Palmetto Trail Day 14 – Blue Wall Passage

My hosts treated me to a full breakfast this morning before giving me a ride back to the trailhead.  Today’s walk will be 11 miles to the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE). Then backtrack to the town of Landrum to connect with the next Passage.  I have arranged for an AirB&B in Landrum that is only two blocks away from the trail.

Today’s trail will be entirely made up of paved road.  The majority of it going through residential neighborhoods with a brief walk along a busy highway.  From the parking lot is a nice, but hilly, section around Lake Lanier.  There are beautiful houses here, with the ones on the lake having a pier. The most interesting part of this portion would be the spillway at the Northern part of the lake.  The trail briefly goes into North Carolina as you maneuver between streets.  I saw the Tryon, NC City Limit sign and just like that I was back in South Carolina.

Three miles in I hit the Ashville Highway, Highway 176, for about .5 miles before taking a country road across the otherside.  This was two miles of mostly trees with an occasional house.  I stopped for a break here and ended up seeing Turkeys. Continuing on into another residential area before coming upon Landrum, SC. The trail went through downtown before turning North.

As you leave Landrum it is another 4 mile walk on a semi busy road.  Most of the time there was no shoulder, so when I noticed a vehicle, I step to the side and waited until they passed.  I make it a habit to wave. Nothing interesting on this walk, I ended up listening to a podcast during this stretch. Getting to the FENCE compound was pretty neat.  I know nothing about Equestrian. But the nature trail at the end of this Passage was pretty interesting.  I stopped for a late lunch here and rested.  I think I was just bummed because now I need to walk back to town.  It was uneventful and by late afternoon I made it to the Peach County Passage which started in Brookwood Park.  This was a very nice stroll with some shade.

I was able to check in to the AirB&B a little early and get a shower.  My host provided breakfast and asked what type of meat I wanted.  Since she needed to go to the grocery store, I asked to tag along to get dinner.  She agreed and after talking a bit we ended up on a road tour of Tryon and Landrum.  It was cool to get a locals perspective on the area as well as seeing new things. We ended talking most of the night, both of us enjoy history and reading about it.