A visit with Pat & Steve

We drove 2 hours west and arrived here around 12:30. They have been doing a lot of work on their new home. One major project is construction of a barn\stalls for the horses. I pitched in and we made a little progress on the roof.

Table Rock

There is a State Park at Table Rock. We got the Table Rock stamp and headed up. It's a good trail that was built by the CCC. It is obviously well traveled but today we had it pretty much to ourselves, at least, on the way up. This first set of pics were taken of the trail. It was pretty knarley in places. The next set has the view from the bottom and then the view from the top.

2 hits, one strikeout

We were trying to get 3 stamps Today. The last park we hit had one of those ranger stations only open for 2 hours a day. We arrived at an inappropriate time. Damn the luck. Tomorrow we are planning on climbing an iconic escarpment in South Carolina. It's called Table Rock. It's an hours drive and we figure, a 4 hour round trip hike. So, all day. There's a 70% chance of rain so we'll have to hike with our umbrellas. RVing in not for wimps. We visited a couple of waterfalls during our stamp collecting. We are in the foothills and all the little creeks hit the fall line and make a waterfall. There are hundreds of them and many are tourist attractions.

Oconee State Park

We are now in the Upstate. When we got here and saw the campsite we had reserved, we were not overly whelmed. We are starting to recognize a pattern when it comes to SC State parks. The Web site description of the site we reserved didn't jive with reality. Anyway we swapped and are in a site that is better. We did a long hike after we got organized so we have a feel for the area. There are a couple of parks, sort of, in the vicinity, so tomorrow we will try and get  some more stamps in our book. I'm not convinced this endeavor is worthwhile. I've got a bunch of t-shirts. We have taken a small bite out of the book so that might be a commitment. This pic is Jenny sitting in a patch of Galax. Galax is a floral green that CFG sells? Used to sell? I am completely out of the loop.

2 more stamps

Strom's reservoir has 3 state parks on it's southern shoreline. We're camped in the middle one. We hit one of the other ones this morning and the other one this afternoon. We did a hike in both parks we visited and I rode a spectacular 7 mile single-track trail this afternoon. Here's a view of the lake. The background is pretty as is the foreground.

Baker Creek State Park

We have left the coastal "low Country" and are now in "the midlands". This park is 1300 acres and is on the shore of Strom Thurmond reservoir. I had no idea Strom had a reservoir. It is apparently the home of some really, really, old fish. When we got here we discovered that the site we reserved was unsuitable. It was narrow and tilted. After some consultation with the campground host we moved. She told us that our move was 'probably OK'. Not a strong endorsement. The sun is setting and we haven't been run off yet, so that's something. We still haven't seen a ranger. I did a bike ride on some trails that were in critical need of maintenance. I'm wondering if this park runs itself. It's probably a budget thing. We are here for 1 more night. Pat, I'm thinking we'll be in your neighborhood on the 7th. Will that work for you?

Surprisingly busy

I have conflicting feeling about revealing our first objective today. I will anyway. We forgot something that is pretty damn important at our home in Beaufort. We had to drive back and get it. I will reveal said object at the end of this post. After our Beaufort side trip we drove to Givhans Ferry state park in order to get our book stamped. Simple enough. Well, turns out, the ranger station is only occupied 2 hours a day. It was 2 and it wasn't scheduled to reopen until 4. We rode bikes and did a hike and tossed the Frisbee. The ranger arrived at 4, which was surprising. We hit a grocery store and returned to the MP pretty late in the day. Tomorrow we move a little further north. (The TV remote)