Stephen had ridden with me to work so I could print out and turn in my expense reports and timesheet for the previous week since I would be traveling again and wouldn't be in the office on the next Monday. A while back I had printed out a topo map of the area behind work and had realized that the Cahaba River was very close. So after I completed my business stuff Stephen and I decided to try and go find the Cahaba River.
We first skirted around the Cahaba Lake behind work on the runnning trail around the lake. However on the other side we took a narrow barely used trail straight up the side of a big hill. At the top we took a right down an old road. It deadended into another old grown up road at the bottom.
From the vegetation I could tell that we were close to the river. So we cut straight through the trees in the direction of where the river should be. I immediately got nailed on the leg with some thistle bush and began itching like crazy. I knew we had to find the river in a hurry so I kept on pushing ahead. Very soon I saw the bank but there were some very low hanging bushes there. I bent low and went on through.
The bank was steep and I had to hang on to a small tree to ease my self down to the water's edge. Once there I saw a small ledge that jutted out into the water. I was able to step out onto it and wash my really badly itching leg. Oh that felt so good. Stephen was right behind rolling up his pant's leg so he could get in the water. I had the misfortune to have worn shorts and got nailed by the thistle bush. Stephen was fortunate enough to have worn long pants and not get nailed by the thistle bush.
We stood in the very warm water and watched it lazily travel on past us. There were several fish jumping in the water and even a turtle surfaced near us. Stephen thought it was a snake for a second and was about to light a shuck for the next county. I assured him it wasn't a snake and kept him on the ground.
We had to head out to get back for an event so we reluctantly took off back through the bushes. Once we hit the old road that would take us back up the hill to the barely used trail we realized that it was open to our left. The good thing here was that our topo map indicated that a small stream was over there that was a run off from the lake. If we followed it we would wind back up on the trail around the lake.
We made it over to the stream in about fifty yards and eased off down into it. It was fairly wide and had a rocky bottom. The water was only inches deep and made for excellent hiking back to the trail. However there was a water fall and a pool just before we hit the trail. To traverse it we had to do a little rock climbing to get around the pool and up the side of the small water fall.
It was very much fun and once Stephen saw where he was he insisted that he lead the way. Very soon we were back at the Jeep and loading up to head home.
It was a very nice evening and a nice little hike. It was nice to be able to stand in the river and wash off the thistles. The stream was also a nice surprize as we spent some time in there also. The water fall climb was definitely the climax to a nice evening with my son.
No comments:
Post a Comment