Making a List

This morning we did one last hike.  It was the last 2.5 miles of the Yellow trail that we had not done.  Since this trail meanders through the woods up and down the hills along the base of the north ridge, it’s a little more difficult to create loops.  It is the longest of the hiking trails (excluding the bike and horse trails) at 8 miles.  That’s too much for us to do a complete out and back.  So we divided it into three different hikes.  One was the short loop at the north end when we connected to the White trail. Our second hike on the Yellow trail was from Picnic Area 2 when we did two out and backs, one northbound from the picnic area and the other southbound.

Today we drove over to Group Camp Road and parked the car.  There is actually not a parking lot here, but there is enough room on the side of the road to park 4 or 5 cars.  We walked the short distance from the main road to the junction with the Yellow trail at the point where we had turned around on our last hike.  From this starting point the trail crosses a stream on a foot bridge then climbs up the first of several hills. Much of the trail in this section shares the path with horses.  For the first mile or so we saw little horse use, but the portion beyond Tranquility Road seems to be popular with the equestrians.

The trail crosses Tranquility road near the Alabama Wildlife Center and soon comes to the junction with the Treetop Nature Trail.  We continued on the Yellow Trail to its end at the South Trailhead parking lot.  After a short break we turned around and headed back.

There is a new connector trail which connects the Yellow and Green trails.  This trail is so new it isn’t on the map yet, but in our hiking we had seen the other end at the Green trail so felt comfortable taking it on our way back.  At the Green trail we were able to pick up the Treetop Nature trail and hike up the hill to connect with the Yellow just below the Wildlife Center.  It cut off a couple of climbs and maybe a third of a mile on our return trip.

We’ve hiked 34.6 miles while we’ve been in this park.  We’ve enjoyed it all, but it is now time to turn our attention to something entirely different.  With just five more days until Christmas, I guess it’s about time I got organized.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute to rev up that old Christmas spirit.

I’m one of those crazy Type A personality people and I just love lists.  I love everything about lists.  I love making a list and I love marking things off of the lists as I get it done.  Yesterday, I worked on making lists.  I have a list for who’s getting what for Christmas, a list of gifts that still need to be purchased, a cookie and candy baking list, a chore list, and the ever present grocery list.  We got started on marking things off of these lists yesterday.  We went out with the rest of the population of Birmingham to do Christmas shopping.  Thank goodness Gene had ordered a lot online and we didn’t have many stops to make.  Still the traffic was horrific and the stores were crowded.  I purposefully waited for Monday morning because I had heard that is supposed to be the least crowded time of the week.  Maybe that rule doesn’t apply to Monday before Christmas.  We were both exhausted by the time we got home.

Needed a little snow to help my Christmas spirit so I found this
picture from last December in Nashville.

This afternoon and tomorrow, we’ll be staying at home working on the baking and chore lists.  Thursday, we’ll be moving back to Nashville to be with family for Christmas.

Better get busy, now.  Time is short.  Thanks for tagging along.