SC coastal swamp climbing - Loblolly Pine

Day after the cypress climb I explored further and ended up going in an inlet off the creek. From there I found some decent sized loblolly and had the luxury to set my line from firm ground. Turned out to be good height trees for an area that was slammed by hurricane Hugo in '89. My access limb was a bit over 90' and I had probably 35' feet to climb from there to the top. Speaking of Hugo, pretty much every large tree had clear evidence of wind damage, the large loblolly had all been topped by wind in the 100-120' height range and are now regrowing new tops from upper side limbs. I guess they've evolved with hurricane activity, if they don't fall over they keep on going.

Big cypress snag, possibly broken during Hugo but more likely a previous hurricane, it looked like it had been standing nearly dead for a very long time.


Palmetto understory at the edge of the creek, the flooded woods go waaaay back in.


Canoe landing in a backwater inlet


Look down during SRT ascent


Wind topped loblolly next tree over


Switched over to DRT to get to the top


Bald Cypress swamp as far as you can see, nothing made by humans visible in any direction except a radio tower on the horizon


Sundown from the top


All the photos here

-AJ

Hey Moss, what an adventure!!
Setting a line from a canoe would be a great challenge
The solitude must have been beautiful
Great photos mate,