2025 Big Truck across the Southeast, day 10

Today started on time, with a prearranged 10am call time to be wheels up to Congaree. It's been a bit since we've been to a National Park, something these trips are usually built around. We were excited for this one, as it is different and definitely a less visited park among the entire lineup.

As soon as we started walking up to the visitors center,

we noticed a familiar friend - actually, a lot of them.

As we would learn from the older volunteer (future career path for me?), the giant yellow spider that I nearly inhaled twice last night is actually the adult Golden Silk Orbweaver. Some of these guys were as big as my hand, and they were everywhere.

We decided we would stick to some more regularly traveled trails - especially since it was only 98 degrees, but the trail conditions sign made sure to let us know that it felt at least 104. Good day for a hike.

We started off with the boardwalk loop, winding through lots of old growth forest

Our hike led us to first to Weston Lake,

then we headed over to Wise Lake, where Kimberly caught me putting out the vibe. Sorry, it's hard to turn this thing off sometimes.

Along the way, Jordan picked up a hitchhiker

who then switched to freeloading off me for a while

As we worked our way back, we saw the trees that reminded us of the Dagobah System, something I was looking forward to the entire hike.

Jordan also took this opportunity to express her support for doing this hike under these conditions.

As we passed a couple of trail signs, I was immediately transported into my childhood basement listening to the "ooom papa mawmaw" portion of Elvira. Just a very normal brain that processes things just like everyone else.

We returned to the visitors center, drenched in sweat, and sought refuge in the air conditioned auditorium to watch the 18 minute movie about Congaree.

18 minutes was not long enough to dry out, so we decided to head out and find a spot to grab a late lunch. On the way there, we were greeted with yet another familiar sight.

We were close to Columbia, so we decided to check out their brewery scene. The first one we came across was called Hunter Gatherer Brewing, which resided in an old airport hangar.

Anytime you've just hiked about 4 miles in 100 degree heat, you've got to opt for the sausage balls. Seriously, they were good.

We made one more stop at Savage Craft, which appears to have been launched during the Ed Hardy t shirt craze.

This place was huge, had a ridiculous outdoor setup, and provided for some of the best people watching we've experienced in years.

I'll do my best to summarize. Apparently there is a rooftop level that is 21+. We were there around 4pm on a Saturday, and the bar area had a mixture of suits, tanktop wearing meatheads from a nearby gym, a running club that showed up while we were there, a bunch of travel baseball parents housing drinks while their kids were running around in uniform, and some women who had recently completed a round of golf and were wearing some sort of fringed/tassled golf shoes much to Kimberly's dismay "Those are hideous".

It was a fascinating insight into the Columbia, SC social scene. Felt like we were dropped into some sort of a reality show taping. If this brewery were a person, it would be this guy.

Our time in Columbia was wrapping up. As we were exiting the city, we caught a glimpse of Williams-Brice stadium home of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.

All in all, a big day today. We returned to the campsite with a little bit of daylight remaining, but after seeing another 10,000 of those banana spiders or whatever they are on our hike today, I was not about to go riding through the woods and have one of those guys go full Alien.

Tomorrow - pack up, drive 6-7 hours through the mountains, and prepare to go rafting in WV. Cheers