When Scott Hudson mentioned to me that he was going to write about the goats and the donkeys on Stallings Island for his Something You Might Not Have Known column, my immediate thought was art. What type of photos were we going to use to illustrate his story?
I’ve been kayaking on numerous occasions. I’m not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured I could paddle out to Stallings Island to get some photos. I knew you couldn’t get out on the island itself, but I also knew you could get close enough to the shore to feed them.
Sounded pretty straightforward. Notice I didn’t use the word “easy.”
I’ve found that anything I think is going to be easy is the farthest thing from easy, so I’ve trained my mind to never use that word.
I’d done a few stories last year about kayaking and the Columbia County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau’s Serene18 Paddle Trail promotion highlighting kayaking and water activities. I’d interviewed Amy Colbert with Outdoor Augusta a couple of times, so I called Outdoor Augusta Thursday and told Andy Colbert what I wanted to do.
Andy agreed to meet me at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion Friday and be my guide on the water. He also brought the carrots to feed the animals.
For those of you who don’t know, the Serene18 advertising campaign won a national award. I loved the tongue-in-cheek humor incorporated in the promos which featured Redford and Benny (played by Andy) as they extolled the virtues of Clarks Hill Lake, Savannah River and Augusta Canal areas.
MORE: Serene18 Promo Draws Visitors to Area Waterways
In those videos, Andy is the stoic, silent, but still funny partner to front man Benny.
And on my journey, I discovered that Andy might have a hint of Benny in him.
“You’ve kayaked before?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
In my lifetime, I’ve canoed, kayaked and done a little whitewater rafting, but nothing crazy on the rafting. In my Girl Scout days, I learned to canoe and taught canoeing at summer camp and as an adult. That can be a bad thing because I still paddle sometimes like I’m in a canoe. I know. You don’t have to tell me. Comments are not necessary.
I told Andy that I still sometimes paddled like I was in a canoe.
“Whatever gets you there” was his response.
Anyway, Andy was on the paddle board and breezing against the current toward Stallings Island. A couple of times he remarked at how high the water was on that day. Since this was my first trip to Stallings Island, what he was saying didn’t quite register to me. Ignorance is bliss.
Despite the current trying to turn me around a couple of times, I pressed on against the flow and we eventually made it.
He found one of the goats not long after arriving at the island.
Sad story about the one goat. When he was born, he was shunned by the other goats. But the donkeys have adopted him sort of, Andy told me. They will hang out with him. And it wasn’t long before the four – Abigail, Hercules, Buster Jr. and Jenny – donkeys showed up as well wanting those carrots in the back of the kayak I was in.
I snapped my photos via my makeshift waterproofing on my camera, made by using plastic grocery store bags, and gave my forearms a break.
I asked Andy about the Serene18 and paddling on the river and lake. He said he started kayaking when he was 5 and was grateful to have been able to make it into a business. The first few years of his business, they were located out near Columbia County’s driver services on Evans to Locks Road. They’ve had a spot near Riverside Park for about six years.
He said they are planning to expand soon from just renting kayaks to selling them as well.
The kayak back was a breeze. With the current at our back, it probably only took about 10 minutes.
As he got the kayak back to his vehicle, he mentioned the Serene18 Paddle Trail again.
There are five different routes on the trail and the CVB has created a passport that you can have stamped. That’s when I found out the Stallings Island trip was the hardest of the five.
And that water level he kept saying was high. He decided to tell me just how high that number was.
“On a normal, summer day, it’s about 5,000,” he said of the level.
On Friday, it was at 22,300 cubic feet per second. Yes, the water was more than four times as high as normal. Good thing, I had some background on the water.
With my exercise leggings soaked and my water shoes squishy, I slogged into the CVB office at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion determined to get my passport stamped. My forearms were telling me I’d earned it.
I must not have been too awful a kayaker because once he’d stamped my passport, Andy asked me if I wanted to do stories on the other four routes and earn my T-shirt for completing it. If the Stallings Island trip was the hardest, then I figured I had nothing to lose. But I will refrain from saying it will be easy.
Here’s to the next column in a few weeks. I’m not sure what’s next – Betty’s Branch? West Dam? I’ll let you know, and next time, I’ll get the famous Benny to autograph my passport.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
