According to Chris Waddell, Ranger, H. Cooper Black is a 7,000 acre wildlife preserve with 50 miles of dirt roads, dedicated to horses and hunting dog field trials.
Highway 9 crosses South Carolina from the mountains above Spartanburg and goes all the way across the top of the state to Little River, Cherry Grove and Ocean Drive (home of the Shag) beaches. I cross the Broad River at Lockhart, through Chester , then crossing the wide Catawba to Lancaster where there is an odd billboard warning:
"Don't Let E-Coli Ruin Your Dinner Party"
Through Tradesville and over Lynches River into Chesterfield county and past Dudley Dorights General Store.
In Pageland there are lovely red roses blooming along the old main streets of town. Twenty years ago, as a volunteer, I drove a frail patient to a nursing home on the skirts of town here where posted at the door was a sign proclaiming "Quarantine".
" Never mind that", the white coated doctor said and I left the man there, to worry about it the rest of my life, including today.
Along the road through tiny hamlets are Evans Farm Produce, Rick's Produce, Grandma's Produce and at Mt Croghan in the road in front of Polecat BBQ lies a smashed furry red and black dead animal looking much like a "Polecat" (an ill smelling member of the weasel family, a type of skunk, or a vile member of the human family who acts like a polecat). In Ruby, Jewel City Produce is closed.
From Cheraw (home of the Braves), I take hwy 1, then left on Society Hill Rd and right onto H. Cooper Black Rd and left on Sporting Dog Trail. After a few miles on a gravel road, I come to stables, rest rooms, a Club House and a dozen white shiney mobile home/horse trailers as big as Trailways buses, parked under some shade trees. These huge vehicles cost from $40,000 up to untold fortunes.
There are really no hiking trails here. There are horseback riding trails, but Christ Waddell suggests I take a stroll around Goose Pond (one of three ponds here). I take a pleasant 1.5 mile walk around the little pond covered with water lilies, the large blooms now brown. At first I am following two pinto horses, their long tails swinging, carrying two riders who move off into the distance over meadows and into pine forests. No one else is here except me, a little white heron in the top of a tree, lots of orange and black fritillaries and thousands of grass hoppers flying through the air.
The field dog trials begin in the fall and continue until Christmas, says Chris Waddell.
Leaving, I pass through the sweetly named village of Society Hill, take Hwy15/401 across The Great Pee Dee River and back onto Hwy 9.
Here is the town of Clio, established 1836, where on Main St the fading letters high up on an old brick building proclaim: " Edens Opera House", now divided into an auto parts store and a Refuge of Deliverance mission.
Now, the land is changing into lush flat fields of cotton or soy beans and in the distance houses and barns banked against forests of dark green trees. I drive on through Minturn and Little Rock. A sign says:
" I love you
I forgive you
Come to supper"
Here is the huge looming Perdue Dillon Plant and then the even huger more looming Rocket City 2 Fireworks, it's red and yellow facade devastating the view of the town of Dillon. Highway I-95 crosses here, just over the border from North Carolina. A little north is the famous South of the Border group of Souvenir Junk shops and restaurants. I did not go there, but I have been there before when John was on his way to Kitty Hawk to run a marathon. Colleen, Michael , the dog, Finn, and I accompanied him. Not today.
I am on my way to Little Pee Dee State Park, turning rt on Hwy 57 for 11 miles, then left on Road 22 (State Park Rd) and across two bridges over the black waters of the Little Pee Dee River, then right into the Park, where I pitch my tent for the night.
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