May 12, 2015 Conestee Lake Park: It's Almost Like Falling in Love

"What a day this has been
What a rare mood I'm in
It's almost like falling in love"        

The magic of this full throttle Spring day is nearly overwhelming. It is early, moving along on Hwy 296 through Reidville towards Mauldin.  Lush green fields, blooming catalpas, tulip poplars and magnolias along the way before I am in the South edge of Greenville and turn rt on 146, then left on Butler Rd and continue through Maudin until the road becomes Mauldin Road.

The entrance to Conestee Lake Park is at 840 Mauldin Road behind the sports complex and the dog park.
There are 11 miles of trails over and across the Reedy River, through wetlands teeming with plants, birds and animals.  The heavy intoxicating scent of honeysuckle, wild rose and blooming privet fills the air.

I take the Raccoon Run near the dog park.  It is a well marked tunnel through much green bushes and trees at first along the sides of a steep red mud bank.  I come upon a rock floor and then a field and we find a platter sized turtle in the gravel road.  At the top of the rolling ridge, I find more rolling ridges and so we turn back again.  I find later that the Raccoon Run is a loop that would have taken me to Flat Tail trail where I go  now.

From the big entrance saying "Lake Conestee Park", you can look down through the woods and see a bridge over the Reedy River. To the left is a sand beach where people take their dogs to swim.  It is on the near side of the river, so you must take a turn off to the left before the bridge to get there.

I go through Heron Circle, take Possum trail and go to the left at a spot where going forward is blocked.
This is Flat Tail. I find West Bay Observation Deck see before me.  Surely this is the Garden of Eden.
Great Blue flies up into one of the dead trees above a lush sea of Broad Leaf Arrowhead plant (also called Duck Potato), American Black Elderberry, Wild Blue Irises, the Primrose plant which will bloom next month, grasses.

I have met Beverly and her red dog, Lily. She becomes my guide. She and her husband have hiked here for many years and worry about the influx of people who will come when a connection to the Swamp Rabbit Trail is completed from downtown Greenville.  She tells me how to cross the river again and circle around to the Bird Nest. This is a high deck over the wetlands where we can look out again and see what grows and moves.  Here you could see a variety of ducks, perhaps even the Great Egret, a Kingfisher, a Green Heron, an American Bittern and many of the 200 species of birds spotted in the past year by the Greenville Bird Watchers Club.  Recently 82 species were seen on  bird count day.

Going back, Great Blue flies up in front of me, so close I can hear the slow flap if his wings. From Flat Tail, I take Heron Circle, Woodie Walk and then bear to the left to cross the big bridge again.

"It is almost like falling in love."