Rails to Trails & Palmetto Trails

This a picture of the Broad River and Hamilton Island from the trestle described below. Looking skyward while we rested.

A great addition to the Palmetto Trail to be opened soon. We were told there are bald eagles in the area but we were not lucky enough to spot one today.

This weekend, being the warmest so far this year, beckoned us to the great outdoors. We set off with kayaks, hiking sticks, GPS, coordinates and other essentials to make the most of it. First stop was Lake Monticello where we paddled to two caches and hiked to several more. This was my first visit to the lake and it is much larger than I anticipated. I really like that one section is restricted to electric motors as it makes kayaking very pleasant.

In the afternoon we met up with daughter and son-in-law to cache on the Peak to Prosperity Section of the Palmetto Trail. This is a beautiful trail built on an abandoned section of railway and a lot of work is being done to open more miles and maintain what is already open. We ran into a couple of the volunteers and they shared some great stories about the trail and local history. I think they said there is a total of 13 trestles along the 11 miles of rail bed. They have rebuilt several and made them safe for walking.

There is one trestle that crosses the Broad River and we were treated to an opportunity to walk across on the newly finished boardwalk. It is not officially opened yet and there is some discord in the local community but I am sure the Palmetto Conseravation folks will prevail. You can read more on this trail by googling the name, Peak to Prosperity Section of the Palmetto Trail. There are pictures and news articles with lots of details about the history of the rail line and the building of the trail. I encourage all who live in South Carolina to visit the Trail and we should all celebrate its completion, from the mountains to the sea, in the near future.

Seasons

We took off camping this past weekend, knowing it was going to rain but still believing we could get in some hiking and geocaching between the storms. Thursday evening and Friday morning were good but by Friday afternoon the rain had started and showed no signs of letting up. We managed to get a paddling cache on an island in Lake Wylie where we were treated to the sight of nesting Great Blue Herons in several nests at the tops of the pine trees. We also got a history lesson and 5 more caches on Nanny Mountain, sight of iron mining before and during the American Revolution.

After it started raining, we played Bananagrams, which is now my favorite game thanks to the Christmas gift from my son. We visited the York County Museum where we were treated to Africa Alive, a great annual display of African American history, music, dance and crafts.

Hooking up in the rain was no fun and knowing we were headed home to promises from the weather folks of a major winter snow storm, made us want to run in the other direction but it would have been a long journey to escape this storm which covered the entire eastern seaboard from Alabama to Maine.

To get back to the title of this post, I am adding pictures of a river birch in the front yard during a summer storm last year and the snow storm of ysterday. Then there's the garden from last week when I turned the soil and planted peas and potatoes to the blanket of snow today.