CONTINUING MY FOLLY OF 2018:

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In May of 2018, I decided to try a 3-day hike on the Palmetto Trail here in South Carolina. If you haven't read that account, here is a brief synopsis. On May 24th, I started what was intended to be a 3-day, 2-night, hike along the Palmetto Trail, starting in the small town of Walhalla. All went well the 1st day, walking from Walhalla to Oconee State Park, where I spent the night in a tent. The next day, I started the 2nd segment, from Oconeee State Park to Keowee-Toxaway State Park. Although I got up and going at a reasonable hour, feeling pretty good, the directions provided by the Park Rangers left something to be desired. For over an hour I couldn't find the trailhead, then it started raining and I had to wait it out near a cabin. Being late and wet, I decided to return to the Ranger Station and call my wife to come pick me up. On the way back to the ranger station, I found the trailhead and decided to go for it anyways. After the two to three mile hike through the woods, getting even wetter, I finally reached Oconee Station Historic Site around noon. Tired already from the extra weight with camping gear, a couple hours late, and soaking wet, I called my wife and had her come pick me up, giving up on the 2nd of 3 days.

This year I had decided to sort of "try it again", starting where I left off in 2018. My plan was to hike from Oconee Station Historical Site to Table Rock State Park the first day, then on to Paris Mountain State Park the second day, and home the third day. Since I have done a number of 30 kilometer hikes in about 6-8 hours on the Camino, I figured I could do the 27 and 28 mile hikes in 9 to 10 hours. Doing the math, that is 42 and 43 kilometers. Both parks require a minimum 2-day stay, but if you call the day you want to stay one night, they will allow it if sites are available, so that wasn't going to be a problem like it had been in 2018, when I'd paid for 2 nights at Keowee-Toxaway that I hadn't used.

Early Monday morning, August 17th, my wife dropped me off at Oconee Station Historical Site. Although they were closed, that didn't make a difference to me since I was starting walking from there. In order to make my hike easier and more like the Camino, my wife had agreed to drop my tent and sleeping gear off at the park, and pick them up again the next day to drop off at Paris Mountain State Park. I'm sure it did help, but maybe not enough. That first day wasn't easy after the first couple of miles, but I made it to my first possible rest stop, Picket Post Produce Plus, at the intersection of Oconee Station Road and the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway, which I would follow all the way to Table Rock State Park. Although it hadn't been open at 9am on the way there with my wife, the lady was just opening it 10am when I got there on foot. They have a pretty good selection of produce and drinks, along with a welcome restroom. I bought a banana and a Dr. Pepper and sat down for a short break before continuing on.

During my test drive a few days before, I had looked for places to take breaks, and eat lunch. The nearest place after Picket Post was a Mexican Restaurant/Grocery that didn't appear to be open, then a good ways further, but probably a good stop for lunch, was a Loco Mart gas station. I reached the Mexican place still feeling pretty good, but it still didn't seem to be open, so I just sat down for a few minutes breather. Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway is a pretty road with a nice shoulder to walk on, but very few businesses and not that many houses. It was pretty scenic though. Three and a half hours later, now feeling pretty tired, I reached the Loco Mart for my much needed lunch and shoes-off break. The Loco Mart had a very good selection of ready-to-eat stuff such as sandwiches and pizza slices, and of course the normal large selection of drinks. I bought a pretty decent pimento and egg salad sandwich with a pastry and a cold coffee, and sat down in the shade beside the building, taking my backpack and shoes off. After eating my decent lunch, I continued on. I forgot to mention that even though the road was quite scenic and had a nice shoulder to walk on, it also had a number of long and/or steep hills. After my lunch, I decided to get my trekking poles out to help with the hills.

A few grueling miles later I reached the next possible rest stop, Keowee Towne. It is a very nice gas station/country store with an even better selection of food, and some nice places outside with tables and chairs. At this point I was getting pretty tired and was wondering how much further I had to go, so I checked the map on my phone. Big mistake! I still had almost 15 miles to go and it was after 3:30pm at this point. That meant I'd be lucky to get to Table Rock by dark. I decided I didn't have much choice, except maybe to call a taxi, but that would be cheating, so I trudged on. Going up the next long steep hill, I got a cramp in my right calf that was pretty painful, but I stopped and worked it out, and then kept going. Going up the next hill, I spotted a guy coming to the edge of the road on his golf cart. He stopped there and walked across the road towards me, carrying a bottle of water. He told me he'd seen me coming up the hill and thought I might like a cold bottle of water. I had to tell him that I had plenty of flavored water and didn't really like plain water, but thanked him for his thoughtful act of kindness.

A couple miles and a couple hills later, I reached the top of a long steep hill, and disaster struck. All of a sudden both calves and one thigh cramped up... badly! I sat down in the grass on the side of the road to try to deal with the pain. Apparently I was writhing around quite a bit on the ground, since 3 or 4 cars stopped near me and people started gathering around asking me if I was okay. Through gritted teeth I told them I was okay, other than very painful leg cramps. I heard one guy say he was going to call the nearby Fire & Rescue, so I thanked him but told him there wasn't much they could do for leg cramps. I followed this comment with a remark that I would appreciate though a ride to my destination, since I'd decided I couldn't make it. A couple folks asked where I was going, so I told them Table Rock State Park. One lady offered to give me a ride, so knowing I was probably through for the day, I accepted. This nice lady's brother and nephew helped me up and to her car, while her and another nephew carried my gear. I don't mean to criticize the helpful lady, but she talked constantly, and with my hearing aids I could only understand about half of it, nodding now and then.

Well, they not only took me the 10 or so miles to the park, but all the way to my campsite where my wife had left my camping gear, and even told me they would set up my tent for me! I was so grateful, and still having some cramps, so I didn't object. As an afterthought, I wish I'd at least offered them a tip or some money for their trouble, but I wasn't thinking clearly and just shook their hands and thanked them profusely. In retrospect, offering them money might have belittled the act of kindness or even insulted them.

After resting for a while, hoping my cramps wouldn't return, I started unpacking my gear. The park store my wife had mentioned was nearby but closed, was open when I arrived, so I took a slow, careful walk over to it. It was actually a lot closer to my campsite than I'd expected, and had a pretty good variety of stuff, including some snacks, drinks, and souvenirs. Before I went in the store, I noticed the vending machines my wife had told me about. I had planned before the trip to find some instant cold brew coffee to drink each night and morning, but had had no luck. The first machine had cans for a dollar but didn't work, so I tried the other machine. This one took my bills, but was $1.50 for a bottle, and was out of Dr. Pepper, so I settled for a cold Coke. Armed with a cold soda and feeling better about walking, I decided the next move was to find the nearest bathroom. The big map near my campsite showed the only bathrooms were up the hill in one of the public access loops. This seemed rather strange and inconvenient, but I decided to head there anyways. I walked back out to the main road and started up a fairly long, steep hill, hoping my legs wouldn't cramp up again. I found a largish building just off the road and decided to check it out. When I went inside and said "hello", a young lady came out of a side room and reacted a bit strangely, like I was a predator of some sort. Keeping my distance, I asked her where the nearest bathroom was. She told me they were in the camping loops but couldn't seem to point me in the right direction, so I walked back down to the country store to ask the lady behind the counter. She showed me the map on the small brochure and pointed out the other camping loops where the bathrooms were. It seemed strange that my loop, with a store and all wouldn't have a bathroom, but at least I now knew how to get to them. Unfortunately, the first and nearest bathroom had some sort of problem, so I had to walk rather steeply uphill to the next one. This bathroom seemed pretty nice, with a couple of showers and all, although they had the main door propped open with a clear view of the urinals from outside. After taking care of business, I walked back down to my campsite.

Since it was still too early to sleep, I tried to take a short nap, but couldn't get comfortable with the heat inside the waterproof tent. I got out my toiletries and a change of clothes and headed back up to the restroom to take a shower. Thankfully one of the shower stalls had a nice bench to sit on to undress/dress, and the water was nice and hot. After a soothing shower, I went back down to my campsite, then revisited the store to see what I could get for dinner. I ended up with a can of Vienna sausages and a nice pastry. I ate my dinner in my tent while I sent a message to my wife. Originally I was supposed to spend the night here, then continue on tomorrow to Paris Mountain for the next night, 28 miles away! After today's fiasco of just over 27 miles and failure, I decided it was better to give up then to have another day of failure and pain. I asked my wife if she could pick me up the next morning and she said sure, somewhat relieved I imagine. The nearby store had WiFi, so I got my laptop out and logged on. The connection was a bit spotty, making it hard to watch any shows. By this point it was almost 8pm, so I decided to try to sleep and hope I wouldn't get any more leg cramps during the night. Thankfully, I had no further cramps and slept, off and on, until 6am the next morning.

Tuesday morning, when i woke up, I made the long, uphill trip to the restroom, then started taking down the tent and stowing my gear in preparation for my wife's arrival. She sent me a message around 8:30am telling me she was on her way. I finished packing everything up, then went to sit by the store to watch some tv on my laptop. Preferring a Dr. Pepper over another bottle of Coke, I took a look at the machine that was a dollar for a can, but didn't work. Apparently the cable it used had a fault trip box and was tripped, so I reset it and sure enough, it started up. I waited about 30 minutes for it to get cold and put my four quarters in and got myself a reasonably cold can of Dr. Pepper. My wife showed up around 10am or so, and we loaded up the car with my gear. I told her I wasn't excited about doing any hiking in the park, but she wanted to take some pictures while she was there, so we drove around a while, stopping here and there for some nice pictures, then headed home.

Although this hike turned out to be an even worse adventure than the last time, it did have its enjoyable moments. I doubt I'll even try a hike of this distance again, but I might try to find a way to hike shorter distances, if I don't have to carry the weight of camping gear. I looked into doing a portion of the Appalachian Trail that has hostels and might consider trying that some time in the future. There was also an option to drive to Asheville North Carolina and hike from KOA to KOA. Otherwise, my next big adventure will be in April of 2021 when I do the Camino de Santiago, or the French Way, again, this time with my wife!

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Comments

[FlyusTravels]

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