During our stay on Seabrook Island, we went on a hike through the maritime forest.  The forest is made from old sand dunes giving it an interesting topography and diversity of life.  There were different species of trees ranging from conifers to palm trees, and even Spanish Moss and Palmetto’s. Randomly, in the middle of the forest was a tight rope course which we all had to walk across even though it was just a few feet above a dry ditch. It was surprisingly challenging even though it was a pretty simple course.  However, everything is more complicated when someone is jumping on the other side to get you to fall off.

Sunil successfully walking across the tight rope course. Courtesy: Dr. Lincoln

Once we had all made it across, we continued our hike and reached the estuary where we walked in the water and enjoyed the beach. The final part of our hike involved walking a short distance back into the forest to find pluff mud. Pluff mud is a very fine grained mixture of organic materials, sands, and silts. Most of us decided to get into the mud and walk around. It seemed to be similar to quick sand by the way you would sink into it when you stepped in and tried to walk. Due to this suction, there were a few mishaps where people fell in or almost lost a shoe.

Sunil, Ken, Lauren, Hannah, Noelle, Heidi, and Mr. Green after playing in the pluff mud. Courtesy: Heidi

After getting covered in the pluff mud, we headed back to the estuary to rinse off, even though the water was pretty chilly. It was then time to head back to camp and start dinner, but we had one more adventure of seeing dolphins playing near the shore.