HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU

One of the pleasures of Lowcountry life is the abundant flora and fauna of a semi-tropical ecology, and there's nowhere better to experience it than on the four walking trails that SINHG manages in cooperation with SIPOA. The two longest trails - Hidden Oaks and Six Ladies - offer between them tranquil lagoons, tidal creeks and inlets, and views over marshes toward the sea.

The shortest trail is Old Drake, a short stroll under majestic, moss-draped live oaks along a quiet marsh; while the Bobcat trail is along a newly-refurbished boardwalk across marsh and maritime forest parallel to North Beach. (And, yes, if you're lucky you might just glimpse a reclusive bobcat, or at least come across its scat.) You can lengthen your walk by combining the Bobcat walk with the Six Ladies trail, whose entry points face each other across Oyster Catcher Court. Check out our trails brochure and view a short video tour of all the trails here. Then get outdoors, and enjoy!

ON THE BEACH

We're looking a little differently at our three-and-a-half miles of beach after visiting with marine geologist Dr Leslie Sautter, from the College of Charleston. During a pre-walk presentation at the Oyster Catcher Community Center and, later, walking along North Beach with Dr Sautter, we came to appreciate how the beaches of the Seabrook/Kiawah formation dynamically change and re-shape themselves from year-to-year, and the importance of remodeling the cut at Cap'n Sam's Spit once a decade to maintain the ecological integrity of such an important habitat for migrating birds like the red knots that will be arriving soon on their annual northward migration. And those black streaks we always notice in the sand? It's titanium, an abundant metal widespread in the Earth's crust, commonly found dispersed in sand, and noted for its resistance to corrosion from elements like seawater.

AROUND WRAGGBOROUGH

Charleston's Wraggborough neighborhood, bounded by King Street to the west and E. Bay Street to the east, was the destination for a walking tour of one of the city's busiest and most historic districts. Named for Joseph Wragg, an early 18th-century slave trader who once owned the entire parcel, the district's seven main streets are named after Joseph's children - Ann, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Henrietta, John, Judith and Mary.

During our tour, we visited the grounds of the Joseph Manigault house, with its lovely gardens anddistinctive red-roofed rotunda - which, we learned, once housed restrooms for a gas station that occupied part of the site. Across the street is the Museum of Charleston, one of the country's oldest municipal museums, which manages the Manigault house.

Nearby, at the intersection of Meeting and Calhoun streets, is the former home of The Citadel, now an Embassy Suites hotel whose lobby gives a nod to the former occupant with reproductions of the two crenellated towers of The Citadel's logo. We finished our walk at the campus of the College of Charleston, with its stately live oaks along the walkways. Founded in 1770, the college is the nation's oldest educational institution south of Virginia. So much history packed into just one section of the city!