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...

The Doodle Trail is a recently opened paved trail between the cities of Pickens and Easley in Pickens County. From 1898 until 2013 , this was the Pickens "Doodle" Railway , a shortline railroad. In 2013, the owner and sole remaining customer of the line, the Pickens Railway Company, moved its locomotive repair operation to Anderson. The cities of Pickens and Easley opted to jointly buy the right of way and convert the railroad into a multi-use trail. The trail opened May 23, 2015 with the usual ceremonies . I visited the former railroad in August 2013 while the rails were being removed and another visit finally made the top of my to-do list. I noticed one change immediately when I pulled into the Easley trailhead parking area off Fleetwood Drive . This restaurant building, for sale in 2013, had since been torn down... to make room for more cars: Across the street, a map board details the trail and the trail rules. While the rails have been removed here and ...