South Carolina Visit: Day Four

Though our visit up here was really for us to just get away and relax, we really only wanted to do one thing: hike.

Darin and I both love to hike (not like hiking from Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about the Appalachian Trail - who happens to my favorite author, by the way), but just good day hikes. With a car nearby. And a house within driving distance of said car. Okay, that's my ideal hike. Darin has done two to three day hikes with camping. He was crazy in his younger years.

Around Clemson, there were tons of trails for us to do. When I was living there, we'd hike around a lot of the places and just have a really fun time. I really miss that aspect of South Carolina and it's one of the main reasons I want to move back up to the Carolinas one day.

Anyways...

We went on two main hikes:

(1) Issaqueena Falls

This one was pretty easy actually - just probably 15 minutes from where we parked. But it was super steep and we were kind of afraid Bodie would plummet to his death (not really, honestly), but that dog just ran down. He had the best time jumping over downed trees and climbing up rocks. You'd think he was a total trail dog!

Before the actual hike.

Darin leadin' the way!



Issaqueena Falls.

Aww, weren't we cute.



Darin though this was the coolest thing.
It's supposed to be of him rock climbing, but I messed it up
by not chopping his feet of with the camera.

Also around the start of the trail was the Stumphouse Tunnel. It's this scary tunnel built by a railroad company to connect Charleston, SC to Cincinnati, OH back before "the war between the states" also known as the Civil War. Man, living in the South... we walked a little ways in it. But I was scared. Darin would have totally walked all the way in if we would have had a camera.

Outside the entrance.

Scary tunnel.

Then we drove across the street to the next waterfall...

(2) Yellow Branch Falls

Now this monster was long. I get tired, you see. But we made the trip 1.3 miles each way... and though both Bodie and I needed a nap, it was worth the walk.

Beginning of the trail... first of three bridges.

Yellow Branch Falls

Also that day we got to go to dinner with my very good friends, Emily and Phil. Here they were on their wedding day... in SC, I think.

Aww.

I knew Phil from my other good friend Christian (they were in the same department there), and Phil liked to drink beer because he's from England. Ha. So, we got along well. Emily at the time was living in Greenville, so I only got to see her every once in awhile (she's super funny), but turned into a great friend as well. I even went over to Hull, England in 2004/2005 to be at their wedding and it was an event I'll never ever forget... it was SO great to see them again - you guys better come down to Sea World. Phil, the dolphins want to meet you!

At Spill the Beans.

We also got to meet their dog, Masie, and cat, JoJo (not sure on the spellings...). Thanks guys - we had a BLAST!

How sweet was she?
(And those are Emily's feet...)

After that, Darin and I headed back to Paul and Ann's and started getting ready for the trip home the next day. Boo.

Another great day in South Carolina.