If you live in the so-called "Golden Corner" of South Carolina, or in a neighboring area, and you haven't visited Yellow Branch Falls, you should. If you are able to make the 1.5-mile hike to the falls, you should go now, right now. This waterfall is one of the best waterfalls I've seen in hikes around my area. In fact, I drove over three hours to revisit this place when I had some vacation time.
The transition from South Carolina to Tennessee is proceeding apace, but I figured I'd toss in this last South Carolina "hike". It was really just a brief stroll through Town Creek Park's series of trails. According to SCTrails, part of this series of trails follows the route of a train system used by the Appalachian Lumber Company, in the '20s. Town Creek Park is in Pickens, SC, not far from the main part of the city itself, but it still provides a "walk in the woods" type feel.
For the next hike with Clemson librarians, we decided to head to Rainbow Falls, in Jones Gap State Park. This is a repeat hike for me and was for at least one of the other hikers in the group. But, Rainbow Falls is such a gorgeous spot, it is worth repeated visits. This hike, about 5 miles round trip, is relatively strenuous, but the view at the end takes one's breath away.
While building staff profiles for the Clemson Libraries staff web resources, I noted that many bios involved hiking as a particular interest. Since that's also an interest of mine, I've been building a hiking group of library faculty and staff. I had gone with a couple of colleagues to Blood Mountain in Georgia last fall, but we're starting to attract a larger group of core hikers. This time, we went to the Winding Stairs Trail, north of Walhalla. I had been here before, but the rest of the group had never been.
On the first weekend of April, I decided to head up to the Table Rock summit again. Last time, it was in the middle of autumn, but this time, spring was just starting to make itself felt. So, the foliage wasn't as lush as before, and the weather still had a little bit of a chill in it. This 3.5 mile hike up the mountain is relatively challenging, although the downward trip is a bit more taxing on my aging knees.
Even though I live in a particularly rural part of the country, it's still nice to get out of the "city" and away from all of the trappings thereof. And some weeks are worse than others, making the need to get out just that much more important.
February in the upstate South Carolina area was a wintry one, indeed. The university was either closed or delayed multiple times, due to the ice and snow. After one of these winter storms, with the temperature going up and the sun coming out, I took a brief trip back to Station Cove Falls. This time, rather than starting out from the Oconee Station State Historical Site parking area, I went directly to the alternate trailhead, just down from the entrance.
I've been to Hidden Falls before, but I decided to give it another try, this time in the winter. The last time I took this 5.5 mile hike, the waterfall was a bit so-so, due to lack of water, so I was hoping to get a better view.
During the later part of the summer, as summer was starting to move into fall, I returned to the Raven Rock Trail, part of the trail system around Jocassee Gorge. Oddly enough, the trail seemed very different in many ways. It may very well have been that I took a different part of the trail last time.
Because my weekends have been fuller than normal of late, during the late summer, I was trying to find a way to still do some hiking. I figured, if I could get to a place nearby after work, that might be doable. Then, I was reminded about the Clemson Experimental Forest.
