It feels good to be back out on the trail.
The Lake Marion Passage is a 35.9 section of the Palmetto Trail, South Carolina’s long trail. I’ve hiked a few miles of the lower part of this trail in 2019 (Santee/Hwy 301 to Jacks Creek) before I started working full time again that year. I’ve also backpacked north on the High Hills of Santee Passage dozens of times over the years with my volunteer organizations.
On this day, Radar and I decided to hike the Lake Marion Passage from the Northern end for a few hours. With snacks and water for both of us in my day pack, we headed out South bound from the Mill Creek County Park Trail Head. Our section of trail was in fair to good condition and it was a great hike. It felt good to be out in the woods again. This section doesn’t appear to heavily traveled and we were by ourselves the whole time. The weather was great and cool enough the bugs weren’t an issue. As it’s spring everything was green. After heading out from the trailhead, we hiked in to the woods along the trail a little over a mile before we came across a long boardwalk/foot bridge over the swamp.
I think Radar picked up the swamp smell before we saw the bridge. He took off, bounding towards the swamp – until he started sinking in the soft mud. realizing the error of his ways, he high-tailed it back to the trail where I was laughing for him. After crossing the swamp via the designated foot bridge, the trail follows the land contour for about a mile, with cut forest on the East side and low ground and swamp canopy on the West. We picked a good turn around point where a dirt access road intersected the trail. Hopefully soon I’ll be back to hike more.
When hiking with a K-9 buddy, it’s important to include a snack and water dish in your day hike gear. I use a small collapsible bowl and carry extra water to share. On this trip I brought a small amount of his regular dog food for a his snack. After a short water and snack break at our turn around spot we headed back the way we had come. This time, Radar took the foot bridge over the swamp. But only about halfway. I guess he figured “Bridges – who needs them when you have the sweet cool savory wetness of the swamp?” and over the side he jumped. Swimming, chest deep, in to the cool mud to the other side of the swamp. Sigh. He couldn’t have been more happier.
We didn’t have any real problems on this portion of the passage. While scenic, the Lake Marion Passage does have some broken sections. Be prepared to work around some issues if you hike the whole passage. Coming out of the town of Santee, there’s a 3 mile section which uses the old 301 bridge. The bridge was closed by SCDOT “indefinitely” in 2017. The only current work around is to catch a ride on I-95 over the lake. Old River Road bridge over the Halfway Swamp has been washed out long enough for the trail to be rerouted along local roads. And depending on the lake levels, some of the trail along the lake shores may be underwater or very soggy.
Overall, this was a great in and out 5 miles round trip hike. I’m looking forward to picking up this trail where we left off.
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