Current Destination Lakes Marion and Moultrie
Lake Marion Resort and Marina
Getting Oriented Ashore
Take a drive around the lakes and you’ll find establishments with names like Cotton’s Place, Treasure Barn, and Buck-
zilla. Mailboxes mimic largemouth bass, and old toilets occasionally serve as flower pots. The land is rural and the people are genuine country - the kind who put their whole arm out the window in a friendly wave as you drive past. That atmosphere exists on the water as well, where the predominant boat is on floats and most marina slips are accompanied by a permanently parked RV in the adjacent campground. The lakes’ remoteness give them their charm, an attraction that’s beginning to shift as more tourists take notice. “We’re shifting away from the fish camp mentality,” says Dunn of Lakeside Marina, who recently built a seven-bedroom cottage split between four units, echoing initiatives at neighboring camps
NASA
before setting out away from designated channels, but most guides report that after a day of caution and a bit of “avoid over there” pointers, many boaters ultimately take advantage of the wide expanses of
open water without fear. “There’s a lot of routes you can take, but you sure need to know where to go,” says Ray Sedgewick, operator of the Canal Lakes Fish Camp (843-753-2271) along the diversion canal. Lakeside Marina and Resort (803-492-7226) owner Jim Dunn (on Lake Marion) agrees, but adds that any belief that the lakes are unnavigable is a misconception. “The main body of water is open to boating, and well-marked,” says Dunn. The resorts get scarcer on Marion’s north end, although there are new develoments such as the large North Shore Villas (800-619-1160) which includes an 81-slip marina for boats up to 60 feet. For those wishing to continue as far as the water allows, it’s 47 miles from Buckingham Landing (the last in Lake Marion) up the Congaree River to Granby Landing in Columbia.
Moultrie aerial showing the diversion canal to Marion at left 24 Carolina Currents July/August 2009
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