T-Minus Six Days: Spring Break in Charleston, SC with the Wilderness Program

This Monday marks the final week of classes before Saint Mike's students depart for Spring Break. Many choose to go home and see their family, visit friends, go on service trips with MOVE, or join the Wilderness Program on an extended excursion. My blog post history might lead you not to be surprised that I'm joining the WP, once again, for a spring break excursion. This year, we're headed to Charleston, South Carolina.

Nautical geography of Charleston Coast.
Chart credit.

Every year the WP offers programming for spring break, usually including a paddling trip, climbing trip, and an extended hiking trip. This year, the climbing crew is headed out to St. George, Utah, and the hiking crew is Grand Canyon-bound. Each trip consists of no more than 8 or 9 participants, and the WP offers students a price for these opportunities that will not be found after college. To put it in perspective, I have knowledge that the market price for the same trip I took to Baja last year would cost no less than three times what I paid as a student. If you're thinking about an extended excursion in the outdoors, I'd give it a go while you're still at Saint Mike's.

The paddling crew this year will be crashing at the cottages of Charleston County Parks and Recreation, from where we'll base most of our water travel for the week. Generally each day consists of some amount of touring (covering distance as a means to locate a feature), and surfing (you don't just do this on a board). Depending on what the coast offers around our location, some days might be more devoted to rock play or surfing, for example. In any case, coastal kayaking offers boaters much opportunity to play in a very dynamic aquatic environment, and that's the main goal of the week (with the intent of having fun :D).

After travel days are subtracted, our group will have six days in the field. Since we're staying in cottages, we'll get to prepare some pretty substantive meals at night, and the park surrounding our lodging is quite a beautiful space. From what I understand, Charleston has an impressive Parks and Rec system, and I look forward to checking it out next week!

Thanks for reading!