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Columbia, South Carolina
Words by Patrick Augustine
Photos by Karen Myer
For riders on the East Coast, it’s easy to dabble in self-pity, bemoaning our fate as trail-impoverished in comparison to our brethren west of the Mississippi. Lacking the templar vistas championed by Muir and Mather, Southeast riders outside of the Appalachians often come to view their local haunts with the same disdain they may have for certain family members. You again, really?
And yet, Columbia, South Carolina boasts both a variety of places to ride and year-round riding weather that any local would be hard-pressed to complain about. Smack dab in the middle of our fair state, Columbia sits on what was, in prehistoric times, considered the coast. The geography and terrain of the ‘Midlands’ results in some grin-worthy and surprisingly convenient trail riding.
Nestled within the city limits, Harbison State Forest is the largest such public green space anywhere in the eastern United States and it’s our default locale for quick local rides. An 8-mile drive from downtown with easy highway access, Harbison’s 20+ miles of trail are surprisingly isolated considering that they are situated on only 2,200 acres next to the Broad River.
Harbison is bounded by a forest of longleaf pines, with bottomland hardwoods further in near the river and scrub oak stands on the bluffs, which contribute most of the 1,000-foot elevation change on the typical trail loop. Since Harbison is an educational forest used to showcase good timber management practices in a state where timber sales are the number one cash crop, riders are treated to a little bit of everything: singletrack, doubletrack, and fire roads. Easy access to the forest also means that bikers can expect to share the trails with other users like trail runners and hikers during most seasons. The different trail user constituencies coexist happily, and in tandem with campers, boaters, and everyday use by the foresters. In many ways, it is this broad-based appeal that has helped Harbison to weather challenges from those out of touch with the necessity for public access to nature at the ready. Gov. Sanford’s proposal to sell the land to private developers in 2002 due to budget shortfalls was a prime example of how Harbison’s proximity to the water can be a liability during the winter, when increased rains and flooding make parts of the trails unwise to ride.
Fortunately, there are two other riding options in the immediate area around Columbia for those hungry for their singletrack fix. The first is Sesquicentennial State Park to the northeast of town, perched atop one of those ancient sand dunes that betray Columbia’s former beachfront status. Sesqui, as it is affectionately known locally, falls out of fashion with each succeeding generation of riders due to its sandy soils and short loop that only runs for seven miles or so. I suppose it’s a sentimental favorite due to the large role it played in my own mountain biking education, but the sand makes it annoyingly dry and boggy during the summer. This also means that it’s perfect during our wet winters when you might otherwise feel guilty about riding at Harbison. An artifact of Roosevelt’s Civilian Construction Corps of the 1930s, its simplicity and flow are worth discovering or reacquainting oneself with.
Lynch’s Woods, located in Newberry, SC is a bit of a jaunt north from Columbia on I-26, but even given the half-hour of driving it takes to get there, it would be unfair to leave it off any list of South Carolina singletrack. Many local riders even consider it their own personal hidden trail, in part because it sees so few riders and also because unlike Harbison, it is not so beginner-friendly. The property comprises less than 300 acres, so the trail winds around like a seven-mile long rattlesnake sunning itself in the summer. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the twisty nature of the trail provides its own set of technical challenges that a more flow-conducive route might. Splitting the terrain difference between Harbison and Sesqui nicely, Lynch’s Woods has a lot of mixed pine and hardwood forest with some sandy sections and road crossings thrown in. Expect to see horseback riders in the warmer months too.
Trail access is fortunately not a battle that many in SC have had to deal with very much, but the writing is on the wall in terms of the need for a Midlands SORBA chapter in the near future. Both upstate near the North Carolina mountains and the southwest part of the state that borders Georgia have their own chapters, but for now the only advocacy body that works for trail maintenance and access are the Friends of Harbison State Forest, which represents all trail users at the Harbison facility.
For more information about any of these trails, or riding in South Carolina in general, check out our website or give us a call: www.outspokinbicycles.com.
