Kayak Charleston

Last Updated on September 12, 2023 by

Table of Contents

Shem Creek

Shem Creek is about 3 miles of inland marshland feeding into Charleston Harbor. The inlet right at the convergence of the Creek and Harbor is a popular spot for tourists with a ton of restaurants designed for both boat and walk up. For our part, we dropped in about 1/4 mile upstream from all of that commotion and continued to paddle upstream.
The website cautions paddlers to pay attention to the tides and we definitely paid a price at stages for ignoring the warning. While it’s not exactly strong enough to create whitewater, there were several sections where only one of us paddling meant we were staying in place or going slightly backwards. Made for some challenging birdwatching, but we soldiered on. The upside, of course, is once we got to a point where the creek narrowed so much we couldn’t paddle, all we had to do was turn around and coast home. That is, naturally, until the tide changed on us again the last quarter mile and we had to put in some genuine effort to get home.
One interesting thing about the creek and, I guess about Charleston in general, is the tidal marshlands create a really unique docking situation. Due to the fact the land surrounding the creek is so low with little elevation gain, the tides can change the shoreline substantively. Consequently, there are docks that are easily 500 feet long leading from the house out into a spot on the creek always deep enough to accommodate their boats. It makes for great paddling though, with wide expanses of marsh and lots of little side shoots to paddle around and explore before getting back into the main waterway.

Rantowles Creek

This is another excellent location to drop in among miles of marshland. Like all water feeding into Charleston Harbor, it is tidal, and once again we elected to ignore the tide charts. Luckily, sort of, we dropped in just before high tide with our turnaround point right at high tide. While we were naturally going in the wrong direction both ways, at least we were at the slowest point of tidal movement. Unlike Shem Creek, Rantowles looks and feels more like a river for much of its length, but it has the same concentration of long docks and small mansions dotting it’s shores. There are a few advantages to Rantowles worth pointing out. Primarily, it is less popular than Shem and therefore far more likely to be sparsely populated. We saw one power boat on the opposite shore and a single kayaker pulling out as we were putting in, so that’s a win.
Rantowles also has two convenient drop in points five miles apart and offers an opportunity to ride the tides for the duration of your paddle with a little logistical preplanning. It also feeds into the Stono River, so if kayaking out into the open water is not for you, but five miles just isn’t enough, the Stono River should provide more than enough distance. I was disappointed at the lack of birds as we saw only a handful, but it didn’t make the paddle any less entertaining.

Santee (Lake Marion)

Santee Lake was a drop-in right from the KOA, so it couldn’t have been more convenient. After paddling a bit upstream, we turned into what we thought was a marina and actually turned into the back side of the Santee Wildlife Refuge. What a beautiful stretch of water, calm, quiet, and full of life. We had a great opportunity to watch an Osprey catch a fish, fly it up into the trees and have himself a grand old feast. We could have paddled around all day in the swampy grove until Angela broke the news that water snakes climb trees. My attitude on snakes is well documented, so enough said.

Shem Creek

Rantowles Creek

Santee (Lake Marion)

Feel free to share a thoughtCancel reply