Palmetto Trail to complete major link between Midlands and coast

Hiking, biking and backpacking – those are a few things visitors can do to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Palmetto Trail this year.

The Palmetto Trail is a 1994 project by the Palmetto Conservation Foundation, a statewide organization founded in 1989 to conserve the state’s natural environment while making it accessible. 

The nearly complete trail is one of 16 cross-state trails in the United States and is South Carolina’s longest pedestrian and bicycle trail. 

“The Trail is meant to bring people together – young and old, rich and poor,” Anne Springs Close, the Palmetto Conservation’s founding director, said on the group’s website. “It’s not just for hard core backpackers, but for families who want to get out into the woods.”

It’s planned to be a 500-mile hiking and biking trail that goes from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Furman Miller, the trail coordinator for the Midlands to USC Upstate in Spartanburg, said the trail has more than 400 miles set in place as of October 2024.

Mary Roe, the foundation’s executive director, said the addition of the latest passage, the Boyd Passage, is set to add 26 miles connecting the Army’s Fort Jackson to the Wateree River in eastern Richland County. The passage will connect the Midlands to the Lowcountry. The Columbia nonprofit Boyd Foundation donated $1.506 million to complete the project.

“That’s a new, 26-mile trail,” Roe said. “And that will allow users to go from the capital city to the coast of (the salt marshes of) Awendaw (Creek). That’s also just pretty neat to have right here from Columbia.” 

Miller told the Carolina News & Reporter the Midlands portion of the trail had been finished but it not been officially opened yet because the organization is building an upgrade at the McCrady Trailhead, the junction of the Fort Jackson Passage and Boyd Passage. The trailhead has been closed for construction since late August.

He said the upgrade will make the trailhead a “destination trailhead” with the addition of lights, a bathroom, a bike rack and bike repair station as well as a repaired boardwalk connector at the trailhead. 

Miller said making the passage continuous from Columbia to the coast will be a “pretty big accomplishment” for the organization. He said the organization is working on the “one or two gaps that are significant” in the Midlands. 

Jacob Oblander, a Columbia resident and treasurer of the Cola Bike Town Collective, said he was excited and looking forward to the opening of the Boyd Passage. He said the existing Wateree passage was “really nice to ride on” as a bicyclist. 

The Boyd Passage “would allow you to basically ride from downtown Columbia to Poinsett State Park (in Sumter County) pretty safely, which would be fantastic,” he said. “That’s going to be exciting. But Wateree Passage is one of my favorites. I love that passage because it’s got all these swing bridges and this old rail bed.”

Miller told the Carolina News & Reporter that the organization is hoping for the trail to be officially opened by the end of November.