JANUARY 4,
SATURDAY, Meet 8:45 a.m.
Dayhike
Where: DeSoto State Park and Lost Falls
Details: Moderately easy hike in DeSoto State Park. We will
hike along the beautiful West Fork of Little River. We’ll also hike various other trails in the park and visit Lost
Falls and possibly DeSoto Falls. This
is one of the most scenic state parks in Alabama. Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age 9 and over able
to walk about 5 miles without complaining welcome.
After the outing we’ll enjoy an
optional restaurant dinner together.
Please meet 8:45 a.m. at the
Applebee’s Trussville. We plan to depart from there at 9:00 a.m.
CANCELLED
JANUARY 11, SATURDAY, Meet 8:45 a.m.
Dayhike
Where: Brushy Creek and Sougahoagdee Falls, Bankhead National
Forest
Details: The hike will be 6 miles long and is rated
moderate. We will follow a beautiful
trail which runs from the Brushy Creek Bridge along the creek. We usually observe about nine waterfalls on
this route. We should also see lovely
cliffs, hemlock trees, canyons and perhaps some additional waterfalls. If we have time, we may also visit the
nearby natural bridge (not the one
at the town of Natural Bridge) in the Natural Bridge Recreation Area of the
Bankhead National Forest.
Carefully-supervised, well-behaved
children age 8 and older welcome. Bring
a picnic lunch and water.
Optional dinner after at a
delightful Italian restaurant in Double Springs.
Please meet 8:45 a.m. at the Hayden/Corner
Park and Ride. We plan to depart from there at 9:00 a.m. Or you may meet the group at 9:20 a.m. at
the Mile 300 Rest Area on I-65.
JANUARY 12, SUNDAY, Meet 12:45 p.m.
Second Sunday Dayhike in Oak Mountain State Park
Details: Enjoy a moderate 4-mile walk in the woodlands near
Birmingham on a Sunday afternoon. This
is an excellent outing for introducing your friends to Southeastern Outings and
for making new friends who enjoy the outdoors.
Parts of this hike may be off the color-coded trails. There will be some ups and downs.
Well-behaved, properly supervised
children age eight and up able to walk the distance of about 4 miles and
complete the hike are welcome.
Share an adventure! Bring a friend.
Please meet at 12:45
p.m. in the Oak Mountain Park office parking lot. We plan to depart from there at 1:00 p.m.
Please bring $5/person ($2.00
seniors) park admission fee plus your drink.
Info: David Shepherd, 205/240-4681
CANCELLED
JANUARY 18, SATURDAY, 8:45 a.m.
Waterfowl Viewing Trip
Where: Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR), Decatur, AL
Details: Experience the thrilling sight of thousands of sandhill
cranes, wild geese and ducks plus herons and other birds. The Refuge has the largest concentration of
wintering geese and ducks in the entire state of Alabama! You don’t need to be a bird watcher to enjoy
this outing! Experienced birders
leading the trip will share their knowledge
with all.
This 35,000 acre refuge attracts thousands of wintering
waterfowl each year. WNWR is comprised
of diverse habitat types including bottomland hardwoods, wetlands, pine
uplands, shoreline or riparian woodlands, agricultural fields, and backwater
embayments. These habitats provide
excellent feeding, resting, and roosting sites for wintering waterfowl, white
pelicans, sandhill cranes and a few whooping cranes as well as nesting sites
for migratory songbirds and many species of resident wildlife.
We are highly privileged to have
as our guide Dwight Cooley, the retired Refuge Manager. Dwight will take us on refuge roads behind
locked gates as we drive to various bays and sloughs where you can easily see
hundreds of ducks and geese in large numbers.
We’ll also see many other types of birds including, hopefully, bald
eagles. We’ll even see a huge flock of
sandhill cranes which winter at the refuge each year. The gated roads are closed to the public but will be open to our
group.
Please bring binoculars, a birding
field guide and a spotting telescope with you if you have them. The leader and Dan Frederick will each bring
a spotting scope, and the refuge is willing to make available some extra pairs
of binoculars to loan to participants on this trip.
This outing is rated easy, as
there is very little walking involved, and we won’t be climbing any hills or
walking through thick brush. Please
dress for the weather. The wind at the
refuge can be biting, blowing across open water on cold days.
Well-behaved, carefully supervised
children age 10 and over who can remain quiet for extended periods of time (so
as to not disturb the birds and bird watchers) are welcome.
Possible optional dinner after the
birding trip depending on what time we finish bird watching.
Reservations Required: If you wish to participate in this
outing, you are required to call Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or email your
reservation to seoutings@bellsouth.net by 5:00
p.m. on Thursday, January 16, 2020.
When you contact Dan, please be sure you leave either your phone number
or email address. This outing is
limited to 7 motor vehicles. Dwight Cooley, the retired Refuge Manager and our outing leader, has reserved a 10
person refuge van to be one of those vehicles.
Therefore we are now allowing a total of 33 people in order to comply
with Refuge regulations We hope the limitation will not prove to be
a problem. People who want to register to participate after
the thirty-three person limit is reached will be placed on a waiting list.
If you make a reservation with Dan to come on this trip and then for any
reason decide later to not come on this outing, please telephone Dan,
205/631-4680 right away. If we have 28
people signed up on the day of the outing and, say, we have two people on the
waiting list and then two people who signed up don’t show up for the hike,
those two no-show people have in effect deprived the two on the waiting list
from participating. Please don’t be a
no-show. If you aren’t coming after
making a reservation, please notify Dan.
At a later date leader will advise meeting time and place only to those
who have signed up for this trip.
We look forward to seeing many of
you on January 18.
Info: Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or seoutings@bellsouth.net
JANUARY
22, WEDNESDAY, Meet 9:45 a.m.
Weekday
Hike
Where: Veterans Park, 4800 Valleydale Road, Hoover,
AL 35242
Details: Come with us on our weekday hike. Enjoy an easy 3 mile hike
on trails in North Shelby County just off Valleydale Road. Veterans Park is an 82-acre park with
numerous walking trails, a four-acre lake and a one-acre pond.
If you are retired or not working on
this particular Wednesday, you are urged to participate in the Southeastern
Outings group hike on the trails and get a feel for the location and scale of
the land.
This walk will be Southeastern
Outings’ seventh hike in Veterans Park.
Come with us for a guided tour of easily walkable trails. Please bring water and wear good walking
shoes or boots. Dress appropriately for the weather.
Please meet at 9:45 a.m. in the Veterans Park parking lot right beside the
building with restrooms in it at the park. We plan to depart from there at 10:00 a.m.
Optional lunch nearby at Mikey’s
Grill after the hike.
Admission to Park: Free
Information and hike leader: Randall Adkins, 205/317-6969 cell
JANUARY 25, SATURDAY
Dayhike, Sipsey Wilderness, Bankhead National Forest
Details: Moderately strenuous 4-mile hike in a highly
scenic location, Upper Quillan Creek Forest Area. Most of the hike is off trail, there are lots of ups and downs,
and several rock-hopping crossings are required across small creeks.
We’ll walk along two creeks and on
an old road. At a beautiful waterfall
we’ll visit the site of an old mill. On
this hike we’ll see several small waterfalls on side creeks and tributaries to
Quillan Creek. We will visit at least
three very pretty waterfalls on Quillan Creek itself along the way.
Please bring picnic lunch and
water for the day. We expect to finish
about 4:00 p.m. Optional dinner after. Well-behaved, properly supervised children
age 9 and over able to walk 4 miles off trail without complaining welcome.
Reservations Required: If you wish to participate in this
outing, you are required to call Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or email your reservation
to seoutings@bellsouth.net by 5:00
p.m. on Thursday, January 23. When you
contact Dan, please be sure you leave either your phone number or email
address. This outing is limited to 20
people, and we will break up into two separate groups of up to ten people each
with its own separate leader in order to comply with U.S. Forest Service
regulations. We hope the limitation
will not prove to be a problem.
If you make a reservation with Dan to come on this trip and then for any
reason decide later to not come on this outing, please telephone Dan,
205/631-4680 right away. If we have 20
people signed up on the day of the hike and, say, we have two people on the
waiting list and then two people who signed up don’t show up for the hike,
those two no-show people have in effect deprived the two on the waiting list
from participating. Please don’t be a
no-show. If you aren’t coming after
making a reservation, please notify Dan.
At a later date leader will advise meeting time and place only to those
who have signed up for this trip.
