400-mile Palmetto Trail gets a boost in state aid to connect, maintain the pieces

Kyle Austin, a trail monitor, took this photo of his friends hiking on the Lake Marion Passage of the Palmetto Trail two miles south of Mill Creek County Park on Jan. 15, 2023 (Provided by Kyle Austin)

COLUMBIA — Kyle Austin has been hiking the Palmetto Trail for about 20 years.

Austin, 38, started hiking it when he was a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. When he returned home to Sumter, where he teaches high school science, he kept hiking the cross-state trail that’s still a work in progress. Now he also works as a monitor, one of the volunteers who helps maintain the system.

The main section Austin monitors— the 36-mile Lake Marion Passage — includes fields, hardwood forest and swamp. The scenery can change every quarter mile he said. He hikes it regularly, doing minor maintenance and reporting major issues. Twice a year, he takes local students out to clean up the trail.

“I thoroughly enjoy looking at the flora and the fauna along the trail,” he said. “I love nature, it’s also a time to unwind and exercise for your body — kind of meditation and peace for your mind.”

The Palmetto Trail, started 30 years ago, is run by the nonprofit Palmetto Conservation Foundation.

The organization has finished about 400 miles of a planned 500-mile trail stretching from the Upstate to the Lowcountry.

By December, the trail will be connected continuously from Columbia to the coast.

The Legislature has contributed over $8 million since 2014, when it gave the project $150,000 in guaranteed annual funding, according to records from the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

A year later, legislators doubled the designation to $300,000, an amount that remained consistent until this year, when the Legislature increased recurring funding by $700,000. That brings to $1 million the amount that will continue into future state budgets. Legislators also provided an additional $500,000 in one-time funding this year.

The increase was to cover growing maintenance and staffing needs, said Sen. Nikki Setzler, D-West Columbia, who chaired the Senate Finance subcommittee that oversees parks and tourism spending.

“I believe we’ve done a good job in the state,” Mary Roe, executive director of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation, said about the budget increase. “I believe (legislators) see the value behind what trails can do for ecotourism and also the big health and wellness benefits.”

The organization is small — consisting of four full-time and seven part-time employees — with an annual budget of $1.8 million, Roe said. Much of the work happens through volunteers like Austin.

Connecting the pieces

The trail forms a broken line across the state of established passages, one that is gradually becoming solid as new connectors are added. It is built on a patchwork of systems including agreements with private landowners, public land and purchased land, so expanding can be complicated.

But there are always new opportunities.

In the spring, the Palmetto Trail formed an agreement with the Foothills Trail , filling another gap in the Upstate. The new Interstate 95 bridge will also carry the trail over Lake Marion , replacing the aging span that currently carries the trail.

Roe said the organization is currently focused on adding two stretches. One is north of Columbia towards Newberry. The other is in the Upstate, where the trail is set to cross the Tyger River and will need a new bridge. And the maintenance projects are constant.

“The (state) funding has come at a really great time for us,” Roe said.

Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto is an enthusiastic supporter of the trail, although not directly involved in securing this year’s appropriation.

“It’s just an asset that we probably couldn’t put together in the future. We’re lucky we have the footprint pretty much put in,” the Orangeburg Democrat said. “It’s hard to be against the trail.”

Hutto is trying to hike the whole length of the trail one section at a time. He often brings his Boy Scout troop along. He has stories of seeing swimming wild hogs, osprey, quail, and — on one memorable occasion — about five alligators on the trail he was trying to hike with the Scouts.

“It’s just a true asset for South Carolina, and I’m proud we were able to give them some funding,” he said.

William “Buddy” Jennings ran the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism before retiring in 2000 and returning to his roots as a civil engineer. Now he contracts as a project manager for the Palmetto Trail.

Jennings joined the state agency in 1971, just two years after it was established. In 1969, he said, one of the biggest tourism attractions in the state was South of the Border, a roadside stop in Dillon County just below the North Carolina border.

Since then, tourism has grown into a multibillion-dollar economic driver for the state. But in the last 20 years there have been relatively few new attractions to bring people into South Carolina. The Palmetto Trail is a notable exception, Jennings said.

While the trail has received steady state funding, Jennings said the additional recurring commitment will help not only with finishing the trail but also keeping the current sections in shape.

“It’s a game changer for the Palmetto Trail,” he said. After 30 years, “the maintenance and the upkeep has really become a chore.”

Adding new trail is expensive. The cost varies widely depending on location. But a rough average is $100,000 per mile, he said.

Even though the trail is unfinished, a few people do hike the whole thing, threading together the established passages with roadside hikes. About a dozen people do end-to-end through-hikes every year, Roe said.

Hidden gem

Jason Brocar, 52, hiked the whole thing in spring of 2022, taking about 30 days to walk across the state as a warmup for the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. He was on that trail in northern California when he spoke to the SC Daily Gazette on Tuesday.

After spending 24 years in the Marines and the Army — his trail name is Mav, for Marine Army Veteran — Brocar now works at a cement plant in his native South Dakota when he is not out hiking. He has done all kinds of different trails across roughly 25 states, he said.

The Palmetto Trail brought one of the strangest things he had seen while hiking, he said — a wildfire burning in Francis Marion National forest. He called 911 to report it.

Since the Palmetto Trail is unfinished, Brocar said he had to stealth camp a few times — meaning he found a depression in the ground or an old, vacated building to get a few hours of sleep.

But he liked that the trail was so different from many long trails. It’s not just woods, but also country back roads and peach orchards, cities, swamps and the sea.

“From South Dakota, we don’t have large bodies of water, so walking to the ocean was pretty majestic,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. It was very different from your typical ‘spending a week in the woods’ (hike).”

Another unique thing to the trail is the amount of history along the way, he said.

The Swamp Fox Passage, the longest section of the trail, is named after Revolutionary War leader Francis Marion , who used the area as a hideout when fighting the British. Another section runs along Blackstock Battlefield, the site of another Revolutionary War battle.

Brocar thought the South Carolina state parks that he crossed on the trail were impressive, and he appreciated the support system of the trail.

“When I hiked through the urban areas, I ran into people who are like, ‘What are you doing here with that backpack?’” Brocar said he told them. “‘This right here is the Palmetto Trail,’ like right in front of their house, and they don’t know that.”

Most users, though, just enjoy a day trip.

Marguerite Girard has been biking the Palmetto Trail ever since moving to Newberry from Atlanta after retiring from law enforcement seven years ago. Now she owns a bike shop and rides one particularly smooth section every Monday. In cooler weather, she brings her 8-pound dog Tiny along in a backpack.

“It’s super easy, so I started taking other group riders out there who were not as experienced and did not want the challenge,” she said.

Although not an official trail monitor, Girard brings some tools with her when she rides and tries to move branches or pick up trash. When the people she rides with complain about the maintenance of the trail, she reminds them that it’s all volunteer maintenance. Sometimes they want to volunteer, too.

Still, some sections of the trail are rough to ride on, she said, including the Enoree Passage.

“I rode that once, it was too much for a 68-year-old woman,” she said.

Never truly done

Roe, the executive director, estimates connecting the rest of the trail will likely take another eight to 10 years. But the project will never be truly done, she said.

Once the trail is connected, there will be spurs to add to connect into other areas. She is hoping to eventually connect to the Congaree National Forest and potentially the Appalachian Trail too.

Major maintenance projects include repairing trails after all the rain this summer. And old train trestles on the Peak to Prosperity passage need new ties. Roe said they are exploring long-lasting resin in place of decaying wood, even if the upfront cost is more.

Roe did not say if her group would seek additional state funding next year.

“I think our representatives have identified how multi-faceted a recreational trail can be for people of South Carolina,” she said. “It can also bring people in from outside to experience the trail.”