Congareee National Park

Saturday 4/21/18

Greetings One and All,

     Between the weird work schedules, other commitments and rain, the feeling of cabin fever was beginning to settle it.  Nicole, my supervisor, tossed out one of those random long weekends and I knew I had to go...somewhere.  

      My first thought was a return trip to Amsterdam.  But, with the short notice, the flight would have run close to $2,000.  Plan B, a road trip.  A half hour south of Columbia, South Carolina sits Congaree National Park.  I checked the forecast for the park and the weather guessers were saying seventy degrees on Sunday and a chance of rain moving in on Monday.  It’s a bit of a drive for one day, but it felt right.

       After running a few errands, I hit the road promptly at 1P, ready to go.  The Georgia DOT had other plans.  Road construction caused two lanes of I-285 to be shut down.  

     Thirty minutes to go two miles.  Afterwards, it was smooth sailing on I-20 east.

     As I’m wont to do, I had a side trip planned to get me off the interstate for a while.  Twenty miles west of Columbia, I picked up Hwy 6 South.  Just south of Edmund, I pulled off into a sandy parking area for the Peachtree Rock Nature Preserve.   From the parking lot it’s an easy mile and a half round trip to Peachtree Rock and a small waterfall.

      This sidetrip was based solely on the photo in my South Carolina hiking guide.  The link above will show you what  I was expecting.  Little did I know Peachtree Rock had toppled over five years ago.   

       As for the waterfall...

       Still worth the stop, even to just get out and walk for a while.

       Hwy 6 would eventually bring me to I-26, but I was in no hurry.  You could imagine my surprise when I saw a very tall flagpole way off in the distance.  It was high enough to be seen over the roadside trees.  What surprised me was the Confederate flag.  Driving through the south, these flags aren't exactly unusual.  However, not quite like this.

     Down below are two smaller flags and a pair of badly rusted canon.  This was the site of Confederate Lt. General Wade Hampton’s encampment prior to his battle with Union General William T. Sherman in Columbia in February, 1865.  Hampton’s forces would lose and much of the city would be burned.   

       There was one last town before the interstate, Swansea. 

      

   

        Leaving Swansea, I kept my eye on the rear view mirror.  The sun was waning and the clouds offered a decent prospect for a nice sunset.  It didn’t last and by the time I pulled into Orangeburg, it was all but over.

      My home for the next two nights was the Days Inn.  The place was fine, but nothing special.  The smell in the room was a little off.  There was a light hint of cleaning products...and maple.  Very strange.   The signal on the motel wifi read as being strong.  But, I got better speeds tapping into the fee wifi from the McDonalds next door.  

Sunday, April 22, 2018

     Today was all about Congaree National Park.  I’ve said it before, it’s hard to go wrong with a day in a national park.  This was my first visit and I considered spending two days here.  There are certainly enough trails, and I’m not due back to work until Wednesday.  But, when the weather guessers give you a 100% chance of rain, possibly heavy at times, perhaps one day would be enough.

     In the 1950's, Congaree Forest was in danger from logging.  By the late 60's, a grassroots effort began to grow to save the forest and swamp.  To protect its natural resources, Congress established the Congaree Swamp National Monument in 1976.  Its status was upgraded to a National Park in 2003.  It's named after one of the native American tribes who used to live in the area.  

      Orangeburg is one of the closest towns with actual lodging.  Still, it’s a forty-five mile drive to the park.  It’s an easy drive.  But, I would have preferred to have been significantly closer.   Fortunately, the breakfast buffet starts nice and early.  I was on the road just after 7A, and at the trailhead by 8A.

 

     My goal was the ten and a half mile loop known as the River Trail.  Time permitting, there was a two and a half mile trail in another section of the park.  By the time I made it back to the car, I had walked closer to sixteen miles.  But I digress. 

       Most of the trails begin behind the visitors center.  The most popular is a two and a half mile loop along a wooden walkway over the swamp.  About a third of the way around, you can step off the boardwalk and venture deeper into the forest. 

        The trail seemed wide enough to easily follow and there appeared to be plenty of markers.  I've been many places in my life.  Some of those places were quite colorful.  This was just simply...green.  It wasn't just a lush verdant landscape.  It was GREEN.  

    Just before this trail ends at the River Loop, I stopped.  The way ahead of flooded with no easy way through.  I could see the new trail off in the distance.  It took awhile, but I did manage to circle around the worst of it.   Of course, this meant I'd have to deal with this a second time later in the day.  Or so I thought.  It was indeed strange day on the trail.  

    

   

       Right on the other side was a sign indicating the River Trail.  I randomly chose to go counterclockwise.  The rest of the trail to the river was mostly dry and well traveled.  Based on the cobwebs, I was apparently the first to travel it this morning.  Along the way to the river I worked my way over or around plenty of downed trees.  I also saw plenty of animal tracks.  What I didn't see were pants.  Crazy as it seems, that is indeed significant.  

      I’m not sure what I expected.  But, a River Trail generally means you’re walking along the river.  the park map certainly made it look that way. This is the view of the Congaree River from the single overlook, which amounted to an eight foot gap in the trees.

       Twenty feet back from the river, the trail diverges.  I continued on the loop fully expecting another view of the river.  I never got one.  The rest of the loop was pretty easy with only a few muddy spots.  

     After crossing through one more stretch of muddy mess, I did come to this stream.  

    Eventually, I’d come across a sign indicating a sharp turn in the trail.  On the outside of the curve was a fairly large, fresh deadfall, partially blocking the trail, and obscuring everything behind it.  It also comes back in the narrative.

     

       Thinking nothing of it, I kept following the trail around.  There were enough downed trees that they didn’t appear unique in any way.  Then there were the pants...

    Passing a random pair of pants isn't something you forget.  So, you might understand that I didn’t realize I had been on this stretch of trail before.  Three quarters of a mile later, I come to another sharp curve in the trail.  I did remember this one.  There's an unpaved road leading off to parts unknown and a sign indicating the visitor center back the way I had just come.  Did I miss the trail back to the visitor center when I was crossing that muddy stretch?

      I stood there pondering and looking at the trail map.  I hadn’t had to cross a section of muddy mess quite as larger as the one at the trail intersection before.  It all seemed a little disconcerting.  According to the Park Service map, the dirt road would eventually meet the trail again further up.   Rolling the dice, I started walking up the road.

      Considering the previous mud, it was nice to be walking along an actual road.  That is, until the water crossing, and we all know how I feel about those.  Being a swampy forest, there were plenty of downed tree limbs.  I fashioned a makeshift walkway to get over it, and continued on.

       The road was supposed to end by the trail.  It didn’t.  There’s a locked barricade, which I crossed.  To the left was a road clearly marked private property.  To the right, a dirt road leading who knows where.  This wasn’t supposed to be here. 

        Since I really had no clue where I was at this point, I decided to suck it up and back track, which of course meant another water crossing.  Ugh.

        I hadn’t gone that far along the River Trail when I met some fellow hikers.  After a brief chat, they told me they hadn’t encountered any flooded trails.  Their hike had been all along dry dirt.  Remember that deadfall?  

      It was hiding the trail back to the visitor center.  I still don’t know what happened on MY trip down.  But, I was happy not to have to work my way through that mess again.   As for the pants, I don't remember seeing them again.  

       Eventually, I did manage to make it back to the boardwalks and decided to take the long way back to the car.  This would tack another mile and a half onto my journey.  The good news, the first splattering of rain didn’t hit until I was within sight of the visitor center. 

      

      I stopped in and chatted with a park ranger.  I told him about the downed tree at the trail intersection and asked about the dirt road I was hiking.  He told me it’s not actually on the map, because it does go though private land and they don’t want to encourage hikers.  The barricade is for Park Service access only.   He had no idea how the trail I took down was different than the one I took back.  There's only one marked trail.  Hmmm.....

     By this time it was 4P and I had been hiking for eight hours.  There were other trails for other days.  But, this is a swamp with a whole lot of standing water.  This sign is at the visitor center.  It's tongue in cheek, to a point.  

     I had swatted a few mosquitoes during the day.  I can't imagine what it's like mid-summer.  

     

     

Monday 4/23/18

    As promised, the sound of pouring rain greeted me as I awoke.  I could have used another day in the park, but that will have to wait for another time.  Fortunately, when the time came to pack the car for the trip home, it had diminished to a very light drizzle.  Twenty minutes later, the rain had become steady and would follow me off and on throughout the drive home.

     The plan was to take state highways as far as Augusta, then pick up I-20 west towards home.  It probably added an hour and a half to my journey, but was definitely worth it. Much of the drive looked like this...

     Orangeburg was named after William IV of Orange, son in law of King George II.  The city's nickname is the Garden City.  On a nice day I definitely would have stopped into the Edisto Memorial Gardens.  I even drove right past it.  It was the first casualty of the rain, but not the last.  

     A few shots from my drive home through South Carolina...

  

       The rest of the trip, off and on rain, the kind that makes you grateful to be home.

Dave

4/2018

PS: Next up for the road is a quick dash up north in May.  My niece Beth is graduating college and I’m spending a few days with Mom.   On June 2nd I head off to Alaska!