View Full Version : Nice little kick-butt trail
Mrs Baggins
05-26-2008, 12:59
We just got back from spending the long weekend at Table Rock State Park, upstate South Carolina. There's a fabulous little trail there - the Table Rock Trail - that is a great workout for anyone that just wants some real climbing experience. It's 7.2 miles round trip, but that first 3.6 miles to the summit is a 2000 foot gain and it's predominately up and up and up rock "stairs", rock scrambles, and granite rock faces. The payoff at the top is worth every foot of the climb.
Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone in the area that hasn't tried it and wants a good workout for a relatively short day hike.
Johnny Swank
05-26-2008, 13:13
I second this. Very cool spot to spend the day.
Kerosene
05-26-2008, 14:19
Sounds a lot like the 16-mile day hike to Half Dome and back that I did last week: 4,800 net vertical gain on thousands of rock steps with a cable-assisted scramble up the smooth 60-degree cliff wall for the last 600 vertical in a tenth of a mile! We had a bright clear day with temperatures above 80 on top, even though there was an acre-wide snow field on the summit.
Here's one: http://www.pahikes.com/trails/standingstone02.asp
gold bond
05-27-2008, 12:13
Been there done it...twice! Great trail with great views for a day hike. We spent the weekend at TR State park and did several hikes out of there and had a wonderful wekend. Hope you guys had a worthwhile experience as well.
Thats the beauty of living here in SC....less than 3 hrs from the mountains or the sea!
The Solemates
05-27-2008, 12:17
table rock was in my back yard growing up. probably done it 30 times. nice hike.
Mrs Baggins
05-27-2008, 12:35
Been there done it...twice! Great trail with great views for a day hike. We spent the weekend at TR State park and did several hikes out of there and had a wonderful wekend. Hope you guys had a worthwhile experience as well.
Thats the beauty of living here in SC....less than 3 hrs from the mountains or the sea!
At the price of gas 3 hours from any real decent hiking is getting to be too far. And we're a good 5 - 6 hours from the AT unless we want to keep doing the same GA sections over and over. :( We're probably going to move back to Maryland where we used to be 30 minutes from the AT and many excellent regional and state parks with great hiking. But yes, we loved Table Rock. We also did the Pinnacle Trail and had Mill Creek Falls all to ourselves. We get out early in the day.
Harrisonburg didn't work out?
Mrs Baggins
05-27-2008, 13:52
Harrisonburg didn't work out?
Nope. Nice enough town on the surface and in a beautiful setting - - but far too dependent on the university. The "old town" downtown area was a ghost town - -just creeped me out. Heard it was because school was out for the summer. I need more vibrancy and liveliness than that. I'm not one of the hikers that only wants to live in "trail towns" or towns devoid of lots of commercialism (good malls, big box stores, chains, lots of restaurants, pubs, coffee houses etc). I can be extremely comfortable and happy on the trail for weeks and equally happy and comfortable in a city with all that entails. Frederick MD has a very lively and vibrant old town downtown area as well as a very busy southside shopping area with a mall, most of the "big box" stores, Costco and Sam's Club, modern stadium seat movie complex, and more. Traffic has never bothered me in the least. Yep. We're goin' back in a year or two. Got a house here to fix up and sell first.
I should probably add that I was born and raised in the northern California Bay Area and have lived in Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Berlin Germany, Augsburg Germany, Montreal Canada and I've been through 47 of the 50 states, (just haven't made it to Maine, Vermont or Rhode Island) 5 Canadian Provinces, and 17 countries. I have a pretty good understanding of what I like and don't like in a city.
Sidewinder
05-27-2008, 14:00
Hey Mrs Baggins, what's with the trail name, do you have big hairy feet?
And how did this thread get so far off from the one you started about a nice little kick butt trail to all the places you have lived or visited?
DesertMTB
05-27-2008, 14:03
Sounds fun! I've been looking for that kind of hike. I live near Columbia, S.C. so this trip report is greatly appreciated Mrs. Baggins!
DesertMTB
05-27-2008, 14:06
Hey Mrs Baggins, what's with the trail name, do you have big hairy feet?
And how did this thread get so far off from the one you started about a nice little kick butt trail to all the places you have lived or visited?
Don't be an ass sidewinder
Sidewinder
05-27-2008, 14:08
wasn't trying to, but I thought this forum was about hiking not all the places someone had lived. Try sticking to the topic, please
Mrs Baggins
05-27-2008, 14:53
wasn't trying to, but I thought this forum was about hiking not all the places someone had lived. Try sticking to the topic, please
No offense taken. My fault that it got off track. I was answering someone else's question, that's all.
As for my name - I am a Tolkein and Lord of the Rings obsessed freak and the name was given to me by a trekmate on a trek trip in New Zealand in 2003.
Sidewinder
05-27-2008, 15:01
As for my name - I am a Tolkein and Lord of the Rings obsessed freak and the name was given to me by a trekmate on a trek trip in New Zealand in 2003.
I figured it was something like that and you had to have a good sense of humor to take on the name. As I recall hobbits had big hairy feet.
gold bond
05-27-2008, 15:45
Doesn't everyone that lives in Aiken have big hairy feet?
Doesn't everyone that lives in Aiken have big hairy feet?Thats what happens when you live next to the Savannah River Site.