Guide to Getting Away from the Sunnyside Traveler

2019 Hiking week 8 This past Saturday was another dreary, wet day. It was not the kind of day you want to spend lots of time outside. But since the weather forecasters weren't calling for rain, just clouds and mist, we decided to get outside and get our hike in. Sunday would have been ideal since it was beautiful Sunday afternoon but other plans were filling the day up. Saturday we decided to try the Fort Jackson Passage of the Palmetto Trail. We wanted to do the first section through the fort. It is about 5 miles and we were planning to drop one car off at the end and start at the other side. Unfortunately, after we tried a couple of the gates at the fort, we were told that civilians weren't allowed on the base without a "sponsor". We were pretty frustrated by this. I'm not up to date with what's going on with military bases but we had no idea that they had closed the base to all civilians. We finally went back to where our other car was and decided to do...

2019 Hiking week 7 Sesquicentennial State Park After a couple of nice weekends with adventurous hikes, this weekend was a bummer. Overcast, rainy, and dreary is the theme currently, with no end in sight. Saturday we got up the motivation to head out to Sesquicentennial State Park . Sesquicentennial is the closest state park to Columbia and is close to the interstate and Highway 1. The park was opened in 1937 for The Sesquicentennial of Columbia. It is centered around a lake with acres of woods. There are a few trails but not as many as some state parks. The longer one is about 3.5 miles, with a couple of side mountain bike trails. We hiked the lake loop trail that is about 2 miles and is a nice walk. We took a side trail to see the spillway from the lake. This area is Spillway part of the Gills Creek watershed, which connects to the Gills Creek that we crossed when walking the Palmetto Trail through Columbia. This watershed was one of the locations of more significant floodi...

2019 Hiking Week 6 Savannah National Wildlife Refuge Click to see a larger photo where you can see the birds in the grass. This weekend, we were in Savannah. While there, we visited the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge , which is actually in South Carolina. It is on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. We have driven by this refuge for years but never stopped to check it out. It was a really neat place that we plan on visiting again soon!  The refuge " consists of 31,551 acres of freshwater marshes, tidal rivers and creeks, and bottomland hardwoods." It is full of birds, reptiles, and other animals. Only a small part of it is open to hiking, driving, and other activities. We first stopped at the visitors center. It's a newer center and a nice place to learn about the refuge, its history. and its inhabitants. There are also a couple of short trails in that area. We walked the short Beech Hill Trail, which takes you by the cypress swamp.  Ricef...

2019 Hiking week 5 Waterfall on the trail. This past weekend we had a long, fun, group hike in the mountains. We were visiting my parents outside of Greenville and we went for a hike. My parents have hiked all the waterfall trails and state parks in the upstate and parts of North Carolina. I’ve done many hikes with them over the years so we decided to do another this weekend. This time, my sister joined us with her dog. The trail is called Jones Gap Trail and is from Caesar’s Head State Park  to Jones Gap State Par k. It is mostly downhill, about 5 1/2 miles, with some waterfalls along the way. You follow the Middle Saluda passage of the Palmetto Trail . The section we started with was actually not part of the Palmetto Trail, but we joined up with it later. The park ranger at Caesar’s Head said that they’re planning some adjustments to the trails in the park, which will also change the route of the Palmetto Trail. I’m not sure their time-frame on this but hopefully it...