Everyone is invited to attend the annual Palmetto Paddlers Christmas Party in the Luther Lee Building on December 8th beginning at 6:30. The club will provide turkey, ham and refreshments. Everyone is ask to bring a covered dish to share.

Sometime during the camaraderie we'll have a short meeting to elect club officers for the coming year and hand out some nice door prizes.

At the Luther Lee Building. Our speaker this month will be Slim Ray. He is one of the co-authors of the book River Rescue. The book is considered the standard for river safety and rescues. It is now in it’s 4th printing. The book mainly focuses on swift water safety and rescues but it is a very valuable for all types of paddling rescue scenarios.

Note: This is the same announcement as 2 years ago with updating for dates, times, tides,weather, etc. All the links still work. We had a great time 2 years ago with cooler weather and few bugs we were able to explore the inner island. We saw eagles at the campsite, dolphins between out boats on an evening cruise, gators in the inland ponds and lots of birds. 18 people were there without about half coming on the second day. Many friendships developed and stories were told at the campfire which might have been a little exaggerated. The only bad that happened is that I broke my arm wrestling in the sand by the campfire and a certain couple forgot to bring food. This year, wrestling is banned and I have been banned from wrestling for life, especially by my family and by those who go rafting with me on the Ocoee River. The person who forgot the food did not forget to bring drink and it is rumored that he subsided on the fruit of the vine while his wife was generously fed by friends. Two years ago a few had trouble finding the restaurant due to the construction from the new bridge. So, the restaurant in Shem Creek is not fixed in stone and we can consider other recommendations and have maps to pass out so no one gets lost.

Capers Island
It's time for the annual Capers Island Overnight. Capers Island is a Barrier Island located three miles off of the coast near Charleston. It is nestled between Dewees Island to the Southwest, and Bulls Island to the Northeast. It is 3.5 miles long. We will be camping on the South End. This is a tidal-dependent trip so we must leave the landing for the trip out to the island by 12:00 noon Friday Nov. 16th. See "Tides" for a full years worth of Capers Tides (attached).

Please see the previous Capers Island trip reports and photos to learn more about this exciting and enchanting place.

Meet: 11 am at Georgia Welcome Center on I -20 just after leaving SC heading into Augusta. About 1 hour 45 minutes from Columbia. Shuttle to put-in is 15 minutes away. Don't be late, shuttle starts at 11:15am

Put in: Santee State Park boat ramp 10:00 Saturday, November 7th. Paddle across lake to campsite on island. Approximately 1½ miles. Set up camp and people can then explore on their own from there. Return on Sunday.