Aiken State Park and surviving the South Edisto River

This 1,067 acre park features a 4 acre lake fed by artesian wells. These wells feed fountains located throughout the park. This park offers boating, swimming, camping, hiking , biking, geocaching, horseshoes, playground, and picnicking areas.

This park sits along the South Edisto River and has a 1.7 mile canoe and kayak trail with canoes available for a rental fee. This is how myself and 2 other ladies got lured into our canoeing adventure.

Who could say no to this adventure ? A relaxing and scenic paddle down the South Edisto River to take in all the beautiful flora and fauna of this park. Oh, we were going to be in for a surprise.

We we parked the car at the let out spot and a park ranger drove us to the put in spot. She then issued us our canoe , 3 paddles and 3 life vests ( 2 of which were equipped with whistles, mine was not. ) But that was OK, what could possibly go wrong?

As we started down the river we quickly realized that the water level was very high and the current was very strong due to the recent rains. This river is very twisty with many S and U shaped turns.

We quickly learned we were in way over our heads as the current was so strong it kept pulling our canoe into branches of large downed trees.

As we rounded a turn our canoe heading straight for a large branch that was sticking out of the water horizontally which would have struck us directly in the chest. I leaned to avoid getting struck and capsized the canoe.

The water was very cold and 2 of us were trying to hold onto the upside down canoe while making sure we didn't lose visual contact with the lady floating behind us.

I scrambled to stay afloat because when I hit the water I almost slipped completely through my life vest . My failure to tighten my starts properly now had me in a position where the chest staple was the only thing holding my up from under my chin.

We swam as hard as we could to get to a spot on the river bank where we could get out and regroup. This was more difficult than expected as the overgrown vegetation prevented us from getting to the bank for quite a distance.

We were able to scramble ourselves onto the bank. Remarkably we were able to grab our paddles and personal items less one water bottle and most impotent lyrics the dry bag with the car keys in it.

One lady, very wisely, blew her emergency whistle and in no time at all a man papered in a boat. He was our knight in shining armor and rescued us from our dilemma. Even with the assistance of his motorboat , it took us another half hour to maneuver through the branches of all the downed trees.

Although we did sustain some cuts and scrapes....we SURVIVED !

What I learned :
1. Mother nature is a force to be recon ed with.
2. Always wear your life vest and tighten your straps.
3. Canoes are heavy.
4. Canoes are really heavy when they have 100 gallons of water in them.
5. If you keep calm, think positive and don't panic, you can get yourself out of almost anything.

Happy camping, hiking, and canoeing,
Trail Hiker Chick

Trailhikerchick.com

Kings Mountain State Park, SC

Camping at Kings Mnt. S.P. and a hike on the Battlefield Trail.

I had a great time on my recent visit to Kings Mountain State Park in South Carolina which is adjacent to Kings Mountain National Military Park. These parks offer camping, 16 miles of hiking trails,16 miles of horse trails, two fishing lakes, a museum, 1800's farm/homestead, swimming and boat rental.

The campground was nice and the restrooms were clean. The campsites were spaced fairly close together. I may suggest camping on the inside of the camping loops because some sites on the outside of the loops had very steep drop offs. Literally if you stepped one foot behind your picnic table you would be tumbling down a hill.

The Battlefield Trail was a nice 1.5 mile hike on a paved surface located next to the museum. It has many monuments erected in honor of the people who fought in the battle that turned the tide of the revolutionary war.

The park's replica 1800's homestead/farm was really nice. It consisted of a home and various outbuildings and a barn with animals as well. The museum was very educational with theater which showed an movie about the battle. It also contained many artifacts on display and animated displays on how the battle progressed.

The natural beauty of this park was amazing. I saw some mushroom types i had never seen before. This park was abundant in wildlife and I hold no grudge toward the little critter who made off with my peanuts and cappuccino one night.  Eat well little fellow.

Happy Hiking,

Trail Hiker Chick

Hamilton Branch State Park

Camping at Hamilton Branch S.P.

Hey everybody ! This past weekend I did some camping at Hamilton Branch State Park in Plum Branch SC.

This was my first time to this park and I was blown away, as it seemed every site had an amazing lake view! Some sites were surrounded by water on two or three sides. Some sites were set up with their  own private driveways and others were two sites that shared a single driveway ( in the shape of a T). This is the type of site that I had and i didn't mind this set-up, as the sites were spaced well apart and I had awesome camping neighbors. This type of site may not be ideal for everyone though because they may have concerns about the "traffic" in the shared driveway if they have small children or if you are a light sleeper you may be bothered by the headlights of your neighbors cars at night shining directly on your tent.

These sites are spaced well apart form each other which is usually a super great thing, but as I was camping with a group this trip, the distance between sites made socializing as a group a little more difficult. Depending on your site location, the restroom facilities could be quite a distance away and the one in our loop only had one shower in the women's room.
It rained for about 2 hours on Saturday. This was the first time this tent has experienced rain and I did get a small puddle of water on the inside of my tent. It was about a 4 inch round puddle. I wasn't sure how the water had entered the tent but when i was packing up i noticed I had placed my tent on a small red ant mound and there were a considerable amount of ants very active under that spot. They may have damaged the floor of my tent.

This trip was planned as part of a women's camping group . It was my first time camping with this group and my first time meeting the ladies. i had a great time and met so many really nice people.

This park did have a hiking trail  that was blazed with blue arrows and a connector trail but I didn't get the chance to hike them. I will definitely like to hike them on my next visit. This park also offer a boat ramp, gift shop, playground and multiple pavilions for picnicers.

 
 

                                                                                                                                         

Happy Hiking and Camping,

Trail Hiker Chick

Morrow Mnt, State Park, Long Loop trail

Morrow Mnt. State Park , Long Loop Trail

I recently spent a few days at Morrow Mnt. State Park and got to hike a section of the Long Loop trail. This was a great park. The camp host was very friendly and i met a lot of other very nice campers.

The trail is open to both hikers and equestrians. It had a few blown down trees blocking the trail but they were easy to navigate around and it went to a nice overlook at Lake Tillery. There are over 10 trails to explore and one that t...

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Lake Marion Passage

Well I just got back from a 8.5 mile hike of the Lake Marion Passage of the Palmetto Trail between Santee and Sumter S.C.. So, do you want the good news or the bad news first ?

 Ok, the bad: I think i choose the worst day of the year to hike this type of trail. It was my first time hiking it and tried to acquire all the info i could off the web before going. The first challenge was that the map was not detailed enough to give me useful information. It was difficult to even find the trail from the parking area. Once on the trail the first mile was a little difficult to follow the yellow blazes at times due to fact that the blazes were very widely spaced and poor trail maintenance. Oh if i had any idea of what lay ahead i would have turned back. 

I then entered an area which had been logged. I expected this due to the info on the website which directed me to follow the orange blazes. To my surprise the trail just ended. I could see a orange blaze 20 feet in so i began to bush-wack through 4 foot high weeds and pricker bushes scrambling over piles of downed trees. Over and under and around. This continued for awhile until there were absolutely no orange blazes at all. I looked down at one point and realize i was about 50 feet into an 100 foot patch of poison ivy which was about a foot high. what could i do ? I resigned myself to the fact that there was no trail and figured i would reach a trail or road or river or the lake or just some kind of civilization someday if i just kept going. So i continued this for 2 miles. When suddenly, like magic, the trail re-appeared. The joy was short lived. 

The mid-day heat had reached 95 and the humidity was near 100% . The trail then turned into a 1.5 mile dirt road walk in the full blazing sun.About halfway down the road i spotted and island of shade under a large tree. i had to stop to rest. While sitting there a butterfly landed on my hand. He had white outer wings and light electric blue on the inside of his wings. I named him Mortimore. When it was time for me to move on, i didn't want to disturb him, so i carefully put my pack back on and clipped my hipbelt. I held my hand very still as to not disturb Mortimore. As the intense sun hit him he walked around my hand and hung upside down in the shade of my hand. He was smart butterfly. He enjoyed the free ride for about a quarter mile before he was on his way. The water i had was getting drank much faster than i expected. I can say that i was happy to reach sparkleberry landing. This is a kayak/boat launch to Lake Marion.A boater offered a ice cold water from his cooler and it was much appreciated Reaching the tree lined trail again seemed like just the reprieve in needed from the sweltering sun.

 Little did i know that this area of the lake was mostly swamp land and i didn't take long before the mosquitos and black flies found me. i applied a second coat of insect repellant as i had sprayed myself before i began to hike. This did not deter the insects at all. Little did i know but the humidity was steadily increasing and temp was only going to drop to 90 by 6 pm. My legs were bloody from cuts from the pricker vines and the multitudes of smashed mosquitos . the burning and itching on my arms and legs was almost unbearable. My hip was aching from stepping over all those logs, my back was aching from ducking under all those branches and my feet were blistered from that long hard road hike.

 And now the good news: I did reach my final destination,Pack's Landing, in one piece. And the great news: My friend bought me a cold soda and i got to sit in air conditioning.What i learned: Half frozen water bottles are so much more awesome than warm water bottles. Bug spray with Deet doesn't work in swamps. That what one person calls a trail, may not be a trail at all. A large feather works well as a fan and can keep bugs from biting your earlobes. Even a butterfly enjoys a free ride on a hot day. 
Happy Hiking,
TrailHikerChick

Welcome to my Blog

Just wanted to say hello to everyone and WELCOME ! This is my first blog post. So please bear with me while i figure this whole thing out. I'm so glad you're here to share this experience with me. This is going to be a wonderful and sometimes crazy adventure. I would like to get down to GEAR in my next post. I will tell you all about what gear i will be taking on my AT thru-hike and some pre-AT trial hikes. I'll let you know what's working and what's not. So be sure to follow me and sign up for e-mail so you won't miss my adventures and misadventures along the way! I'm no blogging expert or hiking expert so you better hold on......it may be a bumpy ride !