Mark's Photo Travels

The first Wednesday of every month, the meetup group Tri-County Adventure Group (Hike, Paddle & More!) meets at a restaurant in the Oconee, Pickens, and Anderson County area to meet and discuss upcoming adventure meetups. This month's meetup took place at the Islander Pub and Grille on Exchange Street in Pendleton. Since I had to take the whole day off to attend this meetup, I traveled down to Pendleton a few hours early to walk around to see a few historic points of interest in this small town. Pendleton District was created in 1789 and covered the present day counties of Oconee, Pickens, and Anderson. Pendleton was established in 1790 as the seat of Pendleton District and a courthouse built. Both Pendleton District and the town of Pendleton were named after Henry Pendleton , a circuit court judge originally from Virginia. In 1826 while a second courthouse was being built, Pendleton District was abolished and replaced by Pickens District and Anderson District. Pickens Di...

I had taken my inflatable kayak down to Lake Hartwell for a paddle over to Andersonville Island one day last week, but when I unpacked my car at the Double Springs Access Area I found I had left behind one very important item. An item one simply must bring when you have an inflatable kayak: an air pump! No air pump, no kayak trip! I had loaded my car the night before and apparently I forgot to add in the pump. Rather than head back home with nothing to share after all those the miles traveled, I consulted my list of historical POIs and quickly improvised a new plan. Double Springs Community Park Double Springs Community Park is a short distance away from the Double Springs Access Area at the intersection of Double Springs Road and Hattons Ford Road . Double Springs School operated here from 1894 until 1955. Aerial photos suggest the building, large wooden multi-teacher building, stood here until the mid 1990s, when the building was torn down and a park built on the old scho...