Palmetto Trail Archives - Nancy East

Palmetto Trail: Lake Moultrie Passage

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 16:48:01 +0000

After a poor night’s sleep thanks to my overactive imagination, I’m grateful to start hiking before the sun rises. I nearly skip breakfast, but I can’t ignore my body’s incessant plea for coffee, so I make a caffeinated cup and drink it while I pack up. As I start walking Fredcon Road where I left...

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Palmetto Trail: Santee and Eutaw Springs Passages

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 22:04:53 +0000

I wake refreshed after a night in a climate-controlled room with a bed. The Baymont Inn offers a complimentary breakfast, and I make an enormous waffle—a guilty pleasure I usually don’t allow myself. The morning is crisp and cold, but I decide to leave my tights packed away. Laziness drives the decision. I know the...

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Palmetto Trail: Lake Marion Passage to Santee

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 14:10:42 +0000

I’m accustomed to waking at 5 a.m., so it’s not a total shock when my phone alarm sounds. There were no more peeps out of Squatch through the night, but I am hearing multiple guns firing in the distance. I know next to nothing about hunting, but I vaguely recall learning that it’s duck season....

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Palmetto Trail: High Hills of Santee and Lake Marion Passages

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 02:21:08 +0000

I wake up at the leading edge of civil twilight, just before 7 a.m. Even though the solstice has passed, the days are still short, and I need to cover at least 20 miles to get to a legal primitive campsite on the Lake Marion Passage. So I consume my delicious breakfast of Skurka Coconut...

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Wateree Passage of the Palmetto Trail

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 01:44:32 +0000

In my ongoing quest to connect the dots of walking diagonally across the lovely state of South Carolina, I set out to backpack about 130 miles of the Palmetto Trail in January. I intentionally chose the dead of winter since it would inevitably mean fewer ticks, mosquitos and no necks (a.k.a. snakes, especially venomous ones...

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Palmetto Trail: Swamp Fox and Awendaw Passages

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 20:07:20 +0000

In February 2021, I hiked the Swamp Fox and Awendaw Passages of the Palmetto Trail in South Carolina. I backpacked the route over the course of two days. The following are things I learned that might be helpful to other hikers or bikepackers, based on my experience. I also created a YouTube video about my...

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