The wife and I wanted to get outside this weekend, but the heat and mosquitoes make it difficult to do too much during the day. So we decided to visit the walking trails at nearby Conestee Park early on Saturday morning. At some point in the near future, the Swamp Rabbit Trail will connect with the Conestee Trails and the area will be filled with bikers, hikers and dog walkers. But for now, the area is pretty dead. The way I see it, that’s a feature and not a bug.
If you didn’t know about the walking trails, you’d think the area was just a wasteland around the abandoned Conestee Mill and dam. It’s going through the early stages of redevelopment (and gentrification) as new community ballparks, commercial interests, and natural areas are established. The biking and walking paths wind their way around the lake, which is really more of a swamp, and it’s all fed by Greenville’s Reedy River, which is a glorified creek. I wish the trails were a full loop so we wouldn’t have to backtrack, but otherwise it’s a pleasant way to spend a morning. We walked almost four miles and got back to the car before the sun got too high. (parking and trail map)
I forgot to bring the camera, so I had to take pictures with my phone. Click on the first image to enlarge, then use your right arrow key to advance:
