Little Ocmulgee State Park Ga

Today was the longest drive of this trip. Actually, our drive to Tega Cay was a little longer, but that was day 1. This is a resort park. There is a golf course, a lodge, a conference center, a restaurant, a pool, tennis courts, volley ball and the ultimate attraction......a putt-putt golf course. Also a laundry in the campground.

Hamilton Branch SP

We are still in S. Carolina but this park is near Augusta. The lake we are backed up to is Strom Thurmond Reservoir. We think this is the 3rd time we have stayed here. The attraction for me is the Forks Area Trail System. Bike trails. They are excellent. The trailhead is about a 20 minute drive from this campground. There are 6 loop trails. I rode 2 of them. My 65 year old legs are tired. We are going to cross into Georgia tomorrow. We left Habersham on the 6th of January so we will have been in South Carolina for 21 days.

Last day at Aiken

We drove into town to absorb some local ambience and eat Mexican food. Jenny found a restaurant with great reviews. It was a Mexican grocery with a
restaurant or a Mexican restaurant with a grocery, it was hard to tell. The food was great. The clientele was all Mexican laborers on their lunch breaks. We visited a garden operated by the city of Aiken. The property was donated to the city a long time ago by a couple who bred and raced Thoroughbred horses. The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame & Museum is located on the garden grounds. I really wanted to spend some time visiting the Hall of Fame but.......well actually I didn't. It's interesting to me that there is a thing called, "The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame". We move tomorrow.

Aiken SP day 2

I yakked the S. fork of the Edisto on the park river trail. It was very twisty and swampy. Yesterday, Jenny stumbled and hurt her arm catching herself. That's why she didn't go with me. She's OK but wasn't comfortable with the idea of
pulling on a paddle. After lunch we hiked the park's nature trail. We had originally planned on leaving tomorrow but this park is pretty nice so we will be here one more day. There are 2 other campers here. We have met them both. It is very quiet. The only sound most of the day is the wind blowing through the pines.

Aiken State Park

• This park only has 25 sites and 20 of them are vacant. We found one with a hole in the trees that has allowed us to get a satellite signal. This parks main attraction is the South Fork of the Edisto river, which flows through it. We will probably paddle on it tomorrow. The Edisto river is the longest free flowing blackwater river in the country. I do have one alarming development to discuss. I was unable to post any pictures yesterday. I have tried everything I can think of with no luck. I'm afraid there is a glitch someplace and I won't be able to fix it. So, if there are no pics on this or subsequent posts, that's what's happening. 

A little history

After a morning yak we visited Ninety Six National Historic site. Historians believe the the towns name, 96, was used because it is located along a major Cherokee indian path that extended from the ocean to the mountains and the settlement was 96 miles from Keowee, a major Cherokee village. Two other major roads converged at 96 in the 1700s so it was an important center of commerce. The first southern land battle of the Revolutionary War was fought here in 1775. The battle was fought between Loyalists and Patriots. All of them were born here, they had a different view of who should be in charge. The very first southern fatality of the revolutionary war occured during this battle. The loyalists lost the battle. There was another battle here in 1781.  The berms and trenches that were part of the second battle are still evident and the park has a well marked interpretive trail that meanders through them. The Loyalists won the second battle. We move tomorrow.

Lake Greenwood SRA

This park is near a town called 'Ninety Six'. There is probably an interesting story behind that name but I gave been unable to find out what it is. We got our 43rd stamp in our SC parks book today. Our next stop will be Aiken SP and that will be it for stamp collecting on this trip. Our 3 remaining stamps will come from parks near Charleston. As you can see from the pic below the MP is literally backed up to the lake. If the lake was full pool we would be 25 feet from the water. We are here for 2 nights. Possibility of rain tomorrow.