Mike McShane, like many landowners here, watches daybreak from a duck blind.

Paddling the Acronym
The Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers, along with scores of other tidal creeks, slip through the silence of forests and marsh. Many choose the Edisto, which is the longest free-flowing blackwater stream in North America. The Edisto River Canoe & Kayak Trail Commission has marked a 60-mile trail, with several put-in spots, including one each at Colleton State Park and Givhan's Ferry State Park. The commission offers guided educational river trips. Call (843) 549-5591, or visit www.walterboro.org.

You'll also find several commercial liveries in the area. One is ACE Basin Outpost, located right on U.S. 17 at Joe's Landing on the Ashepoo River. It offers rentals, sales, lessons, and tours. Call 1-800-785-2925.

Driving Great Roads
The way paddlers love canoeing the ACE Basin, others love driving its two-lane roads. They glide beside the white fences and green pastures of old plantations, penetrate deep forests, and step above thick swamps. Glance at the thick forests along roadsides, and you'll often see the dikes of relic rice fields now overgrown by forests.

Take it slow; wildlife may be crossing just ahead in a bend of the road. I once slowed down for a wild turkey to strut across State 26, one of the best roads to drive. From deep forest it rises over relic dunes and ends at Bennett's Point on Mosquito Creek. There you'll find science and fresh shrimp. Biologists of the National Estuarine Research Reserve study shoreline life.

Other beautiful two-lane drives are those I like to call "Sabbath roads" that pass alongside historic country churches. They include State 21 (turn off U.S. 17/21), which pauses at Old Sheldon Church Ruins, lovingly preserved by St. Helena Episcopal Church in nearby Beaufort. State 174 turns south off U.S. 17 and passes by Trinity Episcopal, housed in an 1880 edifice. Presbyterian Church on Edisto Island occupies an 1830 structure, while the 1818 Old First Baptist Church houses an African American congregation.

Another African-American congregation worships at St. James the Greater, an 1826 church on what locally is called Catholic Hill. Follow State 303 south of Walterboro and turn right on State 41.