A large contingent of paddlers met at the McDonalds on Highway 378 in Columbia on Saturday October 6th for our Black Mingo Creek paddle. Kate drafted Steve Kelsay as trip leader due to a sore back. Steve led our fearless group to the put in on Highway 41 below Hemingway, SC. There we joined up with a group from the Low Country paddlers. We had 17 paddlers for wonderful trip down the Black Mingo Creek and for a short time on the Black River. It was a near perfect day for paddling and Steve has us on the water in time to enjoy paddling with the current for most of our 4 hour 10 minute time on the water.

Black Mingo Creek is unlike the other creek paddles we have enjoyed lately. It is wide, deep and there were no trees or limbs to go over or around. Steve pointed out the historical significance of the creek as a trade route and how the area was turn from a swamp to rice fields in the 1600s. The highlight of the trip occurred during the lunch stop at Cow Head Landing. Jeffrey Day was lamenting the fact that I had neglected to bring along a Latte machine with my small table and mini lounge chair. One of the Low Country paddlers came to the rescue by showing Jeffery that he had a portable Latte device. It looked more like a thermos bottle to me, however Jeffrey had his latte and all was well. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a tree for Jeffrey to climb on this trip.
We did not see a lot of wild life but Andy did stop a rather large snake early in the trip and we had five or six buzzards watch over one of our trips across river as we avoided a sand bar. I've seen too many river crossings on television to feel comfortable about seeing waiting buzzards. But we all were able to make it past the buzzards and the trip went on without incident.

The trip length was 10.9 miles, our moving average was 3.4 mph, and we averaged 2.6 mph overall. Thanks go out to Steve Kelsay for doing a fantastic job filling in for Kate and leading a great trip.

Trip report by Mike Hollis

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