Comedy of Errors - Greenville, SC

Well, not all of these state rides can be epic journeys. I hobbled my way through this one, that's for sure! I came to Greenville, SC for the Wheels for Meals Charity Ride. Thursday night, with bags packed, I came down with a stomach bug. Up most of the night, not enough sleep. You get the picture. Determined to go, and hopeful that I'd make a quick recovery, I still set out for SC in the morning. I did my best to hydrate and ate bits of things on the 8 hour drive, but it wasn't a great day.

On Saturday morning, I woke feeling better and thought, "hey, maybe I could do the 72 miles as planned." But at breakfast, I felt a little ill after just one miniature pastry and some eggs. It wasn't looking good. At the start, I decided to cut myself a break and do the 50 miles. That seemed like the responsible thing to do considering my depleted state.

It was a decent size ride, but mostly men going 50 or more. That's always bad because it means the pace will be 15mph or over, and I have trouble setting my own pace in those situations. Especially when folks end up drafting off me.

 

Ten miles in, I knew I wasn't going to make it. I was riding with some men and chatting and could feel I needed to slow down. Then we all went up this hill, and I think I spent my day's energy on it. I know it was hard because none of the men behind me passed me on it, and I could hear them huffing and puffing (of course, many other riders had broken away from my pathetic pace and were far ahead). When I got to the top, even my arms were tired. I don't think that's ever happened to me before. I felt like I couldn't hold onto the handlebars any longer. After that, I was really spent--going up every hill in granny gears I rarely use and still suffering. I literally had nothing left.

Then I had the idea to do the 25 mile ride. It was still an option because we were all on the same route until mile 15. At the turn, I pulled over to think about it. When I got off my bike, I could feel my whole body trembling ever so slightly, and I realized I was lightheaded. I tried to eat a few bites of a power bar but my mouth was so dry I could hardly swallow it. I'd been drinking as much as I could that morning, but was still dehydrated from my illness. I was almost glad to feel that depleted because it made the decision a no-brainer. Time to turn back.

Once I made the decision to go 25 (and avoid the 1500ft climb over a mountain I'd been dreading), I relaxed enough to actually take some pictures. That's another bummer riding with all the men. They are about speed, not touring, so no one ever stops. If you're riding and talking, you MUST keep the pace.

This was a field covered in plastic with little seedling you can't see here poking through on the mounded rows.

 I was so excited to see this downhill that I stopped to take a picture of it!



And this red barn really brought out the brilliant blue of the sky. The picture actually matches my memory of the brightness.

Lots of cute little houses. This neighborhood almost made me think of New England.

And finally, the first rest stop, at mile 16.

What does this mean? He is faithful in himself? 

I'm eating my PB&J, which was prepackaged btw, never seen such a thing. And the jelly was so abundant it turned my stomach, couldn't eat the end of it--anyway, I'm eating my PB&J and this trio rolls up. A dad with his two boys. They were so cute. And that's a lot of weight to pull! In my exhausted state, I couldn't even imagine, but good for him!

I saw this sign for Coon Club--had no idea what that would be. Apparently it's a club for people who hunt raccoons at night with dogs. It's popular in the southern U.S., and that's where I am! But really, this place seems just like Virginia, with the exception of all the gun talk. When I checked in, the folks in line were talking about the gun show in Greenville, then there were men at breakfast talking about it too. It was just weird that the first conversation I heard from anyone in SC was about guns. The second conversation was when the woman at the check in desk reassured me there would be sausage gravy with the grits and biscuits in the morning. I really did wonder if I'd come to a different world, but I don't think so. Heck, on the ride today I only saw one confederate flag. We see more than that on any rural ride in Virginia.

And then I saw this church sign. The first I've seen in a long time that I agreed with.

I took pictures in this little neighborhood because these were the first houses I saw that were not ramblers, and even then only have a second story over the garage - like a loft. 

 

Soon after that neighborhood, I came to a mismarked turn. It said left when it should have said right. I was suspicious that the marking was wrong, but soon after I made the turn, I came to painted road markings for the ride, so I thought it must be right. But it turned out I had cut back onto the beginning of the ride, so the markings I was following were taking me farther from the end point--essentially starting me all over again! Eventually I recognized the turns and got out the GPS and looped back. I added six miles to my ride and climbed an 1100 ft hill for the second time in the process. Ugh. This when I thought I should only have 2 miles left on my ride.

I'd seen this pretty little lake on my first pass but didn't get a pic, so I stopped the second time around.

Finally, at mile 31, I arrived. By then that PB&J had done some good work and I actually felt good. I had this ridiculous idea maybe I could have gone further, but then I got off my bike and felt that exhausted feeling again. Better to be done.

These dogs were running around loose at the finish. Of course, there is a loose German Shepherd at my ride!

So. The whole reason to come to South Carolina was because the best bike ride in this state was supposed to be over Paris Mountain. I couldn't find a road over Paris Mountain, so I found a bike ride nearby. That's how I ended up at the Wheels for Meals ride. But I still wanted to see Paris Mountain, so I figured I would hike there Sunday morning before going home. But when I only rode 30 miles, I had lots of time on Saturday afternoon, so I figured why not go then? I had my hiking boots in the car, but no other pants, so whatever I did in the park, I'd have to do in my biking shorts. Imagine, biking shorts and hiking boots! 

My plan was to park somewhere and do one of the short hikes - a mile or two. Maybe find a spot of grass, spread out the blanket I had in my car and take a nap. I had snacks from the ride and lots of water. At the park entrance, the ranger told me the best short hike would be to mountain lake. I liked this idea because it meant doing part of the original hike I'd planned. It's too hard to explain here, but with the combination of a couple of misunderstandings, I did the entire 4 mile hike, with the steepest and most difficult section of trail in the whole park. I was so tired on that uphill I stopped repeatedly to catch my breath. All the while thinking I wasn't on the hard part. I thought, "wow, if this part isn't even rated as difficult, what's the difficult part going to be like?" What an idiot. I think I was definitely not thinking clearly.

Here I'm starting out, enjoying the forest and feeling immediately relaxed by all the green. I was really happy I came.

Here is the housing for some kind of valve that was used for the reservoir that is too the left. This reservoir would be Mountain Lake, but I didn't realize that. I thought the lake was going to be much bigger and have all kinds of people there from a nearby parking lot. Mistake #1.

 The damn from the reservoir.

This is the reservoir. It was prettier than it looks here. But it was not a "lake." I passed it by without even thinking. Meanwhile, this was supposed to be my destination. I was supposed to turn back here.

The way after the lake was very steep. This should have been a clue to me because I knew the difficult part of the trail came after the lake. But I didn't think I'd come to the lake yet. Mistake #2.

Over my shoulder is straight up. I've stopped for one of many many water breaks.

 One beautiful thing about this hike was that there was running water next to me the entire way up the mountain. It was beautiful. And the sound was really peaceful. Running water and birds. I was loving it.

These little flowers lined the path. I tried to get a picture without a shadow, but the sun was behind me at every angle.

Then this happened. Can you believe it? I heard someone coming and looked over my should to find 5 dogs, including two big German Shepherds on my tail. My heart skipped a beat but I simply stepped off the path and let them go by. I pretended to be looking at my phone because this made me feel like the dogs wouldn't notice me. Hah!

The problem with letting them pass was that now I had to follow them!

I stopped to get some distance between us. But then whenever she stopped, I had to stop, like a stalker. The one big shepherd kept looking over his shoulder at me. No kidding.

Once I got to the top (which I didn't know I was at the top), the trail leveled off to loop around the summit. It was flat, easy going, and beautiful. It was also going down at times to me, which didn't make sense. But I figured it would go back up. Mistake #3.

On this part, I discovered the trail was also a mountain bike trail. So this was the "best ride in SC!" I managed to do it anyway - I was just hiking it instead of biking it! Which is just fine with me because I have no interest in mountain biking up a mountain. In my old age, I'm turning into a road girl all the way.

I started to get the idea maybe I'd gone around the trail the opposite direction than I thought, and maybe that was why I hadn't come to the lake yet. Then I came to a map of the trail and confirmed this idea. Because I'd wanted to see the lake, I decided to push on because I'd already gone that far. I didn't notice on the map that the way the trails lined up, I should have been able to see that I wasn't going the opposite way I thought. I was heading back to the parking lot having already passed the lake over a mile back. Mistake #4.

Once I started going down the switchbacks, I finally realized that I had gone all the way around. I put the obvious together and understood that the reservoir was the "lake" and the steep part was actually the "steep part." The good news was that now I was almost all the way back to the parking lot when I didn't expect it.

Really, looking back on it now, I think I was out of my mind with exhaustion. I don't know how I didn't see the obvious, but I'm kinda glad because it means I completed the hike that I didn't think I had the energy for. I was happy to spend a few hours out in the woods. The only bummer was that I never came to a lookout. I'd wanted to be able to look out over South Carolina. Ah well.

The parking lot had these great shelters with huge fire places. It looked like a great place for a party on a cool night.

Too bad I didn't notice the trash in the pic when I took this.

One really big bummer is that I ran over a black snake on my way out of the park. I saw it and thought I'd avoided it, but it must have tried to run away and ended up under my wheel. Another sign of my tiredness. Why didn't I just stop? I was really bummed out about that. Then right after that I saw a couple of wild turkeys cross the road. Thankfully, I didn't run over them. They ran off into the woods before I could get a decent picture of them.

And that was the day!

31 miles
12.8 mph
3.8 mile hike