A Brilliant Light Show at Litchfield Beach

I have always loved taking trips to Carolina beaches. Even as an eight year old boy I recognized how at the beach many elements of nature come together in a way that lightened my spirit. I realized at that young age that the steady, rhythmic sound of waves crashing into the shore helped to calm me. Today, twenty seven years later, a trip to a Carolina beach has the same effect on me. The sound of the waves, the feel of the ocean breeze on my face, the sound of sea gulls calling, the touch of the water lapping at my feet as I walk in the surf, the sky, the sand - it all comes together to do wonders for my soul. Beaches are always in a state of constant change and thanks to this there is always something new to be learned and experienced with each visit.

I am so fond of these experiences that I make an effort to at least go for a walk at the beach anytime I am near the North or South Carolina Coast. Since I travel on business across these two states I find myself enjoying these walks at least five or six times per year. One of my favorite beaches to visit during a business trip is Litchfield Beach, South Carolina thanks not only to its proximity to several customer locations but even more importantly to the fact that it is not overly commercialized. Like most beaches on the east coast most of the available ocean front space is taken but very little of it is consumed by hotels and high rise condos (which adds to the beauty of the scenery and cuts down on automobile traffic in the area). The extreme northern and southern ends of the beach are still free of development so there is still an element of wilderness at this beach - especially for anyone willing to take a long walk to explore these areas.

I was fortunate enough to be in the Litchfield Beach area on business for two days in early November. I was so ready for a beach walk that I did not let the fact that I forgot to pack my walking shoes stop me. I walked the beach in jeans, a sport shirt and dress shoes. I headed to the southern end of the beach that day where there is no beachfront development. I walked along the ocean shore and up the mouth of a small river that empties into the Atlantic at this location. I noticed that the wind was extremely light on this afternoon and that as a result the ocean surface was unusually calm (in fact it was almost flat once you looked out past the breakers that began about 100 feet from shore). It was high tide and there was very little beach to walk on in some areas. Occasionally I stopped to examine a shell or pebble along the way. As I walked, I saw an unusual number of dead sea urchins washed up on shore (I wondered if this had something to do with their life cycle since I had never once seen a dead sea urchin at the beach but I had also never been to Litchfield Beach this late in the fall. I also wondered if this may have been a result of the storms that had passed through the area the day before). I saw a dead horseshoe crab. I watched pelicans plunge into the Atlantic hunting for fish.

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