Biking in Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina

 

• Date Biked: Sunday, September 13, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 10.15
• Type of Trail: Paved road, beach
• Conveniences: Restrooms, picnic tables, park store, shelters
• Best Features: Well designed boardwalks that show off the tidal marsh ecosystem
• Worst Features: A bit crowded
• Wildlife spotted:  Gators, wood-storks, spoonbills, herons
• Vegetation: Marsh grasses, sea-oats, live oaks, pines
• Associated Website: https://southcarolinaparks.com/huntington-beach
• Primary Author: James

Before Cheryl and I ever met, both of our families had picked Myrtle Beach as their top vacation destination. But, neither of us was particularly in love with the area. On the surface, the whole area is mainly an experience in wall to wall traffic, overpriced restaurants, unending miles of strip malls, and crowded beaches. Our opinions shifted radically after we started biking and kayaking, however. Murrells Inlet is a great place to kayak, and just south of the town there's a paved section of the East Coast Greenway that covers a little over ten miles. The first three miles run through Huntington Beach State Park, and are thickly forested, though the forest isn't quite thick enough to cover the road noise from Highway 17 which is never more than a few dozen yards away. Still, Cheryl and I have probably biked this greenway segment at least a dozen time, and we've kayaked in the marshes right up to the causeway that leads into Huntington Beach State Park, but we've never actually gone into the park itself to bike until this September. The park is only three miles long. Just how much biking could we really do in it? 

Nature's perfect biking surface.

Quite a bit, it turns out, and we didn't even ride the section of the East Coast Greenway on this trip. We parked in the first parking lot across the causeway. Our first destination was to walk up onto a boardwalk overlooking the pond there to see if we could spot alligators. Mission accomplished! We spotted three gators right off the bat. By the end of the day, we pretty much stopped counting. 

The other thing we stopped counting was birds. When we kayak through the marshes, we catch glimpses of a lot of birds, but mainly we're down low among walls of marsh grass, so unless the birds are in the channel right in front of us, we don't always get a great view. But, the park features boardwalks along the causeway and another out into the marsh that give you great views of numerous birds. Everywhere we looked there were storks, herons, egrets, and spoonbills. There are covered shelters along the walkways where you can sit and watch the wildlife in comfort. It's well worth the price of admission into the park. 

Apparently, even birds can have bad hair days. 

Of course, we didn't go in primarily for the wildlife. We were there to ride bikes. Were there enough bikeable miles inside the park to make for a good experience. Yep! While there's only a few miles of paved road in the park, the beach itself is an excellent riding surface. The section of beach nearest the visitor center had too many visitors for us to ride on comfortably, but the northern section of beach was mostly wide open, broad and firmly packed. It ends at a paved jetty that you can ride on, though it's narrow and has some ugly potholes. Still, there's something cool about riding with waves on both sides and the open ocean as your vanishing point. 

All in all, we biked 10 miles, and if we'd ridden out and back on the greenway sections at the entrance we could easily have gotten 16 miles. We're excited about returning here the next time we're in the area. It seems like an especially promising place to bike in the winter, when the beach is probably even less crowded. 

Kayaking in Murrell's Inlet: Oyster Shell Recycling Put-in

• Date Kayaked: May 16, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 3.54 miles 
• Type of paddle: Ocean inlet
• Best Features: Easy access, 24 hours
• Put-in/Take-out:  Drive right up to the water's edge
• Worst Features: No facilities at landing, tide dependent
• Wildlife spotted: cannonball jellies, egrets, herons, oysters
• Vegetation: Marsh grass
• Associated Website: none
• Primary Author:  Cheryl

Before we owned kayaks, we had a canoe. It was a great starter boat, but it was heavy and awkward to load on the car.  Back on our honeymoon in 2011, we rented a kayak at a state park in Florida and tooled around on the Rainbow River.  It was much easier to maneuver, but it was still a tandem boat.  We knew single kayaks would be a lot of fun to try out, and also to transport.  One summer when down at the beach with James' family, we went to Woody's in Garden City Beach and rented ocean kayaks for 3 days.  That was it!  We were HOOKED!  The next spring we invested in our own kayaks and sold the canoe and began our paddling adventures. The following summer, we hauled our kayaks down for family vacation and James' sisters rented kayaks from Woody's and we became a boating family.  We've upgraded ours and other family members now own kayaks, and we love the adventures that we have together. 

Our kayaks lined up ready for adventure

We spent many of summer in Garden City Beach, SC with the family, and rented a house on the canals that feed into Murrell's Inlet.  So much of our early paddling was in the inlet exploring the different creeks that branch off the main channel.  But if you don't rent a house with water access, there are multiple public access on the Murrell's Inlet where you can put in.  

One of our favorites we refer to as Oyster Shell Recycling.  It's an unofficial boat launch just north of Huntington Beach State Park, down a dirt road where you recycle your oyster shells.  You put in a little south of the main channel of Murrell's inlet, into Oaks Creek.  Other launch points along the inlet include Morse Park Landing and the public boat ramp next to Crazy Sister Marina.  The closer to the marina, the bigger the channel - and the bigger the boats. 

We had a group of 7 in our flotilla including me, James, his sisters Joy and Gina, niece Madeline, Cousin Carrie and Uncle Chuck.  

I like putting boat in at the Oyster Shell recycling because there is less traffic down in Oaks Creek.  You avoid many of the jet skis, head boats and the banana boat riders that zip through the main channel. The marsh is full of birds.  On this day, we saw egrets, a hawk, ducks and snowy egrets.

And of course our favorite: blue herons.

Oaks Creek narrows into channels that become a maze, twisting through the marsh grasses.  Oysters are revealed when the tide is low.  

If you play the tides correctly, you can paddle all the way down to the causeway leading into Huntington Beach State Park.  We are always looking for gators, but so far we have not encountered them paddling in this area.

Huntington Beach State Park Causeway

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If you get too shallow, the pluff mud will stop you!  It creates a suction under your boat making it impossible to paddle, and you can't get out either or you will sink to your knees. I struggled for a bit to get back to flowing water.

Did I mention the tides?  While it is super easy to unload and load your boats here because you can pull right up to the water, keep an eye on the incoming tide.  We almost had to move the car before we finished tying up the boats.

If you're in the area and just looking for a good, easy paddle, check it out. Just watch the tides! The area to the right of the launch is wide and pleasant during high tide, but quickly turns impassible when the tide starts going out. It's not the end of the world, since the main channel of Oaks Creek keeps enough water to follow it back to the launch. Still, if you head into this area and start bumping bottom, you might want to turn back. It's a long slog through muck if you get stranded! Don't let that hold  you back, however. This is a great place to kayak any time of day or year.