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Note: USC Upstate Passage is now open from the Rampey Center Trailhead to where it meets the Hub City Passage. The North Loop is still closed while under restoration.
The USC Upstate Passage is part of the Palmetto Conservation trails system, known collectively as the Palmetto Trail. As its name suggests, the USC Upstate Passage begins on the campus of the University of South Carolina Upstate campus at the Rampey Center Trailhead. The 2.2-mile hard packed dirt trail winds through the woods towards Lawson’s Fork Creek where the trail forks.
At the fork, the right path heads south as it follows the creek, before going uphill to meet the Hub City Passage near the Milliken Arboretum. The left path heads north, staying above the creek on a raised corridor.
The trail is open to hikers and mountain bikers. The woods and creek are full of wildlife and native South Carolina plants, including the federally endangered dwarf-flowered heartleaf (Hexastylis naniflora). When near the creek, keep an eye out for a variety of birds and other animals, including kingfishers, great blue herons, mallards, beavers, and muskrats.
For ease of use, the route is marked with yellow blazes. Parts of the trail are in a floodplain and may be wet during rainy seasons.
Parking is available in the parking lot by the trailhead in the John M. Rampey Center parking lot (North Campus Boulevard, Spartanburg)
Very hard to find! This is a HIKING trail. Unless your a VERY experienced mountain biker just hike!!!!
Nice and shady but not for casual cyclists. The trail is badly washed out in some areas.
My wife and I walked this trail for the first time today. It was quiet and pleasant, and we enjoyed being near the creek and under the trees. However, we were a little confused as to whether the intended trail was the narrower Palmetto Trail, or the wider road complete with many, and sometimes smelly, elevated manhole covers, or whether they were the one and the same from time to time.
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