Wateree Passage Trail

Today was my monthly hike with the ladies hiking group but because the usual leader was not able to attend, we had Patrick to guide us. He is the trail coordinator who has done so much work making the trail accessible and maintaining bridges, creek crossings and cutting away trees and such.  He also has long legs and walks about two steps to my one.    

The Wateree Passage of the Palmetto Trail is a one of the  longer sections..about eleven miles total but today we only walked seven miles..luckily most of this was flat.  The trail here follows most of the old railroad bed, has eight bridges over the Wateree River and its associated creeks and swamps.  I love the swampy area with the black water because it makes the most fantastic reflections.    We finished up today at Molly's Bluff..a winding part of the trail with up and down hills that reminded me of the mountains.   

I tried to make this collage to show some of the trail but also some other natural things.   The first photo on the left is where the old train track separates from the newer track which is still in use.  The trail right at this section is really bumpy and rocky as they left the old railroad ties and the big gravel rocks in the section of the track.   We soon walked out of the worst area when we saw the algae green water.  It was really gorgeous!  
The third photo is the sun reflecting on the water of the swamp which is mostly what we saw along the way.

On the second row we have a squirrel I walked up on getting a hickory nut to take up the tree.   Yeah me for being fast to pull up the camera because he was not there more than 15 seconds!   The middle photo is something...we think it was raccoon poo with something growing up out of it but we don't know what it might be but it sure was pretty!    The mushrooms were on a large dead tree and there were probably 500 or more total all along the tree. 

The third row photos are a cypress grove, walking toward the suspension bridge (that was fun walking over!)  and the river at the end of the trail.  We had a couple cars waiting here so we did not have to walk all the back to where we parked..smart thinking on somebody's part!   This seven mile walk took four hours including stopping time for seeing things and lunch.  

I hope this gives an idea of what I saw.  I have about 200 photos!      It was a good, cool, perfect weather day...but now I am going to run a hot bath and soak my old body and my feet.  I think there will be some new hiking boots before the next long hike...which will be back to the mountains to find some waterfalls! 

I love being in the forest!     I think I might have already said that a time or two!