Old Dan Walking

The brand new Oconaluftee Visitor Center grand opening is tomorrow. Paid for with funds largely from the Great Smoky Mountains Association, the facility is supposed to be quite a sight. While hiking regularly in the Smokies in '09 and '10, I watched the building take shape and the elk grazing near the tall construction keep-out fences, probably wondering what the heck is going on.

Unfortunately I will miss the big event, but you can bet on Danny Bernstein being there providing a comprehensive report on the festivities for those of us that couldn't make the trip. Thanks in advance Danny!

I know this great stop-action video has been shared on other sites, but it's too cool not to pass on to my two readers.

Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

This weekend my son Thomas and I spent a nice weekend together in the far northeast corner of Tennessee....at Bristol race weekend. (yep, I'm one of 'dem Nascar bubbas) 

After the Saturday Nationwide Series race we had plenty of time left before the sun went down, so I decided to show my son that when you explore around a new area, sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough. No need to go back to the motel and play video games.

Track safety workers come check on Danica Patrick, who wrecked hard in her first Bristol race (she was ok)

Ever since I learned to drive, I've loved to explore new areas. Just drive to the next stop sign and turn right, then see where it takes me. No GPS required. After the race on Saturday I saw a sign, so we turned right and followed it...

Viola, our diamond....Warriors Path State Park 

Thomas checks out the Holston River

Thomas learning about the warrior's path.

Next time you see a brown sign on the highway, turn right and go check it out...it might lead to a diamond. Hopefully my son will do so as well when he starts driving.

To skip the chatter and go right to the pics of this walk, click the link below:

Dreher Island State Recreation Area, South Carolina(Opens in new window) 

2.1 miles lollipop walk on the Little Gap Trail in Dreher Island State Recreation Area, near Columbia, South Carolina – March 13, 2011

As I was heading out the door on Sunday for what was sure to be a glorious walk in the mid-70 degree weather of the Upstate mountains, I made the mistake of checking my phone before shoving it in my pocket. It doesn’t happen often, but there it was…a text message from my boss’ boss. “Need some urgent info right away for meeting with the VPs”…ugh. So much for my day in the mountains.

After spending several hours taking care of the urgent requests for data I paced around the house…what to do….what to do? Mountains? Nope, it’s too late for that long up-and-back drive. Walk the neighborhood? Nope, too nice of day. Nearby Congaree National Park? Nope, I’ve been twice and next time I wanted to bring the family. They were busy today. So I scanned the South Carolina map, finally deciding on a local park that I’ve visited before for birthday parties, but never really walked.

I must admit I typically make a habit of banging on the area I’ve called home for the past 10 years, for two reasons really. One, it is enemy territory, smack in the home of my college’s arch rival, the University of South Carolina. But more important, from mid-June through mid-September this place is hotter than Hades. On typical weekends I can’t get up I-26 fast enough to escape the oppressive heat. I’ve lived four places in my life…Florida, Atlanta, Phoenix, and now the middle of South Carolina. It seems God has a sense of humor when it comes to me and the heat. But even I, the staunchest critic of the Midlands, must readily admit, this time of year is pretty darn nice. And Lake Murray, the 78 square mile lake that supplies the entire Midlands with power and recreation, is pretty darn nice as well.

Dreher Island State Recreation Area

In 1930, the Lexington Water Power Company relocated 5000 people, and removed 3 churches, 6 schools, and 2000 graves along the areas adjacent to the Saluda River to build the Saluda Dam, once the largest earthen dam in the world. Hundreds of years prior, the Catawba and Cherokee Indians roamed these lands. After that, European settlers set up the communities that would be relocated to make the lake. Once the lake filled, Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his boys worked on their skills here before the famous bombing raid on Tokyo just after Pearl Harbor. One of the early European families, settling in the area prior to the Revolutionary War, was the Dreher family. The small State Recreation Area near the town of Prosperity, SC now bears the family name, and sits on the property once owned by Billy Dreher.  

It is an easy drive for me, being just 15 miles or so from home. Dreher Island SRA has day use areas like picnic pavilions and a few short hike and bike trails, but most come for the lakefront campsites, boating, and fishing opportunities. Today I’d just enjoy the nice weather on a short stroll on the Little Gap Trail, a 2.1 mile lollipop that meanders in and out of the fingers created by the flooding of the Saluda. I hear ya, and you’re right..I keep getting more and more pathetic with my trail mileage, huh? Last walk was 5 miles and this one only 2.1? The benefits of my Smoky Mountain workout program from ’08 and ’09 are a distant memory now.   

Little Gap Trail

There isn’t too much to say about a walk on this little trail on the ‘Island’. After spending 35 years in Florida just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico, I certainly don’t consider this place an island. But again I must admit, it was a pretty nice little walk. It even has a tiny bit of elevation change to remind me that I’m walking in the woods instead of on pavement. The trail starts out in a thick forest of pine near one of those picnic shelters but eventually enters a forest of large hickory and oak, some of impressive size. There are even some relics on this trail, a la Smoky Mountains. The old two-sided fireplace ruin is not made of the river rock so common in the Smokies though, instead made of bricks of South Carolina clay. The oaks were bare, but the Eastern Redbud announces Spring’s appearance with showy pink flowers. I see no other wildflowers today.

In a few spots the trail straddles the shoreline, so having not too much ground to cover today I stand and watch the sailboats and bass fishing boats scurrying here and there. It almost reminds me of my hometown. I gander at the McMansions lining the shore and chuckle at the site of Little Mountain across on the far banks, a monadnock not quite living up to its mountain cousin’s grandeur. The shore has been weathered away by the small waves of the boats, causing it to look as if it is a natural lake that has always been here. In reality, just 81 years ago it was a series of hills and homesites with no water in sight. It must have been odd watching the area flood that first time. Before long this pleasant stroll is over and I sit lakeside to enjoy lunch before the short ride home, arriving in time to get the next series of urgent requests from the boss’ boss.

Low elevation on my 2.1 miles of lollipop walking was around 350’ at the shoreline and high elevation was about 400’ along the trail somewhere. If you’re a camper and like to sit lakeside and enjoy the views or have a boat that needs a shakedown, check out this little gem of a park near my new hometown, but don’t wait until mid-June.

 

For pics of this walk, click the link below:

Dreher Island State Recreation Area, South Carolina(Opens in new window)