Tuesday, June 17, 2014

June 15, 2014 A Bad Day at Redcliffe Plantation, Beech Island SC

The day began with a wonder of wild flowers along the back roads:  Mimosa, massive clumps of blooming viburnum, orange day lilies sprouting up from the green ditches, fragrant ligustrum, brilliant orange butterfly weed, Queen Anne's Lace.  On Hwy 56, I crossed Little River, Mills' Creek and then the wide green Saluda.  I crossed under I-20 and passed through Aiken with it's lovely old houses and gardens, then a  fleeting glimpse of the nuclear plant.

Redcliffe Plantation was the retreat of James Henry Hammond, once Governor of South Carolina, slave owner and political proponent of slavery.  The home was restored in 1973 by his descendant, John Shaw Billings, Editor of Life Magazine. Billings brought journalists and even the photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt to the home to photograph it.

Tours of the home are at 11:00, 1:00 and 3:00.  I arrived at 2:00 and missed the 3:00 o'clock tour because I was lost in the woods.

Doug, retired military officer and now park ranger told me that in February of this year, there had been a furious ice storm and that the two mile trail had been severely damaged by falling trees, branches and debris.
He and another ranger had just walked the trail and found the first quarter mile rough but passable and then "down near the pond" extremely overgrown and difficult to even find the way.  He advised to just walk in a quarter of a mile and then turn around and come back.

I walked in a way, over fallen logs and branches and kept going, looking for the pond. I was thinking of turning back when a startled long-legged white spreckled faun lept just in front of me.  In a state of wondrous awe, I followed it into the deep woods.  At last I was lost. At one point, I could see the trail going up a far off ridge and I started down in that direction, but soon came to a small body of water surrounded by brush and had to turn back.  I kept going through brush, brambles and black berries  hearing the stamping hoof beats of hidden deer and wishing I had a machete until I gave up and headed for the sound of cars.  I found a road and began walking in the searing heat from the macadam.  Hitch hiking appeared not to be an option.

Finally, I got a ride back to the site from a man named Tommy Snell in his black truck.  I washed up at the park office restroom and revived myself on the porch, drinking water and collapsing in a rocking chair until I saw the tourists coming down the hill from the plantation house.  They greeted me saying that the ranger had them looking out for me when I didn't appear for the tour.

I do not recommend getting lost and then walking on a highway in 95 degree heat, but the house must be interesting and I did make it up the Atomic Highway to the home of my childhood friend in North Augusta who led me to the shower and put me in a bed with clean cool linens for the night.

I dreamed then of the people who slaved in the unbearable heat on the plantation, bending and chopping, seeding and sowing with no cool shower and clean linens to comfort them.

Monday, June 9, 2014

June 8, 2014 Keowee-Toxaway State Natural Area: The Wild

The rain came down over the mountains last night and this morning there was fog and light rain,  a pleasant cool temperature in the 60's.  Up through Moore and Duncan on 290, then through Greer with it's mammoth churches, a quick left onto Wade Hampton Blvd in Greenville and then a right for several miles merging into Hwy 25 which goes to Asheville, but a left onto scenic highway 11 of the Cherokee foothills which travels along the escarpment.

Soon the fog is lifting, but still over the mountains water filled clouds linger as the sun fills the sky.

I am near the Table Rock entrance when to the left from a narrow driveway in the woods I see a big fat black bear, huge and beautiful, it's front legs with claws gently swaying as it meets the highway and decides to turn and mosey on back into the forest.  I am astonished at this glimpse into the world of wild nature not far from Aunt's Sue's across the road where tourists gather on the porches.  I pass Heaven Hill Rd on the left.  This is where the big bear lives, on the hill of heaven.

I continue up highway 11, pass the entrance to Sassafras Mountain and finally the entrance to Keowee-Toxaway on the right.  The ranger station is open from 11 to 12 and later from 4 to 5:00.  The ranger, Kevin, tells me to take the two trails, clockwise making a big loop.  Here I buy a carved and finished walking stick.  I have passed up so many until this one which I can't resist.

I take the Natural Bridge Trail from the parking lot to the right.  I pass over a rock which forms a bridge over Poe Creek where the cool rushing waters flow under it.  Soon there is a sign which tells you that the Raven Rock Trail goes to the right.  I take it up the mountain to where there are boulders of two or three stories high reaching into the heavens, smoothed by the progress of time and partially covered with moss.
Raven Rock trail curves around and up and down  until it reaches Lake Keowee where at the bottom of the jade colored waters lies the remains of an ancient Cherokee village.  I take time to search for arrow points near the stumps of uprooted trees but find none.  Here and three the trail runs along the edge of deep ravines and where it curves along the lake, there are rocks jutting out with  sharp and deep drop offs. At one place, the trail has completely fallen through and Boo and I crawl across, me holding onto a tree root.

The trail turns back into the mountain forest and later connects  with the Natural Bridge Trail in its upper loop.  This trail runs along Poe Creek again until you come to a rock crossing.  There is a big quartz shaped rock perched on top of the large rocks in the stream.  Later a ranger tells me that they found the rock in the woods and placed it over the rocks in the stream to make it more passable.  From here it is .72 miles back to the ranger station.

Both Boo and I are exhausted.  The ranger station is closed.  My legs have rubbed against poison ivy at many points and so I stop at a grocery store and wash my legs, face and hands with lots of soap and water.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

June 3, 2014 Snake at Sundown

I found a big desiccated snake on the trail, not a skin, but a complete animal with head and tail down to the tiniest point, flattened and in the condition of jerky.  I picked it up and put it in a plastic bag I had in the car.

A young man came along to examine it and declared it a black snake.  He did not think the head was diamond shaped and discounted the patterned scales.  He said he had heard that you must cut the head off the body or it will find its two separated parts and rejoin them.  I had heard somewhere back in my childhood that if you kill the snake, you  must bury it before sundown to make sure it is really dead.  Of course I did not kill this snake.  Probably a passing car flattened it and somehow it got off the road onto the trail.

A woman ran by and asked me if I had bought the snake at Steinmart as that was the logo on the plastic bag.

I am taking the snake to Matthew on the weekend.