1st Broad River Trail

Gotta backtrack just a bit for this one.

The Fuzz had been watching this area lately crossing the river on trips into town.  Then he saw in a local publication that it was a new walking/biking trail along the river.  So he suggested to His Sweetie that they check it out.

They didn't realize that they had picked the day of the "Grand Opening" but that turned out not to matter since they got there early, ahead of the crowd.

It turned out that it was pretty nice.

This trail follows a stretch of the 1st Broad River and will be part of the Carolina Thread Trail when finished.  But for now it's just a nice place to walk.

In a previous post we talked about Falls Park and their fancy suspension bridge.

Well our local folks have our own version of that!

Maybe not quite as elaborate, but cool just the same.

There are some nice views overlooking the river.

And a few places to get down to it as well.

The trail passes under highway 74...

And continues on for a bit more.

But, as was mentioned, is unfinished.

Here's a lady enjoying it this morning.

The Fuzz's Sweetie was so impressed that she wanted to come back and do a bit of painting there some morning.

So they went back a couple days later.

Now what had The Fuzz's interest, was the Kayak & Canoe access, being a bit of a puddleduck himself.

Admittedly, it's nothing fancy, but we're not talking about blue water cruisers here anyway.

And since the river was high enough, he brought his little kayak along.

First he made his way upstream a bit toward this dam.

It's for the local water plant.

Now that he was confident that he could make progress against the current, he headed downstream, along the trail.

Toward the abandoned Southern Railroad Trestle;

And on, under the Grover St bridge, new suspension footbridge and Seaboard RR Trestle.

He stopped for a bit where this stream flows over the rocks and into the river.

Of course things look different from down in the river.

Under the Seaboard Trestle.

Tree roots in the riverbank.

The Fuzz stopped just above these rapids.  He figured it was time to go back and meet up with His Sweetie.  Maybe next time...

Then off for a bit of lunch.

They both enjoyed the morning so much that there are already plans to go back!