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Joros‍ Maybe they arrived here as youngsters, stowed in a shipping container. Maybe they were hidden in a box and trucked into the Georgia foothills in pitch blackness. Maybe there were only a couple of them, but more likely there were hundreds. Maybe some of them didn’t survive. Maybe the survivors spun out a balloon…

VOTE! Yep, it’s that time again. Every four years we are called to help shape the future of our country, and with that comes an opportunity to let you know where we stand. And since we know you are waiting breathlessly for our sage guidance, here it is. With a deep sense of urgency, we…

Competition ‍ In a quiet cove on the west side of Lake Jocassee, one brilliant yellow paw-paw tree glows in light of autumn sun shining through its leaves. We sit in awe. Surely, this is the most beautiful tree in the Jocassee Gorges. We putter on, across Devils Fork and around Fisher Knob Mountain, and…

  For most of us ready for a respite from a long, dry summer and the clean up from the hurricanes, October has arrived with its sweatshirt mornings and short sleeve afternoons. Mid 40’s to low 50’s to start the day and mid 70’s by late afternoon. Migrating Monarch and Sulfur butterflies begin to move…

Windy mornings‍ Air chilled from longer nights and higher elevations sinks down through the Jocassee Gorges and hits a lake surface still registering around 70 degrees. As air flows across warmer water it rises. The result is predictable. Wind. Whitecaps. An eye-opening spray of water across the bow of a boat. We pull out ponchos,…

I scanned the shoreline of Jocassee and breathed a sigh of relief. The mountains were still standing. Swaths of trees were uprooted and blown down into messy piles of trunks and branches. Layers of saturated soil were gone, slipped off of the rocks into the depths of Jocassee. Yet still, Bald Eagles rose in spiral…

Aurora borealis‍ It’s dark over Lake Jocassee, and a billion bright stars pierce the night sky. The Milky Way arches overhead. Bright parking lot light fades towards the far end of the dock, and there we gather, hoping for a glimpse of the famous northern lights. A couple from Easley are self-professed “lights chasers”…

The storm came and went, leaving so much devastation and sadness. So many of us moved to this part of the world to escape hurricanes, and for the most part, that strategy has worked. Not this time. As the oceans warm, the weather is becoming more unpredictable, more ferocious. And yet it is fall, and…

Power‍ Trees grow up and trees fall down. Rivers rise into floodplains. Human settlements among trees and along floodplains are left as fragments in the aftermath of nature’s awesome power. We start over. We clean up messes. We, the humans affected by nature’s power, meet the challenges with strength and patience, until both ebb with…

‍JLT guides and crew members headed out onto Lake Jocassee on Monday to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. We were the only boat on the lake. The day was quiet and overcast. The waterfalls were full and powerful, but clear of mud. The lake was back to full pond, after weeks of low water. There…

‍Words fail, and so, sometimes, do photographs. So let’s leave this blank for this week, and remember that everything changes.  Helene‍ As many times as I attempt to verbalize the experience of this storm, words will only serve to trivialize what so many have been through. So, I would like to suspend all words except “thank you.” Thank you to neighbors who have worked together to clear fallen trees, thank you to the rescuers, thank you for government programs providing the funds to run helicopters and bulldozers, emergency shelters and water stations (our tax dollars at work), thank you to utility employees who have come to our rescue, restoring internet service, replacing broken power poles and restringing power lines, and thanks to all of you who simply care. And now, a moment of silence for the many, many human…

With the lack of recent rainfall, the lake is down 9’ below full pond. This gives us plenty of beach areas to pull up to, plus it makes the exposed shoreline more interesting to view. Instead of boating right up to some of the waterfalls like usual, now we’re having to beach the boats and…