thanksgiving. I mean, where else to properly celebrate the abundance of the North American continent than the coast of South Carolina. The vast depth of the salt marshes, the endless Atlantic, the miles upon…

Just Imagine!   These wild children… are they entering the not-so-far-away land of imagination? Is this young lady imagining herself as a microscopic being, freshly immerged from a watery home, hidden and quenched in a bed of moss? Is this child writing the story where he is once again a Cherokee youth, slipping quietly in…

‍And so… the quiet time begins. Leaves are falling along with the water temps, exposing rock houses, slopes & portions of waterfalls that are usually hidden from view. Wildlife surely must breathe a sigh of relief as peace echoes down the escarpment and across the water. A slower pace doesn’t mean we’re not busy. We…

Gratitude, continued   There are days when this place called Jocassee is a living devotional. When the water is clear and calm, when light is radiant, when cloud shadows tiptoe across mountaintops, when the glorious elegance of an unexpected moment in time makes the heart beat a little faster—this is what brings us, again and…

THE BONEY’S ARE HERE! THE BONEY’S ARE HERE! The smallest and most agile of the gulls we are privileged to see in our part of the world, the arrival of Bonaparte’s gulls in early November every year announces the beginning of fall migration of the waterbirds that call Jocassee home for the winter. As predictable…

Gratitude What a week it’s been along the base of the Blue Wall. Showers of leaves floating down like fat snowflakes on Monday. An unexpected snow cloud showering over Jocassee on an otherwise clear, bone-chilling Tuesday afternoon. A view of mesmerizing colors from aurora borealis dancing into South Carolina mountains on Tuesday and Wednesday nights….

Chances are if you’ve been out with us, we’ve given you something seasonal to taste while you’re on the boat. It’s very common for us to offer guests a sour apple flavored leaf from a sourwood tree, a wintergreen twig from a sweet birch, or a sun-warmed muscadine grape. Right now, American persimmons are ripe…

Noticing November Float around a bend of mountain dipping into the clear waters of beautiful Lake Jocassee. Witness beech, birch, and sourwood—cadmium yellow, raw sienna, and Indian red—dancing a sexy tango. Here, Breeze is light, blocked by Mountain, and ki carries wood smoke fragrance from a nearby campfire. Round a point towards Horsepasture Valley and…

JOCASSEE LOON AND WINTERBIRDS REPORT! And it’s about time. My neck is just about stretched out looking up for the first loons of winter to arrive. We’ve had increasing numbers of Bald eagles over the last few weeks, and on Thursday, Oct. 10 our first loons appeared. ! Most of our guides spotted them. 2…

Cool nights, shorter days and soaking rain have transformed the Jocassee Gorges. The streams are full again with picturesque cascades and surging waterfalls. Now that chlorophyll production has significantly slowed, the scarlet, maroon, terra cotta, amber and olive leaves are dazzling. They won’t last long – so book a seat and check them out before…