Blog

There is so much to write about this week, it’s hard to narrow it down to the few words allowed me here. After all, it’s Mica’s birthday on Sunday. The company ship’s dog will be a sporty 10 years old. Nearly born on a boat, that dog. Then there is the Wood thrush that sang…

Water ‍ ‍Bright hot sun has lightly toasted exposed skin before we slip into the clear soothing water of Lake Jocassee. Instant relief. Nerves are calm, frustrations dissipate, aches and pains ease, anxieties float away among a surface litter of pollen, leaves, and skittering waterbugs. We swim to an ice-cold waterfall where oxygenated water bubbles and…

 Love of place. That’s what drives us at Jocassee Lake Tours and Jocassee Wild Outdoor Education. It is why I like to be at the dock when our boats come in, watching the joy and amazement that people bring in with them. It is why I love the crowds on Saturday who fill the day…

All the Falls‍ ‍ What draws us to falling water? How does it satisfy a need in humans as ancient as the lineage of mosses and ferns that grown in its misty edges, as primal as the wail of a loon calling across open water? Does the oxygen around a waterfall fill our lungs in…

Wow. It’s June already. Where the heck did spring go? Well, in fact, it’s still here, if daily temperatures are any indication. High 70’s is as warm as it got this week, although, higher, summer-like temps are in the forecast for next week. Maybe next week summer will magically appear. I know astronomical summer is…

Lunchtime‍ ‍No one wants to see the national symbol flail. Or do they? We watch it happen this week on Lake Jocassee: a mature bald eagle flailing its way to shore. The bird’s powerful wings reach forward, row back, reach forward, row back: a perfectly executed butterflystroke. Its tail—white as snow—is held above water and…

After an early morning shuttle up lake to drop a couple of hikers at the Horsepasture Bridge Access to the Foothills Trail, I contently sat listening to the river and birds singing as the morning sun warmed me. Finishing my coffee, I made my way back to the dock to pick up another group for…

They’ve been underground since 2011. That year, vertical slits cut into slender tree twigs were tell-tale signs of where Magicicada females had laid their eggs. Eventurally, eggs hatched, tiny nymph cicadas dropped and burrowed through decomposing leaves, and for the past thirteen years they’ve lived in the ground, slowly, slowly, growing. Soon, maybe today, nature…

The Wonder Benches. There are two of them at Devils Fork State Park, thanks to the generosity of Friends of Jocassee. One faces out on the lake from the day use area, the other just above the working dock. Both are perfectly good places to plant oneself and just take in the wonder of Jocassee….

She senses us from a distance, squats into the grassy field, but a bird the size of a turkey hen can hardly disappear in shorn grass. We stop, watch quietly. She stands tall again. Within seconds a fluffy ball of baby turkey appears behind her. And then another, and another, until seven baby turkeys follow…

Each morning, before leaving the dock, I double check my weather app & Duke’s lake levels site just to be as certain as possible about the forecast for the day and what shoals to watch for.  Feeling fairly confident the predicted storms would start after we finished our tours, we set out in search of adventure.  Before…

Strong storms in the southeast are not uncommon in May, but strong storms on the sun that can be seen in the southeast… well, that’s definitely not common. A week of thunder and lightning, of hail and downed trees and tornados gave way to a clear, bright sky on Friday evening. Upstate SC observed a…