"Billy" wrote in
oups.com:

Hi Larry,
We have been doing a river trip that includes Lake Moultrie and the
lower Cooper River for the last 8 years now but never knew we could go
over into Bushy Park Reservoir. Next time we do that trip we will
follow your directions to check it out. Most of our previous trips
started at Columbia on the Congaree and ended up in Charleston. Last
year we started on the Wateree in Camden, took the Wateree to the
Congaree, the Congaree to Lake Marion, Lake Marion to Lake Moultrie and
then on to Charleston via the Cooper. One year we even camped on the
same bluff you camped on on the upper Cooper River

Yes, as you come down the Cooper and pass under the railroad draw bridge
when the river makes a sweeping turn to the right at the bluff with camps
on top, the river turns left. Go straight down the canal and it comes out
into the Bushy Park Reservoir all in fresh water.

But, be warned no boats can make it under the road bridge by the canal's
launch ramp taller than a small bimini on a runabout. No large boats will
go past the bridge and must continue down the Cooper into the salt side of
the dam.

Also of interest if you dive, where the river turns off to the left at the
canal, a lot of divers dive that area in search of civil war artifacts and
old plantation stuff. I don't know why, but I've seen a lot of diving in
the Cooper just downstream from that junction, about even with the little
bluff to starboard going downriver.


Since we have done 7 trips down the same river system we decided we
might get adventurous and try some different rivers. This year we are
going to try the Pee Dee and maybe the Savannah next year. I live in
upstate SC but grew up in Charleston where many of the other river trip
participants still live so we and going to try to end up there on most
of our trips. Maybe after we run out of rivers in SC we will try some
in GA and NC.

There's 3200 miles of navigable waterways within 50 miles of my little
place on the Ashley River at Riverbend, across from historic Magnolia
Gardens Plantation. I doubt I'll live long enough to see 25% of it...(c;


Thanks again for the info on the Bushy Park Reservoir. Funny that we
passed the turn to it so many times and never knew it was there. The
upper Cooper really is a very beautiful river.

The upper T in the Cooper that separates the East Cooper from the tailrace
West Cooper is also another area to explore, as are many of the large tidal
creeks past old homes.

Navy had the river below Bushy Park closed for a long time after 9/11 past
the weapons station and training subs downriver from where Bushy Park's
salt water side intersects, but it has been re-opened, now. Goose Creek,
itself, is the largest creek just on the Charleston side of the Navy's
property and goes back into the area a LONG way past some beautifully kept
mansions the public barely knows about in Hanahan on a gulf course
community that dates back into the roaring 20's. It's also a great little
small boat trip down the tidal creek, as is the creek into Hanahan, itself,
where the long wharf ends upriver from the paper mill by the old Navy small
boat docks in that creek.

Bushy Park's ramp is a fantastic place to launch into the salt then play in
the river ending up back where you started by going around the
loop....already flushed and ready to trailer in the fresh water.....