the real mountains to main street

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.