I am off early this morning on Hwy 29 (then in Greer to 291, then Piney Mtn Rd, then State Park Rd), passing countless yard sales. It is a little cool, 45 degrees at start, a blue sky with fragile long wisps of clouds, convertibles with the tops down, a white one, a tiny red one, a blue one, sailing by.
At Paris Mountain, there is a Greenville Track Club road race just ending. The last runners are coming up the hill while others are gathered beside the Park Center eating bananas and drinking water. The Park Center is made of river stones rounded by water over time, as are some of the bridges over streams. These were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1940's. They used the materials available where they built the parks and created a style known as Parkitechture.
There are several trails and no paper maps available. You may receive a small business card and download the maps on your Iphone, if you have one. I took the Lake Placid Trail, .73 miles around a small green lake. There is one lonely Canadian goose honking loudly out on the water. Soon, I come to the spillway and cross a bridge below where the water falls beautifully into a clear stream. On the far side I come upon a pair of Canadian Geese with their four big fluffy downy gosling children. They spread their wings, open their beaks, stick out their tongues and make hissing sounds at Boofa. We crawl up a rocky bank and can see the lonely goose honking in this direction, as if he is calling the others. The trail winds by the lake and is bounded by Mountain Laurel in full bloom. There is a pair of domestic white ducks with their necks curled back in sleep on the shore. They are oddly, not white, but a pale pastel yellow.
The Lake Placid Trail connects to the Mountain Creek Trail and I take it, soon seeing neon pink ribbons tied at intervals to tree branches, and limed lines marking off branching trails. I am following the 12 kilometer (7.5miles) race trail. Soon I come to an amphitheater built by the CCC where a marker dates occasions when music is performed here.
The Mountain Creek Trail runs into the Sulfur Springs Trail. When I return to the Park Center, there are workers and life guards in swim suits readying the lake for swimming. The season begins today at l:00.
When I start the car, I hear "Wise Men Say, only fools rush in, but I can't help falling in love with you..." Why am I crying.
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