The newest addition to the Three River Greenway in Columbia, South Carolina is a bit more hip than practical at times, but for a unique ride in 9F during the coldest winter day in Columbia since 1985 (which got down to an amazing -1F) this is the place to go. In normal weather it’s a bit more pedestrian than bike friendly, at least until they finish the planned expansion to connect it to the main Three Rivers Greenway route on the other side of the river.
How you get there: Parking is at a brand spanking new park front on the river, (34.013433, -81.082035) just down the road from Riverbanks Zoo. It is quite impressive, and a far cry from the 1980s green plastic benches and random dudes in lawn chairs fishing the river of yesteryear. It’s fancy now.
Time for the ride: 3.6 miles out and back in two directions – first to the island at the Broad River and Saluda River confluence and then out to where I-26 crosses the Saluda (where the trail ends right now, though it looks like in the future they will expand it).
Best time for the ride: Any day, season, or weather when nobody else wants to be out here. This place is very pedestrian friendly (more so than bike). There are hammock hangers even. It’s like, damn, where was all this when I was here as a kid?
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Route to Ride
Leaving the parking lot you ride down to the edge of the Saluda River and hang a left to go to Boyd Island first. The Saluda River was once an area of major industry, and before bridge construction became easy and common place many rivers in the South had a number of ferries to allow people to conveniently cross, particularly in busy areas. Those ferry landings and industrial heritage are all but vanished now, however as you ride this section of greenway stop and check out the signage detailing the vanished history and occasional extant ruins of this lost world.
The trail quickly becomes board walk and an old section of stone work for a now vanished mill lies in the river to your right. The boardwalk is impressive, and necessary as this area of river routinely floods both naturally and with the assistance of the dam opening on Lake Murray. You’ll see signs warning anglers to get out of the river when a siren sounds – for decades when the dam released water at Lake Murray a siren would go off and you’d better hop to it and get off the rocks in the river before you floated away or got stuck out on a rock surrounded by no longer wadeable water! I haven’t heard the siren in years, I don’t know if it still sounds, but I remember it and the scramble before the water coming down from Lake Murray got to Columbia!
The boardwalk ends and the route returns to concrete. The route passes behind the zoo and under the zoo bridge, however, the old Saluda River Bridge pylons dating from before the Civil War are visible out in the river, and the one pylon inside the zoo can be viewed through the fence. It’s pretty cool. The old mill ruins that the bridge once led to are still there, but they are now on zoo property, so you have to go into the zoo (or swim the river) to see them.
The route continues, with a sign about the ferry crossing that supplemented the bridge, and a prisoner of war camp from the Civil War. There are some nice picnic tables, and here along the river spanish moss hangs abundantly among the trees. There’s even hammock hangers, which is like, fancy. The route crosses a small bridge near the train trestle at the confluence of the Broad River and the Saluda. Look for Shoals Spider Lilies out among the rocks, and abundant aquatic bird life as you cross a small bridge to Boyd Island. I would like the island more if they hadn’t installed the hideous artistic picnic benches and trashcans – they look uncomfortable, impractical and likely very difficult to maintain or repair. They also don’t fit with any of the other tables or fixtures on the trail. Fortunately, the island is small and you will only have to suffer them for a very short period of time before you head back.
The other end of the trail is less popular. It has a few signs about Native America history and goes past what honestly looks like a fish camp of the low rent variety. However, it’s quiet and seem a lot less popular, which makes for a more relaxing ride. The river is still scenic, and while the trail dead ends randomly at I-26 there is a definite sense they will expand it and someday there’ll be more trail to explore!
Mill ruins in the river
Ruins of the Saluda River bridge
Picnic table and history sign on the river
Some of the hideous iron work on Boyd Island
Spanish moss along the river
In sum: I rode this in the coldest weather Columbia had experienced in about 40 years. Columbia should not be allowed to get that cold!
packgoats 