The 7 Hour Adventure. Slow Internet Warning! Many Pictures.

Toyman01

Adventurer
Sometimes that's all the time you have. Family, work, just life in general. As much as I would love to hit the road for months at a time, it's just not in the cards. But stealing a day, or even two, every month or so, that's possible. Beating around on Google Earth and studying maps I realized there is a lot of my own back yard I haven't seen. The 7 Hour Adventures will cure that. They won't all last 7 hours and most of them won't be impressive off road excursions, but they will be fun explorations of the county and state I live in. Recounting them here will encourage me to take pictures and write about what I've seen. A picture is worth 1000 words, so expect a lot of pictures and few words.

Sunday's trip was another to the Francis Marion National Forest. I left the house about 9 am and headed toward the forest.

Total trip time: 7 Hours.

Vehicle: 1988 Suzuki Samurai

Distance traveled: 150 miles driving and about 2 miles hiking.

These are a few of the notable pictures of this 7 Hour Adventure.

The chapel is located on fenced private property so I couldn't walk around it or wander the grave yard.

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The next series of pictures were taken on the Bonneau Ferry Wildlife Management Area. I found the WMA entirely by accident, by turning down a dirt road. What a find it was. Almost 27 miles of dirt roads through managed wildlife areas. Buried back in the woods were these.

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There were also a lot of miles of this:

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After leaving the Bonneau Ferry WMA, I headed into the Francis Marion and it started raining and turned the forest into a muddy mess.

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I saw well over a dozen turkey and sever deer but I was too slow with the camera. I also came across several good camping spots that I marked with the GPS.

I made it back home by 4 and cleaned up the Suzuki. It was a fun trip, even if it was short.

For those who are interested, the GPX file and map are here. http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/toyman0154/march-17-day-trip/#.UycprPldUqs

I'll add to this thread the next time I head out.
 

mtnbike28

Expedition Leader
Cool day in the woods. I have wanted to visit that area on one of the trips to visit my mom near Orangeburg. Thanks for the nudge!
 

Clem

Adventurer
And even though it rained, he did not ruin any roads huh.

@ JCMatthews...Let it go man. This is not the proper place to posting up your personal grievances with another member...Respect Toyman01's trip report.

@ Toyman01...Great Tin Top...Thanks for sharing,

Clem
 

JCMatthews

Tour Guide
Did not mean to muddy up, (muddy, there I go again) anybody's thread. I little ribbing never hurt. I did love the story and the pictures. It would be great to live that close to forest roads. I live in beautiful desert, but long for beautiful forest drives.
 

SC T100

Adventurer
I live about 10 minutes from the Forest boundary, and I have yet to really get out into the middle of it...been on my list though. And Bonneau Ferry has been on my list as well. I have a free day tomorrow...I think I might know what I'm going to do with it.

And it's nice to see another (assumed) Lowcountry member. :)
 

SC T100

Adventurer
Oh, and there's another early 1700s church up the east branch of the Cooper that looks a lot like the one you saw. It's amazing how much of that stuff is still around, hidden away on little backroads.
 

Toyman01

Adventurer
Oh, and there's another early 1700s church up the east branch of the Cooper that looks a lot like the one you saw. It's amazing how much of that stuff is still around, hidden away on little backroads.

This is probably the same one. The Strawberry Chapel is on the Cooper River right next to the Bonneau Ferry WMA. I've also been to the St. James Goose Creek Chapel and the Pon Pon Chapel down by Jacksonboro.

I don't have pictures of St. James Goose Creek, but here is the Pon Pon Chapel. I visited it back around Christmas. There isn't much left other than the facade.

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SC T100

Adventurer
Oh, and yeah, I'm a local from Goose Creek.

Awesome! I'm over in the Cainhoy area. The church I was referring to is the Pompion Hill Chapel on the south side of the east Cooper branch...it's from the mid 1700s. I wish it were on public grounds, but it can be seen from the water (that's how I saw it...paddled by it one day and looked it up). Apparently there are tours every now and then though.
 

Wilbah

Adventurer
Very cool....thanks for sharing. I know I have been guilty of looking "far afield" for adventure when some can be found close by. Make me re-think some stuff right here in my AO. Thanks for posting it. I also love the old ruins....East Coast Ghost Towns in some respect.
 

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