Trails: Woodland Pond and Longleaf
Pine Trails
Hike Location: Carolina
Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge
Geographic Location: northeast of McBee , SC (34.51971, -80.22183)
Length: 1.3 miles
Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: March 2014
Overview: A pair of short nature trails offering a good
introduction to sandhill habitats.
Refuge Information: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Carolina_Sandhills/
Directions to the trailhead: From the intersection of
US 1 and SR 151 in McBee, drive US 1 north 3.5 miles to the signed refuge
entrance on the left. Turn left to enter
the refuge. Take the refuge’s Wildlife
Drive 1.1 miles to a sandy parking area on the left that you reach immediately
after passing Pool A. Park here.
The hike: For my general comments on Carolina
Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, see the previous hike. This hike explores four of the
sandhills’ major habitats: freshwater pond, freshwater stream, loblolly pine,
and longleaf pine. Due to its short
length, this hike provides a good sandhills introduction before tackling one of
the area’s more substantial trails.
 |
| Trailhead: Woodland Pond Trail |
The
Woodland Pond Trail leaves the rear of the parking area at an information
kiosk. A metal dispenser at the
trailhead may contain some trail guides.
The Woodland Pond Trail is marked with white paint blazes, and unlike
some other trails in the refuge, you may need the blazes here: this path can be
hard to find on the ground at times.
At 0.1
miles, the trail curves left and crosses one of Pool A’s feeder streams on a nice
metal bridge with plastic-plank decking.
Notice how the clarity of the water allows you to clearly see the sandy
stream bottom. For the next 0.4 miles
the trail stays near the boundary between brushy pondside habitat on the left
and dry loblolly pine habitat on the right.
Despite the trail’s name, Pool A comes into view only occasionally due
to the dense understory.
 |
| Pool A |
The trail
increases its distance from the pond and crosses a couple more nice bridges
including a long one at 0.7 miles. After
crossing an old sandy road, the trail ends on the west shoulder of Wildlife
Drive at 0.9 miles. You could walk back up the road to your car
now, but directly across the road lies the 0.25 mile Longleaf Pine Trail. Considering you are already at the trailhead,
why not take 10 minutes and add the Longleaf Pine Trail to your resume?
 |
| Mathprofhiker's shadow on Longleaf Pine Trail |
Starting at
another information kiosk, the Longleaf Pine Trail is a short interpretive loop
through the refuge’s longleaf pine with wiregrass understory habitat. Notice how these longleaf pine trees differ
from the loblolly pines you saw near the pond.
Interpretive signs give information about the flora and fauna of the
longleaf pine/wiregrass habitat. The
trail completes its loop as an old logging road comes into view downhill to the
right, and you soon arrive back at the Longleaf Pine Trail trailhead. NOW is the time to turn right on the Wildlife
Drive and walk back past Pool A to return to your
car and complete the hike.
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