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🏌️‍♂️📰 Birthplace of Sports Illustrated – The Myrtle Beach Golf Course That Helped Launch a Sports Icon

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I visited the Birthplace of Sports Illustrated at Pine Lakes Country Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina , an unexpected piece of American sports and publishing history hidden at the oldest golf course in Myrtle Beach. Long before Sports Illustrated became one of the most recognizable names in sports journalism, dozens of employees from Time Inc. gathered here in the spring of 1954 to help prepare the new magazine for its national debut. The location seems appropriate in hindsight. Pine Lakes played an important role in establishing Myrtle Beach as a golf destination decades before the Grand Strand became filled with courses. Opened in 1927 as the Ocean Forest Country Club , it was the first golf course in Myrtle Beach and eventually earned the nickname “The Granddaddy.” Its history became intertwined with Sports Illustrated when 67 Time Inc. executives, writers, and other staff members traveled south from New York for a weeklong conference in April 1954. Today, a commemorative plaqu...
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🌲🥾 Lake Waccamaw Nature Loop – Hiking Around North Carolina's Most Unusual Lake

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Simba and I visited and hiked the Lake Waccamaw Nature Loop at Lake Waccamaw State Park in North Carolina , exploring a peaceful landscape of pine forest, wetlands, wooden boardwalks, and trails surrounding one of the most unusual lakes in the southeastern United States. At first glance, Lake Waccamaw looks like a beautiful but otherwise ordinary coastal lake. Once you learn what's happening beneath the water and throughout the surrounding ecosystem, however, it becomes clear that this is a very unusual place. Lake Waccamaw is the largest of North Carolina's Carolina bay lakes , occupying one of the mysterious oval-shaped depressions scattered across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Its unusual water chemistry supports an extraordinary collection of plants and animals, including species found nowhere else on Earth. The surrounding region is also home to carnivorous plants, American alligators, countless birds, reptiles, and more than 50 species of fish. For Simba and me, the hike wa...
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Location: Lake Waccamaw, NC 28450, USA
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🌺🌳 Magnolia Plantation and Gardens – Hiking Through Charleston History and Lowcountry Beauty

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Simba and I visited and hiked through Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina , a historic former rice plantation along the Ashley River where centuries of human history are intertwined with some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the Lowcountry. Massive live oaks draped in Spanish moss tower over winding paths, picturesque bridges cross ponds and waterways, and miles of trails lead through gardens, forests, wetlands, and wildlife habitat. Magnolia is undeniably beautiful, but its history is much more complicated than its peaceful appearance might suggest. The property began as a plantation, and for generations its wealth depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans who cultivated rice, worked in the household, maintained the grounds, and helped create the landscape that eventually became famous as Magnolia's gardens. Understanding those lives is essential to understanding the property rather than viewing Magnolia simply as a beautiful collection ...
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Location: Charleston, SC, USA
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🌾🥾 Stono River County Park – Hiking Across the Marsh to an Island in South Carolina

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Simba and I visited and hiked through Stono River County Park near Johns Island, South Carolina , a beautiful 85.5-acre Lowcountry park where wooded trails, tidal wetlands, long elevated boardwalks, and an island in the Stono River combine to create a surprisingly varied hiking experience. Located at the foot of the John F. Limehouse Memorial Bridge, the park offers an easy way to leave the developed Charleston area behind and experience the marshes and waterways that define so much of coastal South Carolina. With only about 1.5 miles of trails, this isn't a particularly long or difficult hike. What makes it interesting is how quickly the surroundings change. Simba and I started among the trees on the mainland, followed the trail toward the marsh, crossed more than 1,000 feet of tidal wetlands on an elevated boardwalk, and eventually reached a marsh island with additional trails and views across the Stono River. It's a relatively short adventure that manages to pack several dis...
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Location: Johns Island, South Carolina 29455, USA
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