After working for the day at a plant in Boaz, AL on Monday, July 18, 2005 I decided to head out to Lake Guntersville State Park and hike some of its trails. I reviewed my hiking trail map of the park that I found at www.briartech.com/msmap.htm and decided on a loop. I changed into my running gear, grabbed my Camelbak, jumped in the Jeep and headed for the park.
I drove just past the Golf Course parking lot and parked on the side of the road where the Lick Skillet trail crossed. I began the hike/run by going to the right down the Lick Skillet trail toward the Meredith trail. It was a nice jog at the beginning as most of it was down hill. At the bottom I could see the lake and there was a connector trail to the lake. I stuck to my plan though and hiked up the next mountain to the Meredith trail.
I hung a left on the Meredith trail and was able to jog down hill to the Seales trail on the edge of the lake. I stopped for a second there to view the scenery. There were some guys fishing under the Town Creek bridge and there was a young man coming towards me on the trail in his swimming trunks and soaking wet. I spoke to him and asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for his brother and wanted to know if I wanted to help him. I found that interesting. I asked him what his brother’s name was and he told me Dakota. I asked him what his name was and was informed that it was Tyler. So I told him that I was about to head down the Seales trail and that if I saw Dakota I would tell him that Tyler was looking for him. He seemed to be happy with that solution.
So I took off jogging down the Seales trail along the edge of the water. I was able to jog on and off until I came to a small power house on the edge of the lake. I stopped for a few minutes and took some pictures. You can click here to see those pictures.
The Seales trail then left the very edge of the lake and went up onto the side of the mountain. Now it was all rocks and I wasn’t able to jog. It was really pretty cool though. The trail meandered through the rocks on the edge of the lake and there were huge boulders and small cliffs to my left up the side of the mountain. It would have been a great place for the kids to play scrambling over the boulders.
After a while the trail dropped back down to the edge of the lake and was very wide. Here it is used a lot by the people camping in the campground. I jogged from here to the campground. The Seales trail skirted the edge of the mountain and the campground. At one point the trail split and there was a white blazed trail to the left going up the side of the mountain. From looking at my map I wasn’t sure if this was the trail I needed to take or not so I stayed on the Seales trail.
Well the Seales trail just comes out on the road in the campground and ends. So I backtracked to the white blazed trail which was the Old Lick Skillet trail and went up the side of the mountain. This trail meanders around the side of the mountain and the edge of the campground and comes out on the main road by the campground. As I came up on this road a deer jumped up in front of me and ran across the road. I stepped up to the road and there were six deer on the other side. I got my camera out and began taking pictures. It didn’t bother the deer at all. I had to walk about 50 yards down the road to pick up the Daniel White trail on the other side of the road.
I was able to walk down the road, go up the Daniel White trail and walk past the deer without ever spooking them. They just stood there and watched me walk past as the pictures from the link above no doubt showed you. It was starting to get late and I was beginning to wonder if I was going to make the entire loop before it got dark. I was planning on picking up the pace but ran into another field of rocks. Right in the middle of it was a very deep pit. I had seen the word pit on my map but wasn’t sure what it meant.
What it meant was that within two feet of the trail was a hole in the rocks that was about twenty feet deep and about three feet in diameter. It probably would have been pretty neat to have climbed down in there but I was headed on down the trail in hopes of finding the Jeep before dark.
The Daniel White trail intersected with the Lick Skillet trail and it was time for me to hang a left and head up the mountain. As I started up the trail I heard an eagle scream as he flew overhead. It was sweet. The trail became a series of switchbacks straight up the side of a very steep mountain.
I saw a large raccoon ambling through the woods ahead of me. He took the time to step up on a log and look back at me as if to say, “You are too tired to mess with what I got for you so just keep on going up your trail.” I completely agreed and just eased right on past him and headed on up the trail.
All of a sudden the trail stopped. I backtracked a few steps and found a tree with a red blaze on it. The trail switch backed around it and back up the mountain. From the looks of the initial trail past that tree it was apparent that I wasn’t the only one who had made that mistake.
From that point on it was just climbing over rocks and keeping my eyes on the red blazes. The trail popped out on the road and there was my Jeep. It was a welcome site to see.
The Camelbak pack came through for me as I was able to have plenty of water on a very hot day and I was also able to carry my digital camera and capture some memories. I cinched it down very tight and tucked my shirt in my pants and didn’t have any problems with it riding up or rubbing me.
This was a very nice loop with plenty of sites and sounds. I would recommend it to anyone who was interested in a hike of several hours or a trail run of about an hour. It took me an hour and a half but I got lost a couple of times and took time to take some pictures and observe some views.
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