JANUARY 8, SATURDAY, Meet 9:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Picnic Lunch and Moderate Dayhike
Where: Paul Grist State Park near Selma, Alabama
Details: Paul Grist State Park is one of the state’s most uncrowded, yet scenic state parks containing hills, forests, fields and a large, beautiful, tree-lined lake.
Prior to the dayhike we will get together at the smaller pavilion right near the Park Office to eat our picnic lunches. Please bring your picnic lunch and also $3 per person ($2 for children age 2-6 and seniors age 62 and older) park admission and a beverage for yourself.
Dayhike Details: Hike rated moderate. There are only a few ups and downs. Total hiking distance is approximately 5.5 miles. We plan to walk all the way around the lake and then also walk on some additional trails in the park to make the drive time down and back worthwhile. Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age nine and over able to walk 6 miles without complaining are welcome. Please bring your drink and wear sturdy footwear.
Optional group restaurant dinner after the hike. Reservations not required for this outing.
Please meet 9:45 a.m. at the McDonald’s Galleria. We plan to depart from there at 10:00 a.m.
Info: Randall Adkins, 205/317-6969
JANUARY 9, SUNDAY, Meet 1:15 p.m.
Southeastern Outings 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. Optional dinner after the hike.
Please meet at 1:15 p.m. in the Oak Mountain Park office parking lot. We plan to depart from there at 1:30 p.m.
Please bring $5/person ($2.00 seniors) park admission fee plus your drink.
Info: Randall Adkins, 205-317-6969
JANUARY 12. WEDNESDAY, Meet 9:30 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Weekday Hike
Where: High Ore Line Trail in Birmingham and Midfield, Alabama
Details: This will be Southeastern Outings second hike on this relatively new in-city trail. The hike, which is rated easy, will be 3 miles long with very little change in elevation.
Birmingham’s three-mile High Ore Line Trail is now complete and open to the public. We will start our hike on the High Ore Line Trail from the Jefferson County Western Health Center in Midfield and hike along an old railroad line to Red Mountain Park’s new entrance and parking lot on Venice Road. The trail is mostly flat and off road and provides an accessible place to walk in Greater Birmingham’s outdoors.
In 2012, the City of Birmingham won a competitive Department of Transportation TIGER grant for $10,000,000 in order to develop active transportation routes in Birmingham. With this funding, the City of Birmingham, Freshwater Land Trust, Jefferson County Health Department, and many partners have built 14 trail miles throughout Birmingham. The first two miles of the High Ore Line Trail opened in 2016. With its third and final mile complete, High Ore Line now connects Red Mountain Park to Jefferson County’s growing Red Rock Trail System.
“We are thrilled to open this new portion of High Ore Line and hope it will continue to be a valuable asset to the community,” said Carolyn Buck, Freshwater Land Trust Red Rock Trail Director. “With each trail opening, we are one step closer to our goal of building and connecting 750 miles of trails in Jefferson County.”
“We are excited to celebrate this long-anticipated connection to Red Mountain Park as it creates more opportunities for more communities in Birmingham to engage in outdoor recreation and learn about our shared history,” said T.C. McLemore, Red Mountain Park Executive Director.
In Midfield, an industrial suburb of Birmingham near the towering U.S. Steel plant, a railroad track once sliced through the air, an elevated track running ore and coal from the mines at Red Mountain to the steel works at Fairfield. Today, decades after the railroad went out of operation, the elevated track has a new lease on life: a green one.
Spanning three miles from Midfield to Venice Road at the base of Red Mountain, the High Ore Line Trail now occupies the raised railroad line as one of the newest additions to the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System. Connecting neighborhoods in west Birmingham to Midfield, the trail passes its visitors over Valley Creek with a glimpse in the distance of Red Mountain Park – to which the trail is now connected. It is a space of recreation and peace, a place where a simple stroll can become a scenic experience blending the urban industrial suburbs with natural, preserved greenspace.
As greenspaces around Birmingham help the Magic City make a resurgence, the High Ore Line Trail is a project that makes sure the western neighborhoods of Birmingham get their own piece of the puzzle.
Please bring water to drink and comfortable footwear suitable for walking three miles. We expect to complete the hike about lunch time. For those who would like to enjoy lunch with their fellow hikers, you may join the group for lunch at the Subway sandwich restaurant on Lakeshore Parkway on the way back.
Please meet 9:15 a.m. at the new Jones Valley parking lot for Red Mountain Park, 2109 Venice Road, Birmingham, Alabama. We plan to depart from there at 9:30 a.m. Information and Trip Leader: Francis E. Rushton, Telephones 843-441-3368 Cell, 205-290-5557 Home
JANUARY 15, SATURDAY, Meet 8:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Moderately Strenuous Dayhike on the Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail System at Lake Martin, near Alexander City, Alabama
Details: Located on the banks of Lake Martin, Alabama’s largest and allegedly most beautiful lake, the area offers linked loop trails. Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trails are among the most scenic and diverse hiking trails in Alabama. The trails skirt the shoreline of beautiful Lake Martin, a 40,000-acre, 700-mile-shoreline lake. Other areas of the trails are high rocky ridges and bluffs, some with vistas of 6 to 8 miles overlooking Kowaliga Bay, Chimney Rock, and others along rocky shoal creeks, and rippling brooks. The trails are routed through a variety of flora and fauna. There are high rocky ridges with mountain long leaf pine, mountain laurel, low and high bush blueberry, and lush hardwood forests that include redbud, sourwood, dogwood, native azalea, umbrella and big leaf magnolia. Large thickets of Catawba Rhododendron are numerous. Deer, turkey and numerous bird species, including bald eagles, can be seen along the trail.
The trails are built to blend into nature, free of bicycles, motorized vehicles, horses or other pack animals. All trails are built on Alabama Power Company land that is set aside as naturally undeveloped.
The trails are well-marked and maintained, the terrain is varied, and the scenery on a clear day is spectacular. We will hike about 4 miles. We will see longleaf pine and mixed hardwood forests, open airy sections, and other trail sections under fuller forest canopy. We also will see pristine lake views, boats, birds, boulders and deer tracks.
Please wear hiking boots! Please meet 8:45 a.m. at Publix in the Village at Lee Branch in Greystone. We plan to depart from there at 9:00 a.m.
Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age ten and over welcome.
Optional restaurant dinner after.
Information and Hike Leader: Dan Frederick, email seoutings@bellsouth.net or phone 205/631-4680
JANUARY 20, THURSDAY, Meet 9:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Leisurely Weekday Hike Very Near Birmingham
Where: Turkey Creek Nature Preserve near Pinson in Jefferson County, Alabama
Details: You are invited to participate in a moderate but leisurely-paced, fun Southeastern Outings short dayhike in the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve near Pinson. There will be some gradual climbing for a while at the beginning.
Come walk with us through this heavily-wooded area. We’ll hike on a new trail on which we have only hiked once previously. The trail extends through the woods from the parking lot at the main park gate. Along the way we will stop to enjoy our lunches by a large creek with a beautiful, long, sloping waterfall in the middle of the preserve. Total hiking distance is about 3.2 miles. Please bring picnic lunch and drinking water with you.
Please meet 9:45 a.m. at the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve Main Gate parking lot on Turkey Creek Road. We plan to depart from there at 10:00 a.m.
Please note that this is a different parking lot from where we have always parked on all but one of our previous hikes in the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve. Share an adventure. Bring a friend or friends.
Info. and trip leader: Bonnie Black, 205-994-5434
JANUARY 22, SATURDAY, Meet 10:15 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Dayhike, Smith Mountain Fire Tower Area near Lake Martin
Details: The Smith Mountain Alpine Trail at Lake Martin is some twenty miles north of the Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail. The highest elevation around Lake Martin, Smith Mountain is a jagged peak mountain in the Sandy Creek area of the lake. The top of Smith Mountain is rugged. Jagged rock formations dissect the mountain top into a series of rough terraces that are for the most part disconnected. A house-sized crag consisting of numerous boulders stands out from and above the rest of the peak.
Standing majestically atop Smith Mountain is the historic 90-foot fire lookout tower. Erected in 1939 as a cooperative agreement between Alabama Power Company, Tallapoosa County Forest Conservation Association, and the Alabama Forestry Commission, the tower was a sentinel for locating forest fires for 40 years.
In November 2010, Smith Mountain was deeded to the Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail Association (CRATA). Over a recent period of 18 months the tower has been restored and upgraded with new safety features and is now open to the public. Visiting time is daylight until 30 minutes after sunset, daily.
A trail begins at the base of Smith Mountain and ascends the northern and western slope for about 0.4 mile. The trail descends the southern and eastern slope of the mountain for about 0.6 mile back to the parking lot. The view from the tower is spectacular. In addition to the Smith Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, there are 5 miles of hiking trails. The two main trails are the Lake Shore Trail and the Little Smith Mountain Trail. The Island Hop Trail is accessible only during winter months when the lake is down. The Lake Shore Trail is a two-mile trail that descends the western slope to the lake shore and follows the shoreline for most of the two miles. There is also the dramatic two-mile Little Smith Mountain Trail which has four resting benches with some spectacular views - one bench on a peninsula, two on the south face, and one on the top.
Your hike leader has selected a scenic 3-6-mile moderate hiking route for you to enjoy from this wide choice of trails.
Well-behaved, properly supervised children age 8 and over welcome. Optional dinner after the hike.
Please meet at 10:15 a.m. at the Publix in The Village at Lee Branch in Greystone. We plan to depart from there at 10:30 a.m.
Info. and Trip Leader: Doris Hatch, 205/901-8367
JANUARY 29, SATURDAY, Meet 8:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings 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.
Info: Dan Frederick, seoutings@bellsouth.net or phone 205/631-4680
