I found a few days (back in May!) to finally do my idea for a
"real" mountains to main street jaunt.
The plan was to jog and walk from the highest point in South Carolina,
Sassafras Mountain (on the NC border)
to the State House in Columbia.
The distance is about 150 miles...
which is about what I thought I could do in 3 days
while still enjoying myself
and appreciating my surroundings
the whole time.
Here is the zoomed out map:
The Sassafras Mountain observation tower "opens" an hour before sunrise,
so while I'd have liked an even earlier start,
I arrived there at about 0515 on May 30, 2026.
The weather was clear, humid, and cool enough.
the compass rose, inlayed into the observation platform
just a tiny hint of sunrise
the state line!
'foot travel only, thank you very much.'
galax
ferntastic
bear lunchbox
laurel blossoms everywhere
pinnacle mtn cliffs
SOUTH
petroglyphs
red eft
where i'm headed... south!
view from bald knob
carrick creek
sal
good bye table rock
pumpkintown general store breakfast
back to greenville county
slater drug, best milkshakes around
nearing home paris mountain from travelers rest
bopped off swamp rabbit trail for a pic of Furman Clock Tower
with paris mountain in background
Unity Tower (Closed for nearby lightning)
Liberty Bridge, Downtown Greenville
Reedy Falls
Nice Live Oaks at this church
entering Mauldin, SC on hwy 276
Don't come up in here with your Hellman's
Historical Cabin at the Mauldin Cultural Center
Fading light as I entered Simpsonville
Moorise as I grabbed Taco Bell for dinner and went to hide in a motel...
Up early and down the road to the best kept city on the whole route
I always love to see the machine shops
1895
30 seconds sit down at he mural
main street
Serious HAM lives here?!
Fantastic Road
old mural in Gray Court
Owings
Owings Gray Court school
main street
dream road
all my company for a couple hours
city limit and feeling the hunger!
final destination shows up on a road mileage sign!
not the Capitol I'm headed to
beautiful court house in Laurens
the square
why!?
the mural in Clinton
love the king snakes
entering joanna, SC
Asked the fella out front of these buildings if he knew how old they were...
"Theys built in 1932, by the CCC.
When I was a boy there were four of them,
But the service station burned down in '72.
The first one as you came into town was a restaurant...
The second one was a whorehouse....
The third one was the service station...
And the last one was the gas station...*
So if you came into town hungry you could get you something to eat,
Then get you some lovin',
If your wife was after you could get your car fixed,
And then grab you some gas as you floored it out of town!"
had a rough evening between joanna and newberry...
no pics til leaving newberry in the morning,
and came across this marker...
i didn't even realize this was part of the palmetto trail.
(sadly, in my exhausted state on the previous evening
i skipped downtown, for the shorter bypass routing!)
Prosperity, SC led to the worst road on the route, oh well...
rumble strips...
I don't even register on these things any more...
great little town...
Boland house
Lunch!
pleased with myself...
but behind schedule so i'll get a ride home
and come back to finish in a few days
the next morning, a big day of concrete on the workshop
took the kids to the honor tower since it was closed when i passed by
paris mtn in the background.
saturday morning and i'm back to finish the trek,
leaving little mountain, sc
nice shade in the morning...
and a shoulder
chapin, SC
modern journey runners don't know how lucky they are...
it used to be pretty uncommon for gas stations to have an ice cream freezer!
vol state runners would ruin these
Irmo, SC
Entering the last county on the route
the big bridge
over the broad river
nice touch
i thought this was the art museum
but apparently it's a law office
approaching the State House
with BLM protest underway to keep things in perspective
the finish line
satisfied
so much fighting
Poinsett was responsible for much of the road I traversed
Quite a satisfying trip.
