Thursday, May 20, 2021

Biking the Swamp Rabbit Trail, Greenville, SC to Travelers Rest, SC

 

  • Date Biked: April 16, 2021
  • Posted Mileage 22 (not all currently connected)
  • Total miles Tracked: 32.46
  • Type of Trail:  Paved rail trail
  • Conveniences:  Restrooms, picnic tables, decent trail maps
  • Best Features:  Excellent trail towns at each end, fantastic design, numerous restaurants
  • Worst Features:  A little tricky to navigate
  • Wildlife spotted: Deer, woodchuck. Sadly lacking in actual rabbits! 
  • Vegetation:  Wildflowers, tended flower beds, hardwoods, pines
  • Associated Website: https://www.greenvillesc.gov/316/Swamp-Rabbit-Trail-Interactive-Map
  • Primary Author: James
In my last post about the Little Tennessee Greenway, I talked about viewing a greenway or rail trail as a long, skinny, public park rather than simply as a road that lets bikers move between destinations. There is probably no trail we've ever ridden that merges these two ideas better than the Swamp Rabbit Trail. This trail runs from the heart of downtown Greenville into the center of Travelers Rest, a journey of a little over a dozen miles. In each downtown you'll find restaurants, breweries, and ice cream parlors located next to the trail. Along the way, great effort has been made to make the ride beautiful. 

My ordinary pattern in blogging about a trail is to write paragraphs first, then stick a few photos in between. But, mile after mile, the Swamp Rabbit is designed to delight the eye. So, for this blog, I'm uploading pics in a more or less random fashion and commenting as needed. It's going to be a little rambling... but if you want a trail to ramble along, it's difficult to beat the Swamp Rabbit. 

Falls Park on the Reedy is in the heart of Greenville, carefully landscaped and full of sculptures. 

A short distance out of downtown there are exercise stations, so you can ride your real bike to work out on a stationary bike. 



The trail leads through a Cancer Survivors Park. 

Central to the Cancer Survivors Park is this pavilion with a roof that draws your gaze skyward. 


Returning at night is a treat. 


Technically adjacent to the Swamp Rabbit, the highlight of downtown Greenville is Reedy Falls and Liberty Bridge, a curved suspension bridge that offers an unrivaled view. 


The sculptures aren't limited to downtown. This one is about midway between Greenville and Travelers Rest. 

As might be expected from the name, Travelers Rest is an inviting place stop and enjoy trailside shops and restaurants. Grab some ice cream at Pink Mama!

The Swamp Rabbit himself greets you in Travelers Rest. 

In town on business and didn't bring a bike? No problem! This trail has nearly as many rental options as the Virginia Creeper Trail

Tributes to the trail's railroad origins are abundant.


The Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery is a popular stop along the trail. Great food!

Downtown Greenville.

The Medusa Tree. 

Butterfly arch at the Cancer Survivor Garden.

I bet this place is pretty at night...

Yep!



Swamp Rabbit gives you wings! 

Southernside Brewing, trailside.

All of downtown Greenville is sculpted by light at night.

It's tricky to tell from this picture, but the cowcatcher is a brick pizza oven. 



The Whistle Stop Cafe, where you can get fried green tomatoes as a pizza topping. 
Across the road from the Whistle Stop is the Swamp Rabbit Brewery Taproom.  

The Swamp Rabbit is very close to a perfect rail trail. It packs in more visual delights per linear mile than any other trail we can think of. There are a few busy road crossing, but all have crossing lights. From the center of Greenville to downtown Travelers Rest, the trail is flat and in very good shape. The few places it wasn't in good shape were due to ongoing construction to get the trail into even better shape. The only difficulty is that, once you reach downtown Greenville, you start encountering side trails and it can get slightly tricky figuring out which path to follow. Especially once you're past the Medusa Tree, Google Maps will show bike trails that are actually foot trails full of steps. Also, once you're past the cancer garden, there are a few challenging hills. Nothing too difficult, but definitely no longer railroad bed flatness. Finally, the trail markers seem to be aspirational, hinting at a much longer length than what's actually available as a continuous off road ride. Tacking on side trails, our out and back journey was a little over 30 miles, which is fine. That's a nice full day of riding, especially if you're stopping every other mile for photos and giving into the temptations of trailside ice cream and cafes. If you haven't ridden this trail yet, get there at once!

Biking the Little Tennessee River Greenway, Franklin, NC

 

  • Date Biked: March 20, 2021
  • Posted Mileage 4-ish
  • Total miles Tracked:  6.19
  • Type of Trail:  mixed surface rail trail
  • Conveniences:  Trailhead with bathrooms and picnic tables
  • Best Features:  Covered Bridge
  • Worst Features:  Rough surface, confusing trail path 
  • Wildlife spotted: None
  • Vegetation:  Wildflowers
  • Associated Website: https://www.littletennessee.org/ 
  • Primary Author: James

When we tackled the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Trails back in March, we saw no reason to race straight home. From north Georgia, it's a relatively short hop into western North Carolina, so I scanned Google Maps to find a greenway we might explore. The Little Tennessee River sprang up. It is, as far as I can tell, the westernmost rail trail in North Carolina, so it seemed like a good one to check off our list. 



The Little Tennessee River Greenway follows two railway cuts along the eponymous river through Franklin, NC. Franklin is a lovely little town. We ate lunch at the Motor Company Grill, which specializes in ridiculously decadent burgers and shakes. Laden with calories, we went in search of parking for the greenway, and launched our journey from Tassee Park near the midpoint of the trail. This has bathrooms and picnic tables, but the paths down from the parking area to the trail itself were a little rugged. We headed south. Before long we reached the best feature of the greenway, the Nonah Bridge, a wooden covered bridge that is a thoughtful blend of functional infrastructure and public art. Riding through it is reminiscent of riding through a cathedral, or perhaps the upturned belly of a wooden sailing ship. 

I've thought a lot about this bridge in the last two months. Having ridden several dozen greenways in numerous states, some of our favorites are ones where the people in charge of the trail understand that greenways are more akin to parks than to highways. Yes, we love long trails that let us ride from one town to another, but usually the trail itself is the destination for us, not merely a neutral surface that exists to provide easy passage from point A to point B. Once you think of a greenway as a long, thin park, it sets some expectations. Parks feature sculptures, flower gardens, and picnic shelters. Obviously, on a thirty mile greenway that passes through multiple jurisdictions, you wouldn't expect every foot to be lined with flowerbeds. Some of our favorite trails just let nature run wild six inches off the pavement. But the Nonah Bridge leaves me wondering why more greenways don't make the effort to build beautiful infrastructure. Not to name names, but Cheryl and I can name a trails where, instead of a lovely bridge crossing a pleasant river, there's are bland concrete slabs bordered by chain-link that give the surrounding the feel of an industrial wasteland. I understand that a beautiful bridge like the Nonah costs more than something drab, but we drove over a hundred miles out of our way because of the pictures of this bridge. No doubt other people do as well. Attractive things make good attractions! 


So, big bonus points for the LTRG having such an excellent feature, one that's made me look at every greenway I've since ridden in a different light. Unfortunately, the fact that this trail includes such a great bridge makes the rest of the trail a baffling disappointment. The trail is a mix of paved and gravel surfaces, at somewhat random intervals. The gravel is rough enough that I wouldn't recommend tackling this trail on a road bike. The other problem we had was a lack of clear signage. As you head toward downtown, the trail reaches the back of a shopping center. Google maps indicated the trail continued on the other side of the river, but the pathway wasn't immediately clear, and the bridge crossing into downtown had a ton of traffic on it, so we turned back. It looks like we only missed out on another mile or so of riding. Even though there are downloadable trail maps, if a trail sort of fizzles out in a parking lot, clear markers pointing toward the next step of the journey are a necessity. 



If you're serious about biking, this trail is probably a little too short to be worth the drive just to ride it. But, I imagine that in the fall, when the color is changing, this would be a spectacular greenway for a walk or run. But, if you are looking for a longer trail that has fully embraced the "greenway as a park" philosophy, do we  have a trail for you! Up next: The Swamp Rabbit!