Jan Ciegler, Jim Welch, and John Fiegle The Wadboo Swamp section, a picturesque part of the Swamp Fox Passage of the Palmetto Trail, was the latest conquest of members of the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club. The passage of 47 miles is the longest section of the cross state trail that will one day take hikers all the way from the Atlantic Ocean and the marshy lowland swamps to the mountains of the upstate.

Last weekend, Jan Ciegler and Jim Welch of the Greater Piedmont Chapter, and John Fiegle, friend of the chapter, joined hikers from the Palmetto Conservation Foundation at the Canal Recreation Area trail entrance near Moncks Corner. The eight mile trek took them across Wadboo Creek on bridges and wooden boardwalks, along the dikes of an old plantation rice field, and into a mixed hardwood forest.

To date, members of the Explorers Club have traversed a dozen sections of the planned 425 mile trail including the passages at Awendaw, Santee, High Hills, Fort Jackson, Lynches Woods, Glenn Springs, and Blue Wall.