Peak to Pomaria of the Palmetto Trail

1/27/19

Sherri and I – 13 miles

From a small town in South Carolina part of the Palmetto trail starts. Peak SC is a town with a total area of .03 of a square mile. It had a population of 64 in the 2016 census. It is a town on the Broad River. It was created in 1855 as Peak Station for the Greenville Columbia Railroad.

The trail is the old railway with many of the trestles rebuilt after they were burned down.

We started at Alston Trailhead. There is a parking lot and the first thing on the trail is the largest bridge which crosses the Broad River.

After the bridge you pass the little town of Peak. Peak Pharmacy is what I could see. A few houses, then we walked along the road some and went over another bridge. All the bridges go over Crimes Creek that winds back and forth along the trail.

There were some history signs along the beginning of the trail. There was a little pic nic area at this one.

The next area goes left and goes under the road. It’s a slightly creepy area. We could go across the road but we followed it.

This trail is long and flat from now on. Most of the time you can see a long way down the trail. It goes over a bunch more trestles. The next one has stairs to the creek below. It still has the old stone bases from the original trestle.

There was a lot of water on both sides of the trail. A viewing area over what should have been a pond but looked like a Swamp?

I’m not sure why but there was water coming out from under a tree and it was a large puddle full of algae water. At least I hope that’s what it was? I thought it was beautiful though.

The next trestle has the open sides on it and no walls. It was closer to what we imagined was on this trail.

About 2 miles from Pomeria just after another bridge was a ready made camp area. It came complete with picnic tables, fire pit and firewood.

Almost all of the property on either side of the trail was private. There were deer stands everywhere. We passed a large farm with lots of cows.

And then we were there. Pomeria SC. Slightly bigger than Peak. It was 1 square mile with a population of 164. It comes out at what appears to be an old train depot. They have a nice sign for the trail and a railroad track.

Where the trail crosses the road is Wilson’s Store. We went in and ordered 2 cheeseburgers got some chips and a drink. We sat down on the stoop of an abandoned store and had lunch.

We walked 6.5 miles to eat at Wilson’s in Pomeria! That’s a good burger! Now it’s time to make the 6.5 mile trek back. The trail actually goes another 4 miles then dead ends near some ponds. We don’t have time nor do we want to go to the end.

We head back toward Peak. My legs are really sore. The worst was my thigh and the back of my left knee. I finally mention it and Sherri is having the same problems. It took us 2 hrs 20 min to get there and 2 hours and 20 min to get back. We stopped and took a lot of pics on the way up but we stopped and took a couple sits on the way back! We were kinda suffering!

Sherri says that when hiking in the mountains you use a lot of different leg muscles and walking this long flat trail we are using the same leg muscles over and over. This does make sense. We had to jog the cramps out. We jumped and stretched the whole way back! Quite honestly we couldn’t wait to finish this hike! Even my dog Cooper was getting tired. He was moving much slower.

We decided we don’t like long flat trails and we would be getting back in the mountains ASAP!

This trail is part of the Palmetto trail. Eventually it will go from Oconee County all the way to Charleston. 425 miles.