Cycling the Doodle Trail

Bike repair station
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.
Easley Municipal Court
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.
Westview Cemetery
With the recent trail expansion, Wilbur Street has become a one way street for cars on the right hand side, and pedestrians and cyclists on the left hand side.

I didn't take many photos along the way, as concentrating on cycling was plenty enough when you haven't done it in a few decades. I also wanted to keep moving because the temperature was rather hot in the low 90s today. Most of the photos I would have taken would looked much like the ones I took back in 2016 anyway, except for the different season.

The Doodle Park is currently under construction at the intersection of Fleetwood Drive where the original trailhead was once located.
Future Doodle Park - 2
Progress reports on the park are being posted to the Doodle Trail's official Facebook page.

Another new amenity approximately at the halfway point along the trail, or between Elijean Road and Hayes Road, is Rotary Park, dedicated September 2016.
Rotary Park - 2 Rotary Park - 1
For me, this place served its purpose quite well. I rested a few minutes while drinking from a bottle of water.

The trailhead at the Pickens end still looks much the same...
Mile marker 1.0 Pickens trailhead - 1
The former Pickens Railroad buildings will soon be transformed into a park.
Leftover rail - 2
but work is just beginning on the project.

According to my GPS, the trip took about three hours from Easley to Pickens and back, including a few minutes rest now and then.

The new bike did quite well, but I don't like the seat. The seat became uncomfortable after a few miles. I'll want to find a better one sooner rather than later.

I've uploaded shared my photos to an album on Flickr, or you can go through them below:
Cycling the Doodle Trail - Sept 2017

Comments

  1. Tom TaylorOctober 5, 2017 at 10:01 AM

    Nice looking bike! I need to get a new one. When I tried paddling that section the gears messed up and I wound up walking much of the way. I also had to get a seat cover for mine.

    It's interesting to see the progress they are making.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MarkOctober 6, 2017 at 12:13 PM

      Thanks! It looks like improvements to both trailheads should be done or close by the time you get back. I remembered you posted about that, and I found it here.

      BTW, my kayaking friend, I think perhaps you meant "pedaling that section"? lol

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A tour of Lake Summit

Image
With September comes meteorological fall and cooler weather, and the area experienced just that for a few days around last Sunday. My original plan last Sunday was to spend time with my ailing 14 yr old cat, Princess, but she didn't even make it past Monday. I changed my Sunday plan to a day trip and, after consulting my ever growing to-visit list, I settled on a paddling tour of Lake Summit in Tuxedo, North Carolina. I arrived there early, at least by my standards. The place wasn't very busy when I arrived. Permits are required to access Lake Summit for powered boats and personal watercraft like jet skis, but no permit is required for kayaks. Works out fine for me! However, to get a permit you must live in the Green River Fire District. The website of the homeowner's association has those details. The gate for the boat ramp was closed at the time, forcing me to walk through the pedestrian access with my inflatable kayak. I launched and headed for my first plann
Read more

First visit to Andersonville Island

Image
One of my major motivations for buying a kayak was to visit interesting places only reachable by water. Andersonville Island in Lake Hartwell is definitely one of those interesting places for me. Since my friend and fellow explorer Tom Taylor has been here before , and since he was clearly interested in heading back, I asked Tom to come along. After checking his availability, he agreed and offered to bring along a friend of his I hadn't met yet, Bennie Waddell. I took some vacation time off this week giving me plenty of days to choose from. I selected Wednesday, the 7th, for this trip to avoid the early week rain, and the later part of the week when the weather turns sharply colder. My other vacation days are being used to work on various projects inside the house. Before I get to the adventure, first a short-ish history of the area. Andersonville Island is named after the ghost town of Andersonville, once located on the northern and eastern side of the confluence of the T
Read more

South Carolina's Abandoned Railroads

After seeing the abandoned railroad right-of-ways at Shoals Junction and nearby communities, I wanted to know more about the abandoned railroads of South Carolina and what traces could still be seen today. I found part of my answer in the  South Carolina section of Abandoned Rails , a website devoted exclusively to abandoned railroads and their history. I was fascinated by the site's individual maps of abandoned railroads because the satellite view shows the right-of-way is still visible in many cases, even after decades of abandonment.  Some time later, I came across  the South Carolina Department of Transportation's draft multimodal transportation plan and rail inventory  that included a map of the state's abandoned railroads on page 13 . With the map being a static image, you can't zoom in or change views to get more detail like the Abandoned Rails maps that use Google Maps. With the heat and humidity keeping me indoors as often as I can get away with, I decided t
Read more