Wednesday, July 30, 2014

July 29, 2014 Barnwell State Park: Water Lillies with a Possibility of Alligators

A bright green day with temperatures much cooler than the season and low humidity as well.

I loaded up Boofa, water, dates and apples and put oil in the car at Kangaroo Station.  There I found legal moonshine for sale in flavors of apple, peach, strawberry and clear.  The attendant told me that the clear was terrible, the peach so so and the strawberry fairly good.  Not today.

It was 9:00 am before I was driving down the back roads (hwy 56 then at Chappells 39) as the crow flies in the green green of the height of summer. Impossible smooth green meadows stretch for acres to forests of deep dark green trees. There is not a leaf stirring.  The trees stand magnificently and quietly knowing that the work of the green fuse is done now.  I pass cattle farms with signs for Limousin, Brahman and Poled Hereford bulls.

On the Laurens/Newberry County line, Belfast Plantation is on the right (settled by John Simpson of Ireland in 1786) and on it's land a Wildlife Management area.
Later I pass the Jacob Odom house where George Washington spent the night on his trip north in 1755.

I cross the Spearman Bridge over the green Saluda and into Saluda, past the Saluda county Courthouse and a mural on the side of a downtown building for the Saluda Old Town Treaty in 1755 with the Native Americans. I turn past the Saluda Pool Hall, cross over the Little Saluda River, on past fields of Sun Flowers, small crops of okra and fields of cotton blooming with white and red blossoms, signs for Peaches at Cone Farms, Dixie Bell Peaches.  In Wagener, a truck of watermelons is parked in the town median.
In Sally (home of the Chitlin Strutt) I get gas on Walnut St. The station is manned by friendly Southeast Asians.   Nearby a group of men sit in the shade of a giant oak, passing the time.

The welcome sign for Springfield is beside a cotton field and a lonely Palmetto Palm. Nearby is the South Edisto River.  I stop at the Morgan Pharmacy for directions.  It sits in a lovely corner building on the downtown Festival Trail and it has one of the last soda fountains in South Carolina, maybe the world.  They tell me to take Hwy 3 ( the Solomon Blatt Hwy) on to Blackville and then shortly to the park on the right.

This is a beautiful small park, another gem, somewhat the size of the Chester State park, with original work by the CCC. There is a park office (open 11 to 12 and 4 to 5) in the old bath house building with a women's bathhouse on the left and men's on the right.  At the office there is a humming bird feeder and a trap for carpenter bees.   Beyond is the upper pond with 5 children swimming in the roped area, their mothers in black T's and shorts sitting on the shore.  The 1.5 mile Nature Trail runs off to the right and circles the ponds, graced with blooming lilies.  There are a few people fishing, one paddle boat, signs warning the possibility of alligators "a fed gator is a dead gator".  Up in the woods nearby, there are 5 round cabins with landscaping by local garden clubs. Inside I see a nicely appointed kitchen, two bedrooms, a large living-dining area with table and chairs, modern upholstered chairs in front of a flat screen TV.

Leanna McMillan, ranger, tells me the story of the Rosses who were rangers here, she for 24 years until 1979 and he, the husband for 10 years before.  Ranger Ross died of a heart attack on the night he went to the aid of passengers in a car that wrecked at the entrance to the park.  After his death, Mrs. Ross became the park manager and it was she who was able to arrange for the building of the 5 cabins with the help of Solomon Blatt, legislator from the area.

On the far side of the lake, my friend, Great Blue (heron), stands on the edge of the field of water lilies.
The trail has jetties through the woods, one out into the lake for gazing and fishing. Nearing the end of the trail, I come to the spillway with the sign, "Do Not Walk on the Spillway" and see a small path down to and around a little pond.  This is not the way to go. It is passable but covered with branches. A little farther back off the trail is a trail to the road, so that you can walk along the road for a few yards and then come onto a bridge which takes you back to the office.

Leanna McMillan tells me that an Eagle Scout is building another trail in the forest across the road which will connect to the loop trail.  Leanna has come two months ago from working at Hickory Knob where she cleared the trail for a Triathelon last year.  She tells me about the Civil War Battle History site at Rivers Bridge where I plan to go next.

The swimming spot in the lake looks so inviting that I plan to start packing a swim suit and towel on my next hike.

I drive up the road through Blackville, which has a dark green Public Library in a signature Victorian style with cupola.  I get gas at an immaculate station run by our Southeast Asian Highway Guardians.  It has a Subway restaurant and a Blue Bunny Ice Cream stand and anything else you might need on the way.  In the small towns on Hwys 39 and 56 there is always one or two great old mansions with shaded porches with wicker or rocking chairs.  Who sits in those chairs now?

In the small leafy town on Monetta, there is a peach orchard where the ripe peaches lie rotting, ungathered on the ground.

Three deer leap across the road.  The sky is filled with high cumulous clouds in a blue blue field.

I am on an oxygen high with the radio playing "Cecelia, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Blackbird".


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