To Understand the Soul of This Southern City, Head for the Water

In this special four-part series, join Unpacked host Aislyn Greene as she travels to ⁠Charleston, South Carolina⁠, to unpack the city’s deeper currents.

Up first: To really get to know ⁠Charleston⁠, you must spend time on its water ways. Aislyn heads out for a pre-dawn paddle, hunts for Ice Age fossils alongside Charleston’s Indiana Jones, and explores one of the most pristine marine parks on the East Coast—making new friends along the way (the human kind and the animal kind).

Transcript

Benjamin Toy, Nature Adventures: Oh dolphin! Directly ahead of us.

Aislyn Greene, host: I saw it! I saw the fins! See, it’s right on time.

Ben-Jamin: We’re, we’re in dolphin alley.

Aislyn [in kayak]: I know, exactly. It’s like they’re saying, “Follow us. Wow.”

Aislyn: When you think of Charleston, South Carolina, you might picture delicious food because, oh my gosh, those shrimp, they’re so good. Or you might picture American history, or iconic and historic architecture—and those things are for sure there and they are absolutely amazing and worth spending time with.

But at its heart, Charleston is a water town and it has some of the most diverse wildlife and spectacular protected marine wilderness in the United States. So to really understand the city, you have to spend some time on the water. And lucky for travelers like me and like you, that happens to be both easy and full of surprises. I’m Aislyn Greene, and in this Unpacked Mini we are setting sail on an adventure.

This is the first episode in a special four-part Unpacked series that explores Charleston’s deeper currents. On a recent trip I navigated Charleston’s rivers, its estuaries, its islands, and I made a lot of new friends in the process, including the dolphin kind, my favorite kind.

So come along with me as I paddle a legendary creek in the predawn hours, attempt to embrace my inner fossil hunter alongside Charleston’s Indiana Jones, and set out on a water-and-land nature safari.

Aislyn [on trip]: So it’s 5:45 a.m. and I’m in a dark parking lot. The address that I plugged into the GPS was 1 Shrimp Boat Lane, which is an address that I think promises adventure.

Aislyn: My first stop is a sunrise kayak tour with Benjamin Toy, also known as Ben-Jamin. Ben-Jamin is the co-owner ofNature Adventures, and we’re heading out into the calm, dark waters of Shem Creek, just about 15 minutes from downtown Charleston.

Ben-Jamin: OK, so we got about 12 minutes before I think first light starts coming.

Aislyn [in kayak]: Very cool, thanks, Ben.

Ben-Jamin: All right. You ready?

Aislyn [in kayak]: I’m ready. Let’s do it. Yay. Alright…

Ben-Jamin: Forward, go forward. Right [paddle].

Aislyn: It’s a marshy estuary area that Ben-Jamin knows very well.

Ben-Jamin: Technically I met my wife on the ramp where I just met you.

Aislyn [in kayak]: Oh, cool.

Ben-Jamin: And then, the next year we got married on an uninhabited island named Capers Island, which we do expeditions to. We got married and we stayed out that night, you know? There’s so many great waterways to paddle in Charleston.

Aislyn: To help set the scene a little bit, let’s talk about where Charleston is located: on a harbor known as, fittingly, Charleston Harbor, and that is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. And if you want to get really big picture, and of course we do, Ben-Jamin and I are paddling through what’s known as the low country.

Aislyn [in kayak]: The low country, what is that in your mind?

Ben-Jamin: Low country is a region basically that starts Orangeburgish, which is about 100 miles from here. And then it’s just tapered down all the way down to sea level, consistently low elevation. The entire coastal area of South Carolina is the low country.

Aislyn: OK, so back to the kayaks. It is a wonderful morning. It’s dark but it’s not too cold, and we’re paddling through the quieter parts of Shem Creek, which carves a winding path through Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston that is very pleasant indeed. The creek has long been an economic and cultural lifeline named after the Sewee, people who lived in this coastal area hundreds of years ago.

Near the harbor, Shem Creek is lined with a boardwalk and restaurants and bars that sparkle at night with light and laughter. But right now, we’re in the more residential part where expansive white homes and trees draped with Spanish mosque glide by as Ben-Jamin tells me the secret of Shem Creek.

Ben-Jamin: It’s a tidal creek, so it only is affected by the tide of the harbor or the ocean. It doesn’t connect to anything. So it goes up, it’s a fingerling and then comes back. So this changes directions four times a day with the tides. And so, but it’s almost a five and a halfish mile creek, with some shoot offs. So there’s eight miles of paddling just in this creek alone.

Aislyn [in kayak]: How cool.

Aislyn: With each paddle, light is starting to poke through along the horizon, illuminating the live oaks that get right to the edge of the banks. And while it seems quiet, I learn that the whole area is teeming with life.

Ben-Jamin: Our water is extremely productive as an ecosystem. Our waterways are very shallow, so the sunlight is able reach to the bottom in a lot of areas and actually vegetation grows on the bottom in quite abundance.

Aislyn: That means that manatees are sometimes seen swimming around here at a sea lettuce buffet, along with flounder and trout and tons of those delicious shrimp I mentioned—and sharks and crocodiles. But don’t worry, because those big guys tend to keep to themselves.

Ben-Jamin: We paddle right next to gators with no nervousness. Because the first thing that they wanna do is do nothing.

Aislyn [in kayak]: It’s too cold.

Ben-Jamin: And they wanna be the danger log and just be nothing, right? Now if we get a little too close, they go down and they swim away.

Aislyn: There are some threats in these waters, however.

Ben-Jamin: The most dangerous thing we have out there are oysters and barnacles. Hands bleed. Paddles and kayaks do not. So you can bump into things, [but] just push away [with your paddle] and we slide through the water.

Aislyn: At this point, we’ve been paddling for about an hour and are just taking some time to float along and enjoy the scenery, at one point, ducking beneath the umbrella of a live oak and watching the world transform. It’s remained a calm day, and the world around us is turning from shades of blue and gray to this full technicolor.

Ben-Jamin: The creek is bending and we’re looking down the water to a perpendicular tree line of live oaks with the grass in front. And so at this point, we are a few minutes, probably 15 minutes after actual sunrise, but it hasn’t fully poked through because of the tree line and the clouds. But now it’s just reflecting this amazing orange, a purple here and there. It’s just giving us a painted sky.

Aislyn [in kayak]: It really is.

Aislyn: But just because we’re immersed in the serene glow of sunlight illuminating the tops of spartina grass in the water doesn’t mean we don’t have some exciting moments.

Ben-Jamin: Look, you see the up there on the left?

Aislyn [in kayak]: Yeah!

Ben-Jamin: Dolphins splashing around? They’re in shallow areas now. I don’t think they’re mating—that sometimes could be signs of mating. Based on the size of the dolphins we saw that were maybe only four and a half feet long, five feet, my guess is that they’re trying to chase down some fish.

Aislyn: The dolphins here in Charleston do a specialized kind of hunting called strand feeding that is almost completely unique to this region.

Ben-Jamin: At low tide, a pod will chase schools of fish into this low bank area, basically creating a buffet and they beach themselves and they start eating at this buffet.

Aislyn: And since they usually do it at low tide, all they have to do after breakfast is wiggle back out into the rising water. It’s a technique they teach each other, passing the skill down through generations of dolphins.

Ben-Jamin: So yeah, that’s what’s happening. So it’s not true strand feeding because it’s not low enough tide. So they’re just in a shallow area trying to push things to the other dolphin, because there are two of them in the pod.

Aislyn: In the full light of sun, we finally paddle from the creek into Charleston Harbor, or as it’s known locally. . .

Ben-Jamin: I joke and say it’s the Charleston Harbor, C-H-A-A-A-A-S-E-O-N. That’s how to speak like a Southern.

Aislyn: My attempt to speak like a southerner is a total fail. So we are not playing that audio because I would like to be allowed back to Charleston, but that is OK because I’ve won the Shem Creek dolphin lottery, which apparently doesn’t always happen.

Ben-Jamin: So we don’t give dolphin tours but it’s one of the most things that people want to see. And I’m like, well, I can’t guarantee it, but it’s up there with and taxes. But when we do a sunrise tour, I guarantee the sun will come up, you know.

Aislyn [in kayak]: A money-back guarantee on that one!

Ben-Jamin: Oh dolphin! Directly ahead of us.

Aislyn [in kayak]: I saw fins! See, it’s right on time.

Ben-Jamin: We’re, we’re in dolphin alley.

Aislyn [in kayak]: What a treat to get to come to the harbor—and see the dolphins.

Aislyn: We finally tear ourselves away from the dolphins and paddle back to our starting point. And I make it out of the kayak without dunking myself in the water or cutting myself on a barnacle. And I say goodbye for now to Shem Creek and my wonderful guide Ben-Jamin, because there are so many more waterways to explore. And I’ve got to go.

So next up, an introduction to Charleston’s barrier islands and what it’s like to meet the man that I’m calling the Indiana Jones of fossil hunting

Aislyn [on tour]: We’re walking down this cool dock, it says the Rockfish Boathouse. Looks very weathered. Neat. There’s lots of places to sit. I think this is our boat.

Aislyn: The next day, I meet up with Cade Kaufman, a naturalist withCharleston Outdoor Adventures at their dock on Bowen’s Island. I’ve got a Ziploc bag, a bunch of layers, and my jigsaw puzzle mindset, because today folks, we’re going fossil hunting.

Cade Kaufman, Charleston Outdoor Adventures: My name is Cade. I’ll be your guiding nationalist this morning. Welcome back, everybody. Captain Joe will be our captain driving the boat. We’re gonna head out to Morris Island. We have a falling tide and a beautiful morning. We’re gonna try and give ourselves both the most surface area and the least amount of competition possible. Once we have our last couple folks on board here—and, I guess, Captain Joe—we’ll hit the ground running.

Aislyn: Morris Island is one of Charleston’s many barrier islands. At their most simplistic, barrier islands are these stretches of beach and forests that actually protect the mainland from coastal storms. And because these islands are so exposed to the Atlantic, they are constantly shifting. And on Morris Island, this means that new treasures are revealed daily, and Cade a self-taught fossil guru who developed and leads these tours several days a week, is our chief prospector

Cade: I did illustrate this guide. If you have a question about anything on that page, again, please don’t hesitate to ask. That’s as it pertains to anything this morning, guys—you have questions about local wildlife, ecology, history, restaurant recommendations, real estate prices? That’s why we’re here, right?

Aislyn: After a very windy, high speed boat ride, we arrive at our very windy beach—as you can hear.

Cade: Welcome to Morris Island. Guys, we got Morris over this side. Clark Sound out to your left, Fort Sumter over there at about your 11 o’clock. Uh, looking across Charleston Harbor at Sullivan’s Island on the far side and as we work our way around the front side of the beach, we’ll see increasingly more of the Atlantic Ocean.

Aislyn: This part of Charleston is a hotspot for fossils, shark teeth, and other treasures that can wash up on the shore and be lost to the sand and waves until someone with a keen eye comes along. It’s such a treasure trove, in fact, that people travel from all over the country to fossil hunt here. And here are the goodies that await us.

Cade: In addition to shark’s teeth, we can expect to find bones from a bunch of different marine organisms. Uh, we often find bones dolphins and whales and sea turtles and manatees and fish-eating birds and lots of other prehistoric marine organisms. But we’re also very fortunate here in Charleston that we have a lot uh, ice age fossils represented in the areas as well. So bones from things like mastodon and mammoth and sabretooth cats and sloths and tapirs and yeah, all kinds of ice age megafauna it’s called.

Aislyn: There are also quite a few human-made items that might get your attention.

Cade: Artifacts: Native American, Revolutionary War, Civil War.

Aislyn: Because Morris Island was a strategic location in the American Civil War.

Cade: There were several very notable Civil War battles fought on this beach. So buttons and buckles, bullets and clay pipes and portions of, hand blown glass bottles and things to that effect are not uncommon.

Aislyn: Despite the abundance of interesting items to find out there, actually spotting them takes surprising skill, even if you like puzzles like I do. Which is why it is really helpful to go with a guide like Cade who can help newbies like me train our eyes.

Cade: Now when I think of fossil hunting on a beach, I kind of think of it as uh, similar to gold-panning: Things of a similar weight will have settled together on beach. In this case, the phosphate nodules are the same weight and density as the shark’s teeth and bones that we’re looking for.

Now shark’s teeth are far and away the most commonly found fossil, both here and worldwide, and a lot of that has do with fact sharks lose a lot of teeth. So what I’m looking for when it comes to shark’s teeth is the little enamel glint of the tooth itself, uh, the enamel on these teeth will have more reflectivity. They’ll be a little bit shinier than the surrounding bones and shells and other material. So personally, I find it easier to focus on texture as opposed to shape or color.

Aislyn: To help people who are struggling, Cade draws these melon-sized circles around his finds, but that still leaves about 50 items to mentally sort through within that circle. It’s not easy.

Aislyn [on tour]: He’s putting these circles around things that I’m still like, which one is the shark tooth? Is that a shell or a shark tooth? Shell or shark tooth, that’s the game we’re playing today.

Aislyn: I settle into the rhythm of it though, and we slowly comb the beach, looking up every once in a while to admire the expansive beach and the lighthouse, which is now kind of an island on its own. It was once part of Morris Island, but the sand beneath has eroded so much that at certain tides, the lighthouse looks like it’s floating on the ocean.

A couple of hours later, everyone, including me, has at least a few special pieces in hand. And we’re all very excited to show them to Cade.

There’s a giant gleaming tooth that looks like obsidian…

Cade: I think what you might have is a lower tooth from something in the Megalodon family. Well done guys.

Aislyn: …And skeletal pieces. But don’t worry, they’re not human ones.

Cade: Lemme see what you got. Beautiful shark vertebrae. This is from a carinoform shark with its little holes on either end, so probably a tiger or a bull. Something in that family.

Aislyn: …And more teeth.

Cade: So you have a little enamel shelf here, which means this was a big enamel cone probably—the only two things that it could be in my mind are either like a moderately large whale tooth, like sperm whale, or like an absolutely giant crocodilian.

Aislyn: …And some rare sea glass.

Cade: Wow. Beautiful. That’s probably 19th century glassware. That’s cool.

Aislyn: As we walk back to the boat, Cade tells me that all types come on his tours because fossil hunting like this appeals to a very wide range of people. There are the diehards…

Cade: As a community, fossil hunters are pretty hardcore. Um, they’re the folks that’ll go out in the rain, in the wind. TK add

Aislyn: The philosophers…

Cade: When you’re holding something that’s 30 million years old and thinking about how the world has changed since then, trying to conceptualize that, put yourself within that 30 million year span and think about your hundred year lifespan and the greater, greater, uh, you know, length of the world’s time.

Yeah. It’s, there’s something, um, yeah. It’s eye-opening stuff.

Aislyn: And [then there are] the ones who enjoy the calm and focus of looking at the tiniest details in the sand—like me.

Aislyn [on tour]: I mean, there is something meditative about walking at this pace on the beach. And the sun is on us, and the wind has died down a little bit, and you’re just looking down and you’re walking really slowly, just looking at everything, waiting for something to stand out. It’s, yeah, like a walking meditation, which is cool.

Aislyn: We return to Bowen’s Island with our hair wild from the wind and our Ziploc bags filled with treasures. But now that I’ve had a taste of Charleston’s barrier islands, I want more. So I book a half day trip to another barrier island, one with congregations of alligators, a tangle a forest, and one spookily gorgeous beach. That’s after the break.

MC, Coastal Expeditions: Are you Aislyn?

Aislyn [on tour]: I am, yes!

MC: OK cool, we got her! I was about to say we’re waiting on one more. But as I kind of introduced myself to most you guys, my name’s MC, I’ll be your first mate out there today getting you to and from Bulls Island, which is where we’re going. Down there is captain Nick, he’s going to be your captain as well as your lead naturalist out there today on our way to the island. I think I’ve pretty much checked in with everybody and this is our full house so if you’re ready, I think we can go ahead and hop on board.

Aislyn: If you head north along the coast from Charleston, you’ll find Bulls Island, an uninhabited barrier island that’s part of Cape Romain, an incredible wilderness area that’s known for a petrified forest called the Boneyard. And I am lucky enough to be going with MC and Nick fromCoastal Expeditions.

Nick: My name is Nick. I’m your captain and we are going to Bull Island … right?

Aislyn: As we head out into the estuaries, I am reminded that this ecosystem is also home to a strong local fishing tradition that’s a big part of the economy—and responsible for the delicious seafood that was on my dinner plate last night.

Nick: If you saw the boats coming outta the water, in the water with the long poles. It’s shrimp season right now. So they’re coming out and taking advantage of, uh, of the abundance of this refuge. That’s a 60-day season shrimp baiting season that just started.

Aislyn: This area also has literal tons of oysters. In some areas, 1 million oysters per mile. Just think about that for a second. Those oysters, while delicious, are also what make these waterways so healthy.

Nick: This refuge is probably the cleanest coastal water on the East Coast you’ll ever be in. So 67,000 acres that make up Cape Romain. And we’re looking at a small portion of that 67,000 acres. This barrier island makes up about 5,000 of those acres and it stretches 22 miles that way.

So this is all Cape Romain off in the distance there. No infrastructure, no power lines, um, off in that area. It’s just wilderness with a capital W out there. And tons of oyster, very clean water. About 30,000 acres are designated as a Class I Wilderness Area. And those are really unique. Uh, there’s only three of those on the whole East Coast.

Aislyn: Class One wilderness is a federal designation that means the area meets certain standards for clean air, clean water, and the absence of development.

Nick: No infrastructure, no roads. You know, it’s places that are typically really hard to get to. And then once you’re there, they’re hard to be in. Like most Class I Wilderness Areas, I’d say, uh, in the U.S. are like probably most of the state of Alaska. You know, for example, out West we have a lot more of that wilderness area, uh, but on the East Coast it’s just very rare to come across.

Aislyn: And these oysters thrive here in this marshland because of the spartina grass, a salt-tolerant plant with a complex root system that creates a habitat for everything from oysters and mussels to snails and crabs. All of these yummy things mean Cape Romain is also a birder’s wonderland.

Nick: We’ve got an oyster flat over here, oyster bar, oyster reef, and some birds are taking advantage of it, resting on it right now, waiting for that tide to fall. The big one here is a cormorant, one of our seabirds, a fish-eatingmbird. And then the shorebirds are there, it looks like I only see 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 little shorebirds in there. Another cormorant coming in. Yeah, nailed it. Oyster catchers, American oyster catchers sitting on the food bar right now and like the name of that bird suggests maybe that uh, they’re big oyster eaters.

Aislyn: Cape Romain also happens to be gorgeous. The grass is bright green at this time of year, and it stretches as far as the eye can see with mazelike waterways as the only interruption. I feel like we’ve truly left the city back behind as we come up to the dock on Bulls Island. The rest of the group gets their guidelines for a day of exploring.

Nick: That’s the dock, that’s where I’m dropping you off. That road that stretches from the dock goes to the beach. So we’ve named that Beach Road, right? That’s easy. That’s your main direct route to get out to the beach today. So those of you up that are trying to maximize your time on the beach side, that’s probably the best road to take and I don’t wanna undersell it either. It is the most efficient route to get to the beach. It’s also a good hiking trail.

Aislyn: It’s a mile and a half route that cuts through the middle of the island and takes hikers through all the major ecosystems: maritime, forest, freshwater habitat, and of course the beach.

Nick: If you’re looking for wildlife today, a lot of that wildlife is gonna kind of orbit around that freshwater area, especially on beach road. And there’s been a hatch, there’s babies, right now. So we’ve got mamas and babies along Beach Road, so not many alligators but little ones and like one big one. That’s always mom. And then if you want to see most of the alligators on the island, you are gonna have to weather that wind. You gotta go to the northeast part of the island. And that levee especially that connects the observation tower out to the old fort. That’s an alligator-heavy environment. A lot of alligators out there.

Aislyn: But while the rest of the group goes off for a day of self-guided exploration, I hang back with MC and Nick, who asks me a very fun question.

Nick: What if we go for like a little safari ride?

Aislyn: We hop into a truck that feels like it belongs to naturalists. The windows are open, and here and there, I see soil and feathers and shells. Before we head out on safari, though, we have to drop off supplies for one of the coolest trips Coastal Expeditions offers.

Nick: We also offer a few other specialty trips on the island. And, uh, one of ‘em is, uh, is this opportunity to spend the night in the historic house.

Aislyn [on tour]: That’s so cool. So that’s what you’re dropping off, the Dominic house is where people stay.

Nick: Yeah, there’s clients in it right now.

Aislyn: The folks that stay for a weekend on the island do sunset and sunrise activities and big guided hikes. It’s the kind of trip that guides fight to lead

MC: And you can choose to do all of that or none of that. You really get to see stuff that the kind of day-to-day visitor will miss.

Aislyn: Back out in the truck, the information about the habitat and history of this place just keeps coming as we drive by dense thickets of trees that are still richly green, even in early October.

Aislyn [on tour]: It is so lush. I mean, I know that is such an overused term but it’s so green. Is that true at different times of the year?

Nick: I’d say that’s kind of a Carolina thing. Uh, we, we are often green and a lot of this is evergreen, so a lot of this won’t change color into winter. And we’ve already lost some of the leaves on some of these things. But uh, no, I agree. It is, it is a lush island.

Aislyn: MC and Nick share what keeps them coming back here time and time again.

Nick: Finding a beach in Charleston is not hard. There’s plenty, but it’s hard to find a beach where you walk out there and it’s just you. And I think Bull Island has that, you know, there’s no development out here. It’s wilderness and, and seven and a half miles of beach that’s undeveloped. And, there’ll be maybe one beach chair out there all day today.

Aislyn: I won’t reveal all of Bulls Island’s secrets. It’s a magic you have to experience for yourself. But we end our safari at the island’s biggest draw. Boneyard Beach.

Aislyn [on tour]: This is very spooky—not spooky, but like ethereal.

Nick: It does have a moody…

MC: Haunting, a little.

Aislyn [on tour]: Yeah, it’s moody. That’s a good way to put it.

Nick: So if you’re looking at the trees that at some point were growing up on Bull Island. These, these oak trees were thriving a couple years ago and it’s just the process of, of erosion. It’s a geological process. It’s always happening on this portion of the island. So at some point, these trees right behind us are are next in line. And if you were to come out here in another seven, eight years, like this tree that’s right in front of us is probably not gonna be here at all. It’ll be, it’ll be another, I mean, shoot five years, it’s gonna be 100 yards out there.

Aislyn [on tour]: Nice driftwood. Future driftwood.

Aislyn: The area is still recovering after a hurricane, but Boneyard Beach and the rest of Bulls Island look full and thriving. Even the petrified trees sticking out at odd angles are hauntingly beautiful and captivating. These trees were once part of the island’s maritime forest, but due to erosion, they’re now leafless trunks and branches that have been bleached by the wind and the sand, and so one of the best times to see them is actually at sunrise.

Nick: One of my favorite ways to explore the island. It’s really cool. So you, the way we do that, it’s super fun because we want you to be here for sunrise so the boat ride over is in the dark.

Aislyn [on tour]: Oh, cool.

Nick: So it’s a really cool, like, you know, starlit sky. Sometimes we’ll do it when there’s, uh, you know, good meteor activity and you’ll see some shooting stars and stuff. And anyway, we’ll get you out here. We’ll go for a little safari ride still in the dark. You’re out here about 30 minutes before first light, so you can set up and get in the right spot for sunrise.

And then the trip home is the big reveal. A lot of people, they, they’ve never been out here before, so they get to experience that the sun rises and it lights everything up. So you get to see what was hidden on the trip out.

Aislyn: One of the things that people really love about Bulls Island is that it’s not so densely packed. I meet one barefoot beachcomber who shares what he loves about the place.

Beachcomber: I like the, uh, solitude of it. You’re usually out here with no more than 20 people and 20 people spread out over a five-mile beach is, yeah, it’s pretty, pretty somber. Lot of time to reflect and relax out here.

Aislyn: On our way back to the boat, MC and Nick point out birds like oyster catchers, which gather here in huge numbers at certain times of year. We pass by a quote unquote Alligator Lane, which today is sadly empty of any gators, and we spot fluttering monarch butterflies, which migrate here in October. And finally on the boat ride back through the labyrinthian estuaries, we spot my friends again.

Nick: Look at all the dolphin out here.

Aislyn [on tour]: Oh, that’s so cool. Oh, they’re playing!

Aislyn: Playing is such a good way to describe what I’ve experienced over the past several days because the naturalists that lead these tours are passionate and kind and so deeply knowledgeable about Charleston and its surrounding areas. It’s clear they love what they do.

So when I get home, I have one last Charleston call to make, to the man known as the “low country’s preeminent naturalist,” Chris Crolley, the owner of Coastal Expeditions.” When we talk, he’s wearing a green hat with two bird feathers tucked jauntily into the brim, which feels like it pretty much sums up his mission statement.

Chris Crolley, Coastal Expeditions: Coastal Expeditions is really a, a service organization, and what we do for service is environmental education, like we make outside available to everyone.

You know, we had one of those branding things where we were trying to like further identify ourselves and keep up with who we are and what our mission is and those, you know, those people that are like, they’ll push you and they’re like, “Well, what do you do.” And like, “We do kayak tours.” They say, “No, what do you do?” And we say, “Well, we do power boat trips.” And [they say] “No, what do you DO?!” And I was like, “Uh, we introduce Earthlings to Earth.”

And that that fits, you know, that’s what we do is we make outside available for everyone.

Aislyn: I tell Chris that my trip to Bulls Island, winding through the estuaries beneath a blue October sky, has really stuck with me.

Chris Crolley: Sometimes I feel like a door person or I’m just holding the door open and inviting folks to come through. Because the real magic is brought on by the ecosystem or the environment itself.

Like you explained, the estuary cruise going out to Bulls Island And that estuary is significant. It’s superlative. It’s one of just three Class I Wilderness Areas on the East Coast of the United States. And it’s special, you know, and you respond to that.

But there’s nothing that I can say or do for a client that will ever supersede a dolphin breaching right beside the boat and the sight and sound of that animal when it exhales and then rolls up and takes a look at you, you know? Or the grace of a bird like that pelican when it flies right just over the surface of the water and maybe dips that one flight feather.

And it’s just like, we set it up and then we wait for the most valuable player: Our business partner is Mother Nature and there’s nothing we can do to—like, we just set it up and wait for the magic to happen, you know?

Aislyn: And wow, did the magic happen on this trip. So thank you so much to the people and organizations that guided me on this trip. Coastal Expeditions, Nature Adventures, and Charleston Outdoor Adventures.

And they all offer so many more trips and programming then we had time to cover in this short episode, Coastal Expeditions, for example, has a whole nonprofit foundation and they lead tours specifically for school kids.

So I’ve included links for all three companies in the show notes. If you are looking for a maritime wilderness adventure, remember that Charleston’s your place. And be sure to come back next week when we dive into a very different element of the city, the food scene.

This was a special episode of Unpacked Minis, the Charleston Edition.

If you’re ready for more Charleston inspiration, visit afar.com And be sure to follow Afar on Instagram and TikTok. We are @AfarMedia. This has been Unpacked Minis, which are a production of Afar Media. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland. Unpacked is also part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Visit Airwave Media to listen and subscribe to their other shows like Culture Kids and the Explorers Podcast. We’ll see you next time.