Lake Wateree State Park, August 27, 2013 Desportes Island Nature Trail

I drove to Wateree State Park from Columbia, up I-77 today, a few miles off the marked exit, near Winsboro in Fairfield County, eight miles south of Great Falls.  It is still summer with Black Eyed Susans along the way, only here and there a tree beginning to turn.  I pass over Taylor's Creek which looks less like a creek than a wide lake, then over a railed spit of land crossing Lake Wateree and you are there.  Pass the brown ranger house on the left with a 3 foot carved rooster on the porch.  Imagine a blob like splayed hand with fingers reaching into the lake.  The office here is open 7 am to 7 pm week days and 7 am to 8 pm on the weekend.  They give you free handfuls of trail mix bars called Mojo and Clif.  There is a long dock with a gas tank for boats, a playground, camping and picnic tables.

I take the Desportes Island Nature Trail which loops around the bloby index finger of the hand. The trail is wide and surrounded by oak, holly, cedar and pine.  Crows are mobbing and arguing, cicadas are singing, invisible insects are stinging now and then.  I can see the fluttering of white wings lifting over the water.

Near the shore, the water is like green olives through glass and farther out like silver, shining in the sun.

Father out on the trail, there is trash, even an old tire.  Still it is quite beautiful.

Leaving the park on Hwy 21 north,  I spot what looks like a yellow squirrel with a ring tail.  I see a big fat wild turkey near a sign for the Piedmont Hunt Club then pass a nicely refurbished black hearse with orange and red flames on the side.  This old road is startling in its rod like straightness.  You can see the road for miles ahead stretching up through the forest on the way to Great Falls where there is a great falls on the Catawba River.