On election day, I decided to treat myself and go up for a hike on Table Rock in South Carolina.  This is one of the more popular places to hike in the upstate, but on a Tuesday afternoon I found very few people.  It’s a beautiful place but its a rigorous hike up as you seem to climb rocky step after rocky step.  Unfortunately there is graffiti on the rocks but the hike does weed out the lazy vandals.

I did a water color sketch nearly 2 years earlier…

This is Matthews Creek, right outside my place…

Dupont State Forest, Brevard NC

Blue Ridge Parkway looking east

And the parkway looking west

I forgot what this mountain is called but you can see it clearly from the parkway lookout.

Winter is much different in South Carolina than it is in Ontario.  The sky seems bluer and the light is clear.  But this day it was unseasonably cold and you can see the ice fall on the side of the mountain.  But there is little to no snow and so you have more browns and yellows to deal with.  I like both climates and tend to enjoy painting snow with all the different values of blue and white.  Table Rock is a great place to hike and explore, but it’s one of the most strenuous hike to the top.  I’ve lived on the west coast and have hiked some big mountains, but Table Rock is almost a vertical hike from the beginning.  I did some fall sketches on top of it and will continue to capture this great place all season.

This river is a little spooky in it’s beauty.  The Chatooga borders Georgia, North Carolina and the very north west corner of South Carolina.  I like to visit it in the winter as there are little to no people and you have the water all to yourself.  At the same time, you feel isolated and very lonely.

My good friend Bill and I went on a late summer kayak trip to the northern most tip of lake Jocassee.  This man made lake seems very natural and full of wonders.  Last year we saw a black bear on the shore while paddeling back.