Join the Pacolet Area Conservancy (PAC) on Friday, March 6, for a six-mile hike at Paris Mountain State Park, near Greenville, S.C., the second hike of PAC’s Spring Hiking Series.  PAC’s director of stewardship and land protection, Pam Torlina, will lead the moderate/strenuous, loop hike along the Sulphur Springs, Kanuga, and Brissy Ridge trails.

Paris Mountain State Park is one of the oldest protected areas in South Carolina. Originally protected as a watershed for the City of Greenville, the 1,540-acre park features large stands of old growth hardwood forests.

The loop trail begins with a gradual ascent, paralleling a stream that leads to a dam that creates Mountain Lake, remnants of the reservoir originally created to provide water for the City of Greenville. The trail continues to follow the stream, passing a waterfall, then, leaving the stream and rising to the top of the ridge. The trail follows the ridgeline, descends, and ascends through the forest, leading back to the starting point.

This park was developed during the Great Depression in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the park continues to display CCC craftsmanship in several buildings and structures. Geologically, Paris Mountain is a manadnock, an immense rock that remained when the mountains around it weathered away. The park has become a gem to those living and working in Greenville, S.C., a close natural get away from city life and a convenient location to reconnect with nature.

If you are interested in attending the PAC hike at Paris Mountain State Park, please contact the PAC office to sign up by phone at 828-859-5060 or e-mail, landprotection@pacolet.org. Please note that there is a park fee for this hike. Hikers should be prepared to pay park admission: $2/adult and non-resident, $1.25 for S.C. seniors, and free for 15 and younger. S.C. park passes are accepted.

Hikers should wear appropriate clothing and footwear; bring a bag lunch and/or snack and plenty of water.  Please be sure to bring any personal medication that you may require.  Hikers should be prepared to return to the area in the early afternoon.  In case of inclement weather, please contact the PAC office by 8:15 a.m. on the day of the hike to see if the hike will take place.

Hikers will meet at the Gowensville Spinx, at the intersection of Hwy. 14 and Hwy. 11 in S.C. at 8:30 a.m. to arrange car-pooling and start the approximately 30-minute drive to the park.

If you cannot make this hike but would like to attend other hikes, please visit PACs website, www.pacolet.org, or go to PACs facebook page, www.facebook.com/pacoletarea.conservancy, for information on upcoming hikes.  The next hike is scheduled for March 20 at Bracken Preserve in Brevard, N.C.

PAC is a non-profit 501(c)(3) qualified conservation organization, land trust, that works with landowners to ensure the long-term protection of their land through voluntary conservation easements.  Conservation easements enable landowners to maintain ownership and management of their property, preserving precious natural resources, and potentially obtain significant federal, state, and local tax benefits.  PAC’s mission is to protect and conserve our area’s natural resources with a vision of a community living and growing in harmony with our natural heritage and a goal to provide a legacy that will endure and be valued by generations to come.
– Submitted by Pam Torlina