Congaree named a national trail

Watery path a treasure for scenic beauty, recreation

Mary Ann Chastain
AP

A man stands on rocks in the Congaree River while fly-fishing Saturday. The river is being designated a National Recreation Trail.

The Congaree Blue Trail has become the first entirely water trail in South Carolina to be named a National Recreation Trail.

The recognition for the Midlands river could boost "blue" efforts in the Lowcountry.

The trail is the stretch of river running from downtown Columbia through Congaree National Park to where it joins the Wateree and becomes the Santee River. The Santee flows into lakes Marion and Moultrie. Those lakes are part of Berkeley County Blueways, a network of paddling trails being developed by agencies and individuals in that county. The Edisto River in Dorchester and Colleton counties also has a trail system in place.

The Congaree was designated a "blue trail," or water trail, in the state last year.

"Starting near Columbia, this 50-mile water trail and greenway offers an urban adventure featuring prehistoric Native American sites, sandbars, high bluffs, and Congaree National Park, home of the largest continuous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the United States," according to a National Park Service news release.

"It runs through an urban area downstream into one of the few wilderness areas in South Carolina," said Geritt Jobsis of American Rivers, the advocacy group that pushed for the designation. "It's a great resource not only for the Columbia area but the entire state."

The national trail designation is a recognition that a trail provides a route for people to experience natural resources and improve the quality of their lives. The real benefit to being named a trail is that it calls attention to it and efforts to manage it. Trail markers also are provided.

More than 1,000 trails covering 12,000 miles have now been given the national designation. Other trails in South Carolina include the Mullet Hall Equestrian Trail System on Johns Island, the Beidler Forest trail and boardwalk in Dorchester County, the Edisto Nature Trail in Jacksonboro and the Swamp Fox trail through the Francis Marion and Sumter national forests.

The Port Royal Sound Adventure Trail in Beaufort County, which includes a water trail, also is a national trail. American Rivers is working to get a similar designation for the Wateree River and hopes eventually to win it for a 400-mile network of blue trails in the PeeDee river system that includes the Black River in Williamsburg and Georgetown counties.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.