South Carolina -The Lowcountry

Welcome to the land of Spanish moss and proper BBQ. Welcome to South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The Lowcountry runs along the eastern side of South Carolina along the coast. It is low and flat and filled with charm. I’ve been dreaming of this hike for months. The reason I started this project was to explore places that are different than Alaska. I got what I was after in South Carolina! This was about as different as you can get, and I loved every minute of it.

I researched trails all over the Lowcountry including a series of trails out on Hunting Island that included “The Diamondback Rattlesnake Trail.” I kid you not! Who is the sociopath that named that trail, and who willingly chooses to hike it? Not me! I finally settled on the Palmetto Trail out of Awendaw, an area just an hour north of Charleston. Go ahead, try and say Awendaw without a slow southern drawl. It’s impossible. Admit it, you just said Awendaw out loud!

The Palmetto Trail runs 472 miles from the mountains of South Carolina down to the coast, ending at Buckhall Landing. I chose to start at the terminus, and hike inland as far as my courage would take me. I usually get butterflies before a hike, half from excitement and the other half from fear of the unknown. Thoughts of this hike were dominated by fear. I briefly contemplated just urban hiking Charleston and calling it good. Lame! That’s not what this year is about. It’s about exploration and adventure, and that means conquering some deeply-rooted fear of the creepy crawly critters. Alaskans know what I mean, we don’t do well with snakes, spiders, and ticks! “This is why I live where the air hurts my face.” you’ve seen the memes.

This year of hiking America is pretty gutsy, and I’m proud of that, but you will never know what it took for me to take my first step on that trail. My heart was racing and I had to breathe deep with intention. Having read every possible website on ticks, I showered myself in Deet, pulled up some knee-high socks, wore my long pants tucked into my boots, and covered my top half in a long sleeve shirt with thumbholes. I was only about 100 yards in when a man and his young daughter strolled past in shorts and tank tops. I felt ridiculous. I realized my greatest danger that day would be heat stroke, not creepy crawly critters.

Ridiculousness aside, I felt like a champ just for being on that trail. What a wonderful experience I would have missed had I never set foot in the unknown. This amazing trail is in the Frances Marion National Forest. It was well thought out and maintained. There are wooden walkways over swampy patches of who knows what, and bridges over small creeks and sloughs, no doubt home to alligators and Cottonmouths. (I shudder.)

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This hike may have been a psychological challenge, but it was certainly not a physical one. Did I mention the Lowcountry is flat? I spent the first few miles hiking in a pine forest walking on a spongey bed of pine needles. They were several inches deep in some spots, leaving me to wonder what lurked beneath.

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The trail eventually opened and the trees thinned out with less vegetation on the forest floor. The sun shone through and I could see the squirrels leaping from branch to branch. (Too fast to photograph!)

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About a half a mile through this sunshine forest the air began to change. I could smell the brackish water and wetlands before I could see them. This is where the trail winds back to the coast and meanders along the marsh and waterways for about a mile. This was an unexpected treasure and the highlight of my hike.

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The trail leaves the water and heads back inland under a canopy of trees. I hiked another mile in before I turned back. I turned around when I heard a snorting of some kind in the trees ahead of me. I didn’t know whether that was human or not, but I was not going to stick around to find out. I felt like my bravery needle had already pegged for the day. I turned around and hustled back. Somewhere there was an ice-cold flute of prosecco and a heavenly crab cake just waiting to help me celebrate my bravery.