Outdoors columnist Dan Geddings: An ode to the Lowcountry

It is a special place. An enchanted land of live oaks and Spanish moss. Vast stands of piney woods. Gloomy swamps and wide rivers that flow silently to the sea. There are sandy beaches and marshlands along the coast. The land is flat and low. There are magnificent estates and old plantations that hark back to a simpler time. There is development and modernization, but it cannot completely hide the charm of the place. It cannot be explained; it must be experienced.

Turkey hunting brought me to the Lowcountry many years ago. The season opened there two weeks earlier than the rest of the state, and I could not bear the thought of sitting home on a Saturday morning, watching cartoons, when I could be in the woods hunting the old bronze backs. So, I made it my mission to find a place down there to hunt turkeys. I continued to hunt them here in the Upper Coastal Plain, but I wanted to get a head start in the Lowcountry.

I joined a club near Walterboro and had some success, but it was too close to the noisy interstate and had a limited amount of good turkey habitat. I subleased turkey rights from a small club in Allendale County but lost that to a higher bidder. I hunted a farm in Orangeburg County but had no luck. Then I found a place in Bamberg County. It was what I had been looking for. Lots of turkeys, no other turkey hunters and an old ramshackle clubhouse. It was Camelot to me.

The landscape was a little different. There were open piney flatwoods and hardwood bottoms that flooded seasonally but not much farm land. The landowner conducted forestland management practices that were favorable to turkeys. He plowed wide firebreaks through the pine stands that made good travel corridors. He thinned and did prescribed burns on the pine lands. He planted corn and left it standing. The neighboring lands were also managed well. There was not much hunting pressure on the turkeys, but it didn't last, and after nearly a decade, I found myself moving on.

I found a club on the Edisto River. There were thousands of acres of big timber, a big clubhouse, some open farm land, and there were turkeys. It was a dog drive deer club with a lot of members, and a bunch of those members were turkey hunters. I made some good friendships with those guys. My brother Matt, my son Clayton and I spent many nights in the clubhouse. We hunted the turkeys, fished the river and a pond on the farm land. We went on the dog drives every Saturday. It was a long way to travel, but I didn't care.

Most of the land was timber company property, and it was sold to another timber company. The new landowners started clearcutting the big timber. One of the other turkey hunters called me one day during the off season and said, "I know it's gonna hurt your heart, but you need to know, they're cutting Shoot Yo Leg." It had been my favorite turkey hunting section of the club. And yes, it did hurt my heart.

But it didn't end there. After a couple of years, the land was sold to another timber company, and they stepped up the effort to cut the timber. The private property with the farm land was sold. It shrank the good habitat to just a remnant.

The club had been the best I had ever known, but it was changing. I know that it's only natural that things change, but it was sad. Then the turkey season changed. The Lowcountry no longer had an earlier opening, and I began to rethink my reason for making that long drive. I started looking for a club closer to home. I got lucky and found a place in the High Hills. It's a good club. I continued my membership in the Lowcountry club until this year. But now I'm thinking about the Upstate.

The Upstate turkey season starts later and runs 10 days longer than the rest of the state. Now I would like to take advantage of that difference. I've tagged out early the last two years, but that's probably not going to happen every year. I want that option to keep hunting. I'll be looking for a club in the Piedmont, and I'll have to say "adieu" to the Lowcountry. It was good while it lasted.

No other place is the same. It is the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.