On St. Patrick’s Day, I convinced McB to go out for a little ride. He loves adventures but prefers them to be carefully planned while I’m a fan of occasionally just getting in the car and seeing where the road takes you. On this day, our road took us to Table Rock State Park in Pickens, SC.

The Native Americans believed that the flat mountaintop was in fact a table for a race of giants. The small mound on the right is his/her stool.

After stopping at the view point, we made our way to the lake and took off on the Carrick Creek trail. This is a 1.9 mile loop and is rated to be a “moderate” hike. I must admit that we were a bit unprepared as we had no water and I was wearing flipflops but these weren’t major problems so we took off anyway.

The first part of the trail runs along the water. There are many lovely shots for photographers and a few streams to ford. While the flipflops were a great hazard with the exposed tree branches, I enjoyed the freedom of just pulling off my shoes and crossing the water in my bare feet.

Notice the rain drops falling in the calm water.

There are a few hills on the “dry” part of the trail. Most of them are pretty minor; but, one was particularly steep and cemented the notion that we needed to buy nice hiking sticks.

As a photographer who enjoys capturing details, this plant caught my eye and my lens.

After the hike, we crossed over to the lake that is outside the main ranger station. As luck would have it, we were there for a glorious sunset.

It was the kind of day that makes my job search and all the other “new kid” craziness all worth it. I wouldn’t trade this and my life for anything.