Fall is finally here.

The leaves are changing and the temperature has finally started to cool down. It’s the perfect time for another backpacking trip.

This time, my grandpa and I headed out to Abbeville to hike a part of the Long Cane Horse Trail in Sumter National Forest.

On a crisp, sunny October morning, we started our 90-minute drive to the trail.

With such a perfect 60-degree day ahead, we couldn’t wait to get back into the woods.

Along the way, we stopped by Subway in the quaint town of Saluda for a filling lunch. The rest of the drive was through rural South Carolina to Abbeville.

We dropped off my grandpa’s car on the shoulder of a gravel forest road, Curltail Road, and we loaded into mine.

A quick 10-minute drive later and we were pulling into Parsons Mountain Lake Recreation Area. The area sort of felt like a state park. Amenities were spread out around the 28-acre lake. The Recreation Area has picnic tables, hiking trails, a campground, a non-motorized boat ramp, and a swimming area.

But we weren’t there for the recreation area, we were there for the Long Cane Trail that passes through. So, I parked the car and we checked our packs one last time before heading into the woods.

The trail was in great shape. It was a clear, smooth path through the shallow piedmont valleys of Sumter National Forest. It’s perfect for mountain bikes. In fact, it’s a local mountain biking gem.

Central Savannah River Area SORBA volunteers keep the trail in great shape.

The air was crisp with a slight fall breeze. We could hear the crunch of leaves under our shoes and the songs birds hummed throughout the woods. Most of the trees were still fairly early but some color was shining through.

After about 3 miles in and above the small shallow valley, we made it back out to the road. We had a half mile road walk to do before we got back into the woods. Thankfully, the county road wasn’t that busy.

Only 5 cars passed us the entire time. We were heading downhill to Long Cane Creek, the trail’s namesake. We crossed the midsize creek on the road and headed back into the woods on the other side of the bridge. At this point, we were in the waning couple of hours of the day and it was time to find a campsite.

After leaving the road, we followed Long Cane Creek upstream and turned into another small valley. This valley was the most beautiful part of the whole trail. The trail ran alongside a beautiful rocky small stream called Stillhouse Branch.

Small plants and trees thrived around the stream. Along the way, I keep spotting perfect flat areas to set up camp but I wanted to make it a bit further.

After a quarter-mile, the trail dips into the stream and crosses up to the other side. It’s armored with concrete so mountain bikers can cross without sinking into the stream. On the other side of the stream, the trail passes through an overgrown flood plain. Just as the trail was about to turn up and away from this perfect stream, I spotted the perfect campsite just on the other side of the stream.

We crossed over and set up camp in a perfectly open and flat area overlooking the stream. The newly fallen leaves would give us a good cushion to sleep on tonight. I was excited to test out my new 20 degree down sleeping bag in the 40-degree weather tonight.

With our tents situated, I went ahead and started cooking dinner. We would be eating our customary meal of ramen noodles with spam mixed in.

While I was waiting for water to boil on my tiny butane stove, I decided to make some sitting logs out of a recently fallen tree. I dragged the log over and put it on top of two log risers. It made for the perfect place to sit down to eat dinner and read a book as the sunset.

By 7:30 pm, it was pitch black and there was nothing else to do but to head to my tent and go to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I woke up freezing. I was surprised to be so cold in 45 degree weather, 15 degrees warmer than the bag’s 30-degree comfort rating. I decided to throw on some long johns and a jacket and to head back to sleep. We both woke up around 7 am

We both woke up around 7 am and had a pretty slow start to the day. I came out of my tent to filter some water in the stream and I decided to go ahead and cook my breakfast. I had maple brown sugar oatmeal with a Pop Tart before getting back into my sleeping bag.

Finally around 8:30 am, we slowly started tearing down camp.

By 9:30 am, we had packed up everything and had gotten on the trail. It would be a short day with only 3.5 miles to do.

We climbed away from our perfect little valley we called home last night and headed up into a newly planted pine plot. There the sun broke through the small trees warming us up after a chilly night.

Soon we came out into a big, beautiful, open, and hilly field. The trail skirted around the dew frosted field. The sky was a vibrant blue and it was warming up quickly. We came to the intersection where a spur trail goes to Fell Hunt Camp. We stopped at a bench there to take off our jackets.

The trail began twisting its way down into another valley. I was impressed by how well graded the trail is. We crossed over another small stream, George Devlin Branch. This crossing was also a concrete armored crossing.

On the other side, we started the half mile climb to the road where we parked. We crossed through a powerline clearing before finishing up through a pretty softwood forest.

We made it back to the car after 7.5 miles over 2 days. It might not be that much mileage, but to me, it’s more about just getting out there and enjoying it than to make lots of miles. The trail was perfect for us, it was easy but still had some varying elevation, lightly used, yet well-maintained, and it was absolutely beautiful.

We made a quick stop by Pizza Inn in Greenwood where we talked about our next trip before heading home on country roads.