I couldn't wait to relive our adventure in the “Mountains of the Midlands” nearly 3 years ago. 
A lot has changed but Poinsett State Park is still sitting there in Wedgefield about an hours drive from Lexington.
 My grandpa, Chuck McCurry, and I visited Poinsett back in January 2016 and we were ready to visit again. 
It has been a little over a month since our last adventure in West Virginia so we were both excited to get back out there.
While we're making our way there, let me tell you a little about these “Mountains of the Midlands” at Poinsett State Park, They are NOT mountains. They are rolling hills. 
Don't get me wrong. They make for a challenging hike on Poinsett’s 25.6 miles of hiking/biking trails. 
One is the Palmetto Trail, South Carolina’s cross-state hiking trail.
At the center of the park lies Poinsett Lake, a picturesque 10-acre lake offering plentiful fishing, peaceful kayaking, and summer swimming. The lake drains from a Civilian Conservation Corps-built canal that drops to a beautiful small falls.
We arrived around 11 am and went straight into the gift shop for new state park books. The ranger wouldn't let us pay because they were free. He gave us some quick directions on where the trails were and we were on our way.
The gift shop, the lake and everything else was all built by the CCC in the 1930s. If it wasn't for the early efforts of the CCC, South Carolina’s State Park system wouldn't be near as great as it is today.
We lifted our bikes off the rack and headed up the trail! It was good to be back out here again. We rode for 15 minutes before turning back. We would rather hike.
As we hiked, an idea started buzzing in our heads to go to Woods Bay State Park, too.
Woods Bay is only 30 minutes from Sumter where we planned to eat lunch.
The park is home to one of the last Carolina bays, home to rich and diverse swamps and wetlands.
 As we got out on the dam and I saw how beautiful the lake was I knew I had to get some pictures. It took us nearly 30 minutes to walk the dam and when we did, we were greeted with another picture-worthy CCC built overflow. 
We hiked about a half mile before turning back to the car. It was well past lunchtime and we planned to return to Pizza Lane in Sumter.
As I drove us toward Sumter, a weather reportwrned of heavy rain. Not minutes later, the sky let loose.  
At Pizza Lane, we stuffed ourselves with pizza and watched the close Clemson game. We decided to visit Swan Lake, but it was closed.
I would definitely recommend visiting Poinsett State Park. 
Next month you'll read about our upcoming trip to some real mountains.

Cole Stilwell is a Chronicle electronics and social media intern and 10th Grade Student at Gray Collegate Academy. His "The World Outdoors" column appears in the Lexington Chronicle and the Lake Murray Fish Wrapper. He welcomes questions from readers at cole.lexchron@gmail.com