Mark's Photo Travels

My new bicycle arrived a few days ago, and of course I had to find someplace to take it. I haven't owned or ridden on one in a long time, so I needed a bicycle path that wasn't too challenging (such as a rail trail), wasn't far away, and wasn't too heavily trafficked. The Doodle Trail , a rail-trail between Easley and Pickens in Pickens County, fit my criteria nicely. I walked the trail back in February 2016. Since then  the trail has been extended by about mile  into downtown Easley, making the total length now about 8 miles. The current Easley trailhead is near the Easley Municipal Court building of NW Main Street, and that's where I started from. Court must not have been in session today because the parking lot was nearly empty. The Doodle Trail crosses over NW Main Street and enters Westview Cemetery at Wilbur Street. With the recent trail expansion, Wilbur Street has become a one way street for cars on the right hand side, and pedestrians and cy

I had planned to hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina last Wednesday, but Hurricane Irma left the parkway strewn with downed limbs and trees forcing the parkway's closure. I then settled on a to visit Jones Gap State Park on Thursday, but Jones Gap was also closed that day because of the aftermath of Irma. I searched the map for a location near Jones Gap that would still likely be open and I settled on  Ashmore Heritage Preserve . Ashmore Heritage Preserve is a 1125 acre preserve off Persimmon Ridge Road in northern Greenville County. The original land for the preserve, a few hundred acres, was acquired from property once owned by Russell Ashmore, Sr. in the mid to late 1980s. Additional acquisitions since then have increased the size of the preserve to its 2017 borders : The main feature of interest for me here is the loop trail around Lake Wattacoo and the view of Ashmore Falls from the dam. Persimmon Ridge Road, when coming from the southern end off US 27