Oak Mountain State Park in Review

This was our last full day at Oak Mountain and I wanted to say just a couple of other things about the park.  We came to hike and hike we did.  We were very pleased with the trail system and the condition of the trails.  There are over 50 miles of trail in the park.  The bike trail and the horse trail we left for their respective users.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned at all is the number of geocaches here.  There are over 55 in the park.  We’re not geocache people, so weren’t interested in trying to find any, but we did stumble upon one during one of our hikes.  In the interest of keeping the location a secret and not giving away any clues, I left that part out of my earlier posts.  Now that there’s no way to tell where this cache is located, I’ll show you what we found.    That was just a little extra treat one day.

So, we have been very impressed with this park, both with the facilities and the staff, and have enjoyed our stay.  We anticipate returning many times in the future.

Yesterday, I mentioned being a type A personality.  I like to make lists because I like the organization and structure it gives to my tasks.  As a type A I don’t do so well with unscheduled events.  We had one today that sent my little step 1, step 2, step 3 mind into a frenzy.  As I came in the door from putting the last load of laundry in the drying, Gene said, “we have a problem”.  Those are never good words to hear.

The problem was a tire issue.  We’re planning to leave tomorrow and Gene was checking air pressure this morning when he discovered that our front passenger side tire on the motor home was 40 lbs low on air pressure.  Unable to imagine any reason why the tire would have lost that much pressure during this week other than a leak, he called around to find a place to fix the tire.  He finally settled on Don’s Tire about 10 miles from here.  Of course, we had to take the tire to them, so we packed everything up, unhooked our life support, and drove on over to Don’s.  Tim (Don was out doing other stuff) was unable to find anything wrong with the tire.  So far today it has maintained its pressure.  What a mystery.

That little episode took a couple hours out of my day so I didn’t get to mark off nearly as much stuff from those lists as I’d hoped.  Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

My Maineiac friend, Mike, was wondering if his name appeared on the “naughty” list.  Let me just say that I’m not the keeper of that list, nor the “nice” list.  I suspect everyone knows on which of those lists their name might appear.  Just remember, Santa is always watching.

That’s it for tonight.  Thanks for tagging along.

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.

The Yellow Trail

In our hiking at Oak Mountain State Park, we have completed the Blue, White, and Green trails.  Today, we did a good portion of the Yellow Trail.  The name given to the Yellow Trail is Foothills Trail.  That’s an appropriate name because the Yellow trail meanders up the hills and down into the ravines that skirt the North Ridge.

Water coming over the Old Lake Dam

For today’s hike we parked at the picnic shelter at Picnic Area II and started our hike by going left toward Old Lake and then on to Maggie Glen.  We retraced our steps from Maggie Glen to the picnic shelter then continued on the Yellow trail to Group Camp Rd. then back to the picnic shelter and the car.  The total distance was 5.6 miles.

The first part of our hike took us upstream to the dam at Old Lake.  Above the dam, the trail skirted the west side of this small lake before re-entering the woods.  Gene and I agreed--the lake was our favorite part of the hike.

At the top of the Dam

Park cabins are on the other side of the lake

There was a side trail which led to the cabins on the other side of the lake, but we passed on that adventure.  Not far from the lake we came to a backcountry campsite.  There was a stream nearby for easy access to water, but the campsite was not level enough for our liking.  After a quick inspection of the campsite we continued on to Maggie Glen.

A watched pot never boils

I love this area at Maggie Glen.  It is so peaceful beside the stream.  Several trails intersect here, so there is a kiosk with a trail map and other information.  By the kiosk are benches which made a great place to sit in the sun for our morning break.  Gene, bless his heart, made hot chocolate for us.

We returned to the picnic area then continued on the Yellow trail in the other direction.  For the first quarter mile or so, we followed the stream.  We crossed the stream on a foot bridge and began our climb to the top of the next hill.  In this section, the Yellow hiking trail is shared with horses.  However, the trail is pretty steep and in places pretty narrow for horses, so we didn’t see much evidence of horse use.

Descending the other side of this hill brought us to Group Camp Road.  At the intersection was another kiosk with benches--a perfect place for our lunch break.  After a long break, we headed back to the car at the picnic shelter.

From where we stopped for our lunch, the Yellow trail continues with its short ups and downs for 2.5 more miles.  There is a parking lot at the end of the Yellow trail.  If we get an opportunity, we’ll hike this last 2.5 miles to complete all the hiking trails in the Park.  Although hiking is allowed, we have not and don’t want to hike the Red trail which is used by mountain bikers.  There is also an Orange Horse trail which we haven’t hiked, but we’re not too fond of horse trails.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Moccasin Wildlife Trail and Rescued Birds

We took a much needed day off from hiking yesterday to get some household chores done.  Perhaps the most urgent chore was to get the laundry, especially those stinky hiking clothes.  Oak Mountain State Park campground not only has pull-thru, full-hook-up sites, it also has washers and dryers in the bath houses.  It’s wonderful.

Today, I was on a quest to find out where the Moccasin Trail went.  This is the trail down by Beaver Lake and I had done a short walk along this trail last week.  We started at the same point I had before, at the back of the B loop in the Campground.  I was disappointed in not seeing the great blue heron today.  The trail is easy to follow as it skirts the lake at the back of the campground.  As we began to get past the campground, the trail became increasingly more faint and the footing uneven.  It seemed hardly more than a fisherman’s path to a favorite spot.  With no indication of how long this trail is and without blazes to mark the way, with decided to turn back.

Fishermen on Beaver Lake

Gene spoke with the campground manager and he indicated that the trail pretty much circles the lake.  That would make it a couple or three miles in length which would be a very nice loop.  I was anxious to see if I could connected the dots.

After lunch we drove up to the parking lot by the dam and went exploring.  We found a path from the parking lot, but it eventually faded away and again we thought it was probably just a fisherman’s path.  Back at the dam, we looked for a way to get to the other side without walking through water.  Perhaps in dry weather, the road wouldn’t be flooded and it would be an easy walk to the other side.  Today, however, there was water flowing over the road.  It wasn’t very deep and many cars passed through, but our car is very low to the ground and we just didn’t want to do it so we don’t know whether we could have found the trail on the other side or not.

Water flowing over the road at the dam.

I may try walking the path again on Monday to see how far I can get.  Otherwise, I may just have to abandon my efforts on this trail.  Too bad, too.  It has great appeal being assessable to the campground and an easy walk along the lake.

Our next stop was the lower portion of the Treetop Nature Trail.  One of the objectives of the Alabama Wildlife Center, located in the Park, is to rehabilitate injured birds.  They do a fantastic job and many birds are returned to the wild.  However, there are birds which sustain such debilitating injuries that they can no longer survive in the wild.  These birds are cared for by the staff, friends, and volunteers of the Wildlife Center and live in huge cages along this trail.  It was sad, in a way to see these magnificent birds caged, but, on the other hand, they wouldn’t survive on their own.  Even though we didn’t do it, this trail continues up the hill and ends at the Wildlife Center building in about a half mile.

Tomorrow, we’re going to tackle some of the Yellow Trail.  We haven’t done much of it so are looking forward to something new and different.

We want to welcome our two newest followers--Teri and Hembree (2025).  We’re glad to have you both tagging along.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Blue and White, The Same Only Different

We were back out there hiking again today.  That makes three days in a row.  Woo-hoo.  After a summer of sitting, it feels so good to be getting back into hiking shape again.

The White Trail is wide and flat as it leaves the Peavine Falls parking lot.

Today, we did the Blue Trail and connected with the Orange Trail to the White Trail.  That sounds exactly like what we did on Tuesday except today we started at the Peavine Falls Trailhead at the south end of the park.  We hiked along the Blue Trail to the Orange connector.  We hiked the White Trail from the Orange Connector back to the Peavine parking lot for a 7.7 mile hike.  We have now hiked all of both the Blue and White trails.

This looks like a good spot for our morning break.

What we did today was much easier than what we had done on Tuesday.  The climb up to the ridge from Peavine Falls on the Blue trail was much more gradual, plus it was 300 feet less in elevation gain.  Likewise, coming off the ridge on the White trail was much shorter and less steep than on the north end of the trail.  We’d rate this as a moderate hike.

Long leaf pine starts out with a grass-like phase.  It does grow tall, but
concentrates on making it stem thicker and developing a taproot.

The Peavine parking lot is at the end of a narrow, steep, curvy road.  I wasn’t thrilled with that, but luckily we only met one car as we were going up.  The parking lot is huge.  Peavine Falls is a popular place and is only a half mile walk from the parking lot.  There is a port-a-potty and a picnic pavilion, but no changing room.  Three trails lead from this parking lot--the Green, White, and Blue.  Actually, you follow the White to connect with the Blue at the falls.

We aren't sure what this red bush is.  It looks a little like
low bush blueberry.

As we walked by the falls this morning, we kept glancing over from different vantage points, but had no better views then we did the other day.  There were two different trails that lead down to the base of the falls, but there were signs everywhere warning of the hazardous conditions.  We decided to leave all that to those younger and braver.

There's still a few leaves out there, but precious few.

Although other trails were in close proximity, this hike seemed much more remote than the others we’ve done in this park.  Perhaps it was because it was a cloudy day and we saw no one else on the trail.  Of these two trails, I found the White trail to be much more interesting to hike.  I liked the narrow ridge top section of the White trail better than the ridge walk on the Blue trail and I especially liked the last couple miles of the White trail as it followed alongside Peavine Branch.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a day off from hiking.  I’ve been asked to write a few hike descriptions for the campground and I need to get that done before I forget what I did.  This little project came about sorta as a result of our electrical failure.  When the guys were here working on our electricity, Gene gave each of them one of our cards which has our names and blog address.  One of those cards got into the hands of the campground manager, he read the blog, like the trail descriptions I had written, and asked if I would be interested in writing up a few hikes.  What he has in mind is to have a list of hikes with short descriptions that can be handed out to campers who inquire about hiking.   Anyway, when I said I’d be willing to do that, he consulted the park superintendent who also liked the idea--liked it so much he offered us two weeks of free camping.  We couldn’t believe it.  That is so generous.  Thank you very much.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

An Easy Day

Even with a good night’s sleep we weren’t too perky this morning, so it felt real good to sit around sipping coffee, leisurely going about morning chores, and just enjoying the beginning of another beautiful day.  Midmorning we drove over to Publix to pick up a few things I forgot on my last grocery outing and on the way home we filled up the car and got a sandwich at Chick-fil-A.

Early this morning I made a pan of brownies for those guys that worked so hard on our electrical disaster.  We drove over to deliver brownies to the work camper on our way to the grocery, but as it turned out he is off for the rest of the week and is out of the park until Sunday.  Then we started looking for the maintenance guy.  We found the maintenance department over by the golf course and just pulled into the parking lot.  Gene asked the first person he saw.  That person turned out to be supervisor and knew exactly where our man could be found--in the campground.

Very nice section of the Yellow Trail as it passes
 through a forest of long leaf pine.

We couldn’t let this beautiful day get by without going for a short hike.  After lunch we walked over to the Yellow trail just past the entrance to the campground.  This short piece of the Yellow Trail goes right down to the North Trailhead parking lot.  We continued on the Yellow Trail until it intersected with the White Trail.  We came back on the White trail even though we had hiked this section of the White Trail just yesterday.  It made a very nice 3-mile loop and we didn’t have to drive the car to a trailhead.  How convenient is that?

These posts are all along the trails at quarter mile intervals.
They make it easy to tell how far you've come and how
far you have to go.

Being back at the parking lot where that nice changing booth is located, I just had to make a photo. I hope this idea catches on at trailhead all across America.

I just love this.

It looks like this great weather is going to hold out for one more day.  Can’t waste that, so will probably hike the south end of the Blue and White trails tomorrow.  It’ll be another 7 mile day, but this end of the trail doesn’t climb as much nor as steeply as the north end.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Blue and White Loop Hike

We were out there doing it today and I have the sore body to prove it.  After due deliberation over the map, we put together a 6.5 mile loop starting on the Blue Trail and crossing over to the White Trail via the Orange connector.  I suppose if you’re color blind, you could be in deep dodo.

For this hike we used the north trailhead. The Blue, Red, White, and Yellow trails all start from here so the parking lot is huge.  If that lot is full, there’s an overflow lot.  This parking lot has something I’ve never seen before at a trailhead, and I just have to mention it--a changing room.  After a hike I’m always anxious to get out of wet, sweaty clothes.  I have done contortion acts in the front seat of the car trying to change into dry clothes.  I was very impressed to see this little changing area.  It’s brand new; in fact, they were working on it this afternoon when we got back to the parking lot.  Looks for all the world like another Eagle scout project.

As you can see from the trail profile, we had a climb right from the beginning.  There were three stream crossings pretty soon after we started, but they were just trickles that could be easily stepped over.  Just before the one mile mark there is a side trail to Eagle’s Nest Overlook.  Being up pretty high, we thought there would be a good view, so we took the very, very steep quarter mile side trail to the overlook.  To our disappointment, there was a huge boulder at the overlook which completely blocked the view unless you wanted to climb to the top of the boulder.  Thanks, but no thanks.

This rock was in the way of my view.

Back on the Blue Trail we continued our climb to the ridge.  Once on the top, it was easy going until we intersected with the Orange Connector.  We passed trails to overlooks, but we didn’t fall for that trick every time.  We did take one side trail over to the edge of the ridge, but the view was obstructed by trees.  At the Orange Connector we stopped for our lunch break.  It was such a beautiful day and so warm in the sun that we actually stretched out on the ground for a few minutes.  Well, Gene was on the ground, I was on may clean and dry poncho.

We passed this backcountry campsite on the Orange Connector.

Lots of stuff to look at at the intersection where the Orange and Red trails intersected.

The Orange Connector took us off the ridge top, past the red trail, and over to the next ridge and the White Trail.  I think the hike along the ridge on the White Trail was a nicer hike than along the ridge on the Blue Trail.  The White Trail followed a very narrow ridge line, passing over our highest elevation of the day at 1286 ft, until it dropped off into the holler (that’s a real southern word for you).   After about a mile of almost vertical descent, we found ourselves at Peavine Branch in Maggie’s Glen.  From there it was an easy walk out to the parking lot.

Found this boulder field on the Orange Connector

I enjoyed this ridge walk on the White trail

Now for something all together different--electricity.  Emma’s mama, Judy, asked if we used a surge protector and if it had protected our rig.  No, we don’t have a surge protector.  I know, lots of folks out there recommend having one.  From what I understand about electricity (and that’s very, very little), that for our 30 amp rig, we plug into the 30 amp outlet, and that’s what we get.  There is no more than 30 amps of electricity going to come through that outlet unless something bad happens at the utility or if lightning strikes a wire or a transformer or something.  My understanding is that surges can also occur within the RV from large appliances turning on and off.

So, a surge protector that plugs into the post at the campsite might protect against the lightning strike or the disaster at the utility company.  It seems to me the real danger is from those surges which occur inside the RV which are on the other side of that surge protector at the post.  There are probably few people in America that don’t have surge protectors on their computers.  For us, because we have so few electrical outlets and because of their locations, we have those extension cord/surge protectors all over our RV.  The only things not plugged into one are the microwave, refrigerator, AC, and the small TV in the bedroom.

In the incident on Monday, that was not a surge.  There was a short, either in our plug or in the campground post, which caused the problem.  If the problem had been in the post and If we had had a surge protector plugged into the outlet, the surge protector would have been fried but would have protected our electrical cord (I think).  However, it only cost $18 for a new end on our cord and a new surge protector would have been much more than that.

Just one other thing for completeness sake.  We have one of those small testers which measures voltage and frequency.  Gene always tests the electrical post before plugging our rig into the outlet.  Then we plug the tester into an outlet inside the rig and leave it plugged in.  It will alarm if the voltage is either too low or too high.  We’ve never had a too high alarm in the 6 years we’ve been RVing.  We’ve had low voltage occasionally, usually during the summer about dinner time when everybody has their ACs cranked up to very cold.

Hope that helps, Judy. I think that’s more than I really know about electricity anyway.

I also got a comment from that Maineiac in Motion, Mike, who suggested I use some other term besides “melt down”.  From a man who spent his career in nuclear energy, I guess “melt down” is a pretty scary term.

That’s it from me for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Green Trail to Peavine Falls

We actually got to go for a hike today.  Gene’s back is not well, but greatly improved.

Oak Mountain State Park has a number of trails of varying lengths.  The trails are named and color coded.  Individual trails are linear, but have connectors which lead to other trails.  With a little imagination, loops can be created using trails and their connectors.

For our hike today we chose the Green Trail (Peavine Trail) to Peavine Falls.  The Green Trail is 1.9 miles in length and runs between Peavine Parking lot and the Park Office.  To get to Peavine Falls, we used the Green-White connector to get to the White Trail which leads to the top of the falls for an out and back hike of 4 miles.

Green Blaze marks the Green (Peavine) Trail

We started our hike at the Park Office.  Actually, the trailhead parking lot is next door to the Park Office and across the street from Wildlife Center Trail.  The Green Trail starts just a few yards from the Wildlife Center Trail and begins with a pretty steep climb to the top of the first hill then drops down about 100 feet to the junction with the Yellow, Orange, and Red Trails.

The Red Trail is the mountain bike trail and is the longest of all the trails.  It weaves back and forth and we had to cross it several times.  This was a nice day to be in the woods and there were several bikers out on the Red Trail.  Extreme caution needed to be used when crossing the Red Trail.

Peavine Branch

After this major trail junction, we started the very steep climb to the North ridge of Oak Mountain.  Near the top of the ridge, the Green Trail again junctions with the Red Trail and follows it for several yards before turning left and continuing to the top of North Ridge.  Once on the ridge we had a pleasant, nearly flat walk for about a half mile to our connector trail.  The connector descends steeply to Peavine Branch then follows the White trail to the top of the falls.

Peavine Falls

We were somewhat disappointed once we got to the falls.  Our trail led to the top of the falls and there didn’t seem to be a very easy way to the bottom.  I never could get a real good view of the falls.  The photo I made was from a position much closer to the edge than I like to be and then holding the camera out as far as my arm would stretch.

The rock I was hanging over to get the photo.

That little disappointment aside, we really enjoyed the hike.  The trail was very well marked except at a few trail junctions where another blaze or two would have been helpful.  The tread way was good, mostly dirt with a few rocks, and the trail was well maintained.  We liked the more vigorous workout we got on this trail.  It’s rated moderate to difficult due to the 700 foot elevation gain in just over a mile.  Proved to us we’re not ready for mountain hiking yet.

Top of the falls

I carried a heavy pack today and my knees are already scolding me for that.  I even wore knee braces.  Probably would have had some real pain, if I hadn’t.  No one can accuse me of being an ultralight hiker.  I decided to take my Canon SLR with the 300 mm lens just in case I had a photo op at the waterfall.  Not wanting to risk damaging the camera or the lens, I tucked them securely inside their carrying case and then put the whole thing in my pack.  Add car keys, a wallet, the 10 essentials, and a fleece jacket and my pack weighed a ton.  No wonder my knees are complaining.  And, as it turned out, I never took the camera out of my pack.  All the photos were made with my little Canon Power Shot.

Peavine Branch

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Light Trail and a Bake Sale

I am happy to report that Gene’s back is still improving; so much so that he was able to go for a short ride in the car and a short hike today.

This is December and all across America non-profit organizations are hoping to raise a little extra cash through craft and bake sales.  The Wildlife Center here at Oak Mountain State Park was doing that very thing this morning.  Since it was only a couple miles over there, Gene thought his back felt strong enough to give it a try.  The walking around and buying stuff was not the problem, the hurdle was getting in and out of the car.  All went well and we supported the effort by purchasing a buttermilk pie.

Let me sidestep a little and answer a question we got yesterday.  Nan wanted to know what type car we have.  We have a Honda Fit.  It’s the smallest of the Hondas and one of the two Hondas that can be towed with 4 wheels down.  The other one is the Honda CRV.  After riding for five years in a Ford F250 diesel, and struggling with parking that monster, we wanted a small car.  We love it.  It is easy to tow and wonderful to drive around in city traffic and back roads to trailheads.  It isn’t so comfortable on a long trip, though.  We drove it up the Dempster Highway in the Yukon when we went to Alaska this past summer.  It got great gas milage, but it was small with camping gear, clothes, food, and the cat for a 3-4 day trip.

It also sits very close to the ground.  That’s the real issue of getting in and out with a bad back.  It’s also an issue on unimproved roads like we often encounter driving to trailheads. We’ll drag on deeply rutted roads.  We just have to be careful. Hope that answers your question.

Okay, back to today.  After the bake sale, I brought Gene home to rest while I headed off to Wal-mart for a few things.  Once I got out of the park and back to the main highway, traffic was crazy.  Wal-mart was busy, too, but nothing like Hobby Lobby. That place was like a zoo.  ‘Tis the season, I guess.

Since the ride in the car worked out so well, after lunch Gene wanted to go for a short hike.  He wasn’t going to push his luck with too many car rides today, so we walked around the campground road to the Light Trail.  One of the local Eagle Scout troops built this trail this summer and it has just opened.  The trail looks like an old road bed, so they weren’t out there moving rock and digging side-hill cut trail, but they did an excellent job of clearing brush and installing water bars and pipes to help drain the wet areas.  They’ve also built and placed three nice benches for resting.  Good job, guys.  Thanks a million.

Light Trail is a really easy woods walk; thus a great trail for this family campground.  It would be a good one even for small children.
The trail is about three-quarters mile in length one way so that was a nice, easy, short hike for Gene.  The 1.5 miles was plenty for today especially after the morning outing to the bake sale.  He thinks tomorrow he’ll be ready for 4 miles.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Moccasin Wildlife Trail or Oh, My Aching Back

Well, this has been an unplanned and unintentional day of rest.  Gene is down with his back.

This all got started yesterday as he was connecting our utilities after we arrived at Oak Mountain State Park.  We are both prone to back issues so this was nothing out of the ordinary as far as that goes.  He bent over to get something out of one of the storage compartments, and, wham, there goes that muscle.  It doesn’t happen often.  For him once every couple of years.  For me, I may go for four or five years.  But all it takes is one wrong twist or turn and you’re done for.

Sometimes, it’s not so bad.  A few back stretches and a couple laps around the campground and you’re almost like new.  This time, however, it was bad.  He spent the rest of yesterday afternoon in the bed with heating pad and a prescription muscle relaxer (leftover from the last episode).  Walking is good, but he couldn’t even do that yesterday.

Today has seen much improvement.  He was able to be up much of the day and has made several laps around our area of the campground.  With his back brace on, he can sit at the table and surf the internet.  He’s talking about doing a little hiking tomorrow.

With him down with his back, I’ve been left to entertain myself.  No problem there.  It was so cold this morning I really didn’t want to be outside.  After morning chores, I finished a cap I’ve been knitting on for the past couple weeks.  Thin I started a festive holiday party scarf.  I’ve also been reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  Not very far along, but so far it is a very compelling story.  After lunch, I went out for a walk.

Yesterday, as I was making photos down by the lake, I noticed a sign for the Moccasin Wildlife Trail.  This trail is not on the maps we have, however, I suspect it is what is the beach and lake trails which are listed on the maps.  I followed the well-trodden path which meanders along the lake shore.  I was more interested in photos than making miles.  Gene will stop anytime I’m busy photographing something, but he’d really rather keep moving.  I was taking advantage today of being alone to do my own thing.

I spotted a heron right away and crept along trying to get as close as possible.  I was surprised at how close he let me get--probably within 20 feet.  After that, the only real wildlife I saw on the Moccasin Wildlife Trail were a couple squirrels.  The lake was there, though, with its reflections.  I just had to wait for the wind to die down and the water surface to become calm.  Also saw a few red leaves and an interesting fungus.

I didn’t go to the end of the trail.  I was afraid Gene would be worried about me since I was taking so long.  The trail doesn’t go completely around the lake, but I’m not sure how far it does go.  I’ll check it out, perhaps tomorrow.

There are several short trails along the perimeter of the campground.  If Gene is feeling up to hiking tomorrow, we’ll select one of those.  Can’t do anything too difficult nor anything requiring a ride in the car.  Our car sits so low to the ground it is very difficult to get in and out of when your back is acting up.

That’s what we’ve been up to today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Oak Mountain State Park

Today was a moving day.  We’re now settled in at Oak Mountain State Park.  We paid for three nights, but who knows how long we’ll stay.

We had a beautiful day for traveling even if it was on the cold side.  Because overnight temperatures were forecasted to be about 27 degrees last night, Gene unhooked our water and sewer lines late yesterday afternoon.  That only left the electricity for this morning.  Getting the car hitched was a cold job. We definitely needed gloves to handle all those icy tow bar parts.

We took I-65 the 60 or so miles to the Oak Mountain exit.  There were a few rough spots, but for the most part I-65 is in good condition except in Birmingham.  Through Birmingham was the roughest ride we’ve had in a long time.  Plus there were a few miles of construction.  By the time we got to our exit we were more than ready to be off the interstate.

Oak Mountain State Park covers nearly 10,000 acres just on the outskirts of Birmingham.  It seems this park has it all--hiking trails, mountain biking, horse trails, golf course, a lake for canoes, kayaks, and pedal boats, swimming, and two fishing lakes.  They have cabins as well as a large campground for overnight visitors.

The campground has over a 100 sites, most of which are RV sites with full hook-ups and free WiFi.  The campground is wooded, but there are sites that are more open than others.  The sites are spacious like you would expect in a state park and this campground will accommodate big rigs.  The interior roads are paved and the parking pads are gravel and most are pull-thrus.  I didn’t walk around the campground too much, but of the few sites I saw many had pretty good sized ruts in the parking pads.  The site we’re in does, as well, and it’ll be a rough spot to get over when we’re ready to leave.  The sites are nearly level.

The campground is situated on one end of Beaver Lake.  I walked down there this afternoon to check it out.  With the rain this week, there seems to be plenty of water in the lake.  Some sections of the lake trail are too wet to walk on.  We’ll save that trail for a few days.

At the very end of the lake it looks like it may be out of bounds a little.

I think that’ll do for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Randolph Trail

As you can tell from the title, we went out for a hike today.  The rain in the forecast was not predicted to be in our area until mid-afternoon.  We dashed out the door as quickly as we could this morning and drove the 50 miles over to Randolph Trailhead on CR 60.  This is the same place we parked Saturday for the Rippey Trail.  I still can’t believe we were on the trail before 9 AM.

Again, we were hiking in the Sipsey Wilderness area and the Randolph Trail (#202) is 3.4 miles in length one way.  Randolph starts on the ridge, drops down into the gorge, and ends at the Sipsey River.  We were trying to beat the rain so we didn’t dilly dally.

Randolph and Rippey Trails run together for the first quarter mile or so.  At the junction, the Rippey trail branches off north and the Randolph continues east following the old road.  This road is the gated, gravel road just west of the parking lot.  We took the woods trail to the junction, but one could take the road if so inclined.  I think the distance is about the same.

After about a mile we came to the Johnson Cemetery.  Actually, there are two cemeteries; one east of the road and one on the west side.  These cemeteries are very old with graves dating back to the mid 1800s, but they are still well maintained.  There were even plastic flowers on many of the graves.  There were very few granite grave markers, most were just field stones.

Beyond the cemeteries, the trail continued to follow the old road bed, but was much more narrow.  Besides the cemeteries, there was a lot of evidence that this area had once been a small community.  We noticed small patches of yucca plants, metal culverts under the old road, and the occasional rusted car part or farm implement.

From a distance we noticed a huge tree with branches spread out in every direction.  Gene commented that he thought the tree had been there long before the forest grew up around it, otherwise the branches wouldn’t have been so wide spread.  Sure enough, when we got to the tree, there was a wide, flat area perfect for a small cabin and the rusted remains of an old vehicle, obviously a homestead at one time.  We passed on by, but later this became our lunch spot for the day.

The trail, as it made its way along the ridge, had very gentle ups and downs making for a very pleasant woods walk.  As we headed into the gorge, naturally the trail became steeper, but not too bad.  We got those fine views of the limestone bluffs again and another trickle of water falling into a small feeder stream.  There were several blowdowns, but most had either been cleared or were easy to step over.  There were two that were a tangled mess, but previous hikers had made a path to bypass the worst of the hazard.

The sandy river bottom

We would have normally made the river our lunch spot since it was the halfway mark and turning around point in our hike.  However, we got there way too early to have lunch so we took a short break then headed back.

On our way back, Gene got his legs and feet tangled up on his trekking poles as he was crawling over one of the fallen logs.  He ended up falling down without injury to himself, but his trekking pole suffered a bad bend.  Gonna have to have that fixed.

Past its prime, but still pretty

We stopped for our lunch at the big tree.  While we were enjoying our PB&J, the wind picked up considerably and the sky was getting darker.  We didn’t linger.  We got our packs on, kicked in the afterburners, and sped on down the trail.  We got back to the car just as the first raindrops began to fall.  It was only a teaser, though.  The real rain didn’t start for another couple hours.

The forecast calls for rain all day tomorrow.  Guess we’ll be staying home relaxing.  Nothing wrong with that.  It actually sounds pretty good to me right now.

That’s it for today. Thanks for tagging along.