I had a friend, Lauren (Botonist in charge of exotic plant management at CONG) over for dinner Saturday night, and she told me about
40 Acre Rock Heritage Preserve.
Sunday morning I woke up and decided that I should go check it out. So I packed a lunch and headed up toward Kershaw, SC. (This is the furthest north I've been since moving to SC, save for a quick trip to REI last summer.) The leaves are a little past peak I think, so it was a nice country-highway drive. Lauren had warned me that the preserve was not well marked, so I was prepared. I arrived to a less-than-welcoming sight.
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| The Trailhead |
What once most have been a proper trailhead had been vandalized, and all that remained to identify the preserve was this small sign posted to the frame of what had been the information board.
I navigated around two large piles of gravel and headed down the first part of the trail. This was an old road left over from when visitors were able to drive out to "the rock".
Immediately I was greeted by a number of
Golden-Crowned Kinglets.
After watching the birds near the trailhead for a while, I made my way forward.
As you get close to "the rock", a couple of large stones in the path give a sign of what's to come. It seems people have been coming here for years, building fires and drinking illegally, and vandalizing the area by spray painting the rocks and trees.
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| Boulders, presumable placed to discourage illegal four-wheelers |
Despite the defacement, 40 Acre Rock is still a sight to behold! 14 acres (not 40) of granite flatrock stretching out before you!
There are some pretty great views to be had from "the rock". The photos, of course, do not capture them at all, nor do they really show the fall colors properly.
During the spring, the small pools in the flatrock provide a habitat for the
elf orpine and the endangered
pool sprite. In the spring season, as I understand it, it's a botanist's dream.
Unfortunately it's a deviant's dream year round. There were remnants of several campfires on "the rock", crushed beer cans, smashed glass, and plenty of graffiti.
The trails were poorly marked, but before I had left home I saved this map on my phone.
The problem with these managed lands (like the heritage preserves) where DNR does not have an active presence is that you can never get a decent map there. Without this I would not have found the trail to continue past "the rock". But, as it is, I did find the trail. It descended around the north side. With all of the fallen leaves, the steep decent was a little more treacherous than it usually would have been, but I managed to keep my footing. The path continued a ways through the woods...
and came upon a cave behind "the rock"...
I was fortunate to be the only one around. When I came back through later in the afternoon, the place was crawling with people and kids.
The inside of the cave, the entrance is to the right in the photo, has been vandalized over the years. The powers that be are currently using fire to soot the walls of the cave, covering the graffiti. In addition to masking the paint, this also serves to prevent further vandalism as spray paint does not stick to the soot on the walls.
Here are a couple of shots looking up towards "the rock".
The trail continued along and back and forth over a little creek.
I ventured off trail a little ways...
and was surprised by a wicked cool spider, a
Marbled Orb Weaver, who was even more surprised by me! I kinda freaked out a little bit when she plopped down on my from the trees.
Now beyond the rock, I continued through the woods.
There were a couple of large boulders here and there as I approached the Beaver Pond.
The Beaver Pond:
I left the main trail and headed down a spur to find the old Hwy 601. You can see the yellow lines of the highway under the pine straw.
I hiked out to the old 601 bridge over Flat Creek and took a break for lunch.
Back on the main trail, I found the rock overlook for a better view of Beaver Pond.
I started working my way around the other side of Beaver Pond. At first, the trail more-or-less followed Flat Creek.
Being near the creek I was kind of able to follow the trail, but I did notice that it was getting harder to find. As the clouds drifted over the afternoon sun I was reminded that it would be getting dark a lot earlier than I was yet accustom to. More than once I had found myself off trail and had to back track to the last marker and wander about until I figured out where it continued. The leaves covering the ground and the poor trail marking were providing quite the challenge! I knew I could backtrack if necessary (but I didn't want to), and at least I had cell service, so I could call someone to cover my morning class if I had to spend the night in the woods. This never was an issue, but these thoughts did run through my head at one point. At this point, for example:
Here I am standing on the trail, there is a tree to my right with a trail marker, but could not see where I was meant to go from here. There are a couple of "route" that look like they might be the trail, but upon venturing in these different directions, I only found myself in the middle of the woods. After a couple of false starts, I did discover the trail which had switch-backed on itself.
A little further down I found a neat perspective of a cool, fallen tree.
After a short way I had looped back around and was back on the main trail. (I left the red trail seen on the map to hike around the Beaver Pond on the yellow trail.)
I ran into a couple of groups that asked for directions to "the rock", and was oriented enough at this point to help them out. One couple and their teenage boy were exasperated enough that I ended up hiking with them to make sure that they found it. They were parked at the south parking lot, farthest from "the rock", and had decided to walk the road from the north lot back to their car. But, the two lots are not on the same road, and are several miles apart. I offered them a ride, the south lot was on my way home. The were appreciative of the "guided hike" and the ride. Very sweet family, I'm glad I was able to help them see what that came for.
Fall is certainly a beautiful season to see this preserve, especially with all of the great views of the changing leaves, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in the spring when the pools on the flatrock are filled with moist soils and neat plants.
