Doodle Trail

2019 Hiking Week 31

Over the Labor Day weekend, I took advantage of the cooler & drier weather and biked the Easley to Pickens Doodle Trail. This trail is about 7 1/2 miles long and runs on an old railroad line from Easley to Pickens. Easley is about half way between Clemson and Greenville. It's a fun trail that isn't as popular as the Swamp Rabbit Trail and has more hills than other rails-to-trails trails.

This weekend, it was pretty busy with many others taking advantage of the nice weather. There are multiple areas that you can park to access the trail. There is access from downtown Easley, a park just outside of Easley, and the new Doodle Park in downtown Pickens. We tried to park in the park outside of Easley but it was full. So we drove a little down the trail to another parking area near an old factory.
Wildflowers along the trail.

Along the way, the paved trail goes through neighborhoods, industrial areas, a cemetery, and even by what we call the "farm machine graveyard", where there is some older farm equipment t
hat is covered in vines. It's a fun and interesting path. This time of year, there are a lot of morning glory vines along the way, in all different colors. It seems like all year round there is some sort of wild flower blooming along the way. It's hard not to stop every few minutes! There are also goats and wildlife that can be spotted along the trail.
Along the trail

I recommend bringing your bike (there are no local bike rentals in the area right now, you could see about renting some from Greenville or Clemson) to Easley in the morning, then bike to Pickens, where you can have a snack at Coyote Coffee, not far from the Doodle Park. Then bike back to Easley and you can have lunch downtown or visit The Pint Station for a drink. If you are in Easley on a Saturday morning during the warmer months, they have a farmers market that is nice to check out. I would plan for the trip to take about one hour each way, at a leisurely pace. There is a small pull off along the way you can stop to rest or work on your bike with their repair station. It's near the middle of the trail. You can also walk or run on the trail and decide how many of the miles you want to finish.

I hope you can visit the Doodle Trail soon! It's a fun trail that is a little lesser known than the Swamp Rabbit Trail and provides some nice views of the mountains.

Location: Doodle Park, Easley, SC 29640, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going Greek

Well, it's one of my favorite times of the year in Columbia. Football season, fall and...the Greek Festival! If you live in the area and haven't been, you need to make it a point to go. It's a great festival with lots of great food and some real friendly people. Now, disclaimer, it gets crowded! They usually take up one block with booths, games, entertainment stages, and food vendors so every free space there is can be filled with people. I recommend going during one of the off-times. Like take a late lunch or an early dinner. Or even an early lunch. They're open from 10 am - 10 pm Thursday through Saturday. They also have Sunday hours. But while you're there, try and make it a point to tour their church. It was just built in the last couple of years and they are always working on adding new artwork. It's beautiful. You can sit there and study all of the Greek Ikons and learn about the history of each painting. Greek Festivals are great family activities and I ...
Read more

Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site

Image
2020 Hiking Post 4 You might remember how last May, we visited the  Battle of Rivers Bridge State Historic Site . Recently, we returned there so we could explore the park more. This site is the only SC State Park where Confederate soldiers fought Sherman's troops as he made his way from Savannah to Columbia. There is a short trail (less than a mile) that takes you around the battleground and shows you the battle and what conditions were like at the time. There are still earthen rifle pits and other embankments that the soldiers built. Lots of informational signs along the way. Rifle pit mounds Retreat Trail There's also another trail that marks the route that the soldiers took as they retreated and a cemetery that has the dead from the battle. The park is free and has good visuals of how the battle took place and who was involved in it. There is also a community center and some neat events that take place throughout the year that show you what life wa...
Read more

Charleston Area State Parks

Image
2019 Hiking Week 41 Charles Towne Landing Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It’s been quite the year traveling all over the state and seeing all that South Carolina has to offer. We didn’t anticipate at the beginning of this year that we would visit all of the South Carolina State parks but we finished and received our certificate! We ended our state park visits with Charleston area parks. We stayed in the area and visited Edisto , Colleton, Givhan’s Ferry, and Charles Towne Landing . We had previously visited Colonial Dorchester State Park on a day trip.  Edisto Beach State Park covers a large part of Edisto Island. There is an inland section with trails, camping, a boat dock, and nature center, as well as a beach section of the park. It was pretty cold when we visited but still beautiful. Edisto is one of the barrier islands that is remote and takes awhile to get there. It’s about an hour’s drive from Charleston. We’ve stayed there a couple times and it’s one of...
Read more