New Year Camping at Camp Tranquility

Brierfield New Year's Campout

Click here to see a slideshow of all of the pictures.

The wife and kids took off to see her mom and their Mama Ree while I had to work. I had New Year's Day off as a holiday though so I decided to go on a camp-out by myself. I had always gone with the family or my son through the Scouts or as a family and this would be my first time out alone. It was definitely different.

It was quiet and peaceful. I did what I wanted to when I wanted to. There wasn't anyone else to think about, care for or be mindful of what they wanted. However there also wasn't anyone there to help me out should I have needed help. That will make you be a lot more careful and aware of what you are doing.

I parked at the gate to the Boy Scout camping area sometime around 8pm that night and backpacked up to the camping area. It is only about a quarter mile but it was nice to try out my backpack again. I found a nice rock to serve as a table and a close flat spot for my tent. There weren't any rocks around but there was some cut firewood so I used that to build a fire ring after clearing off the leaves. I soon had a fire going and it felt good as it was supposed to get below freezing that night.

I set up the tent and was soon fixing dinner. It was a dehydrated meal of my wife's that I had dehydrated back home. It was just like home cooking once it was re-hydrated. After cleaning up dinner I was ready to hit the hay and call it a night. However the cows in the nearby pasture felt like they needed to carry on a conversation for a few more hours.

Sometime around 4am I woke up cold. A flashlight revealed that the condensation inside the tent had turned to ice. That's when I knew it was cold. I had put on my thick layer of underwear thinking that would be enough. I had another thinner layer that I could put under that. However I was at the point in my awareness that I couldn't wake up enough to pull off the thick layer, put on the thin layer and then put the thick layer back on. So I just lay there and was cold until the sun and the crows finally roused me outta bed.

So I learned to always start with the thin layer first and then it is easy to just add the thick layer later in the night should it get colder. I also learned that I should double check and make sure I have hot hands in my backpack and not assume that they were left there from the last backpacking trip. I later remembered the last backpacking trip was in the summer and I had taken them out for weight savings. This was definitely a good test of what would work and what would not work and what I could do better next time.

After I got up and got a fire going I was hungry. After a nice bowl of oatmeal, some coffee and a few pictures of the camp site I was feeling human again. Time to pack up, clean up and follow Leave No Trace (LNT) principles. As you can see from the pictures there was no sign that I had been there once I was through. I have used that picture to show my Boy Scouts how it should be done.

After hiking back to my Jeep I went across the park and hiked the local trail on the other side. I also checked on the Pack 220 Geocache that we had left there back in October. It was still in good condition. I moseyed on back to my Jeep later for a quick lunch and then drove over to the camp site at the end of the park to check on a cache I had left there earlier in the year. I added some SWAG to it and then decided to hide a cache to commemorate the camp out.

I just happened to have one in the Jeep that I had picked up earlier in the week because a subdivision was about to be built over it. I changed the name on it and went deep into the end of the park and hid it. It was very nice and peaceful back there. I found me a nice rock to have a quiet time on. A gray squirrel came scampering right on past me as he searched for his late lunch. It was definitely nice and relaxing.

Afterwards I hiked back to the Jeep and headed on out. It was time to get back to the daily grind of the real world. However I was now in a better mood to handle it and looking forward to the next time I could take a backpacking trip on my own.

Myakka River State Park Backpacking Trip

Picture Slideshow

Bike Riding in OMSP

Well Mr. T and I pulled together a bike ride out at Oak Mountain for Saturday, June 28th and decided to not only invite Frank's den but the other WEBELOS dens as well. Turns out they aren't really Boy Scouts either. It was a wonderful morning to be biking and Mr T and I were the only ones to show up. That was okay. We decided to make a big time of it and go until NovaEagle and I were totally whupped since we were the new timers to biking. Mr T succeeded in pulling that off. I was totally exhausted after 2 hours of bike riding along the bottom of the Red Trail.

We first made a quick loop from the South Trailhead with KarateKid as he showed us the race route he had taken a couple of weekends before. We looped back to the South Trailhead then headed down the road to the entrance to the lower loop of the Red Trail on the way to the North Trailhead. Now that was fun. There was big roots and rocks and trees really close together. When you are hiking they don't seem that close but once you add the aspect of speed then they get much closer together.

Taking a mountain bike down a trail really works on your balance. I had to really work on not smacking a tree with my handlebars or running off the trail and down the mountain. Plus lining up on all those bridges only got comfortable toward the end of the ride. Of course I have decided that one needs at least front shock absorbers on a mountain bike. Those roots and rocks really worked on my wrists, elbows and shoulders.

NovaEagle did very well and KarateKid's experience definitely showed up. I couldn't keep up with him on the trails. At one point NovaEagle and I just bonked and we had to stop and chow on some GORP to get our energy back. It was a humbling experience. We made it on to the North Trailhead though and decided to come back via the highway. That was a good decision. NovaEagle had a smaller bike than the rest of us but he pushed hard and was able to stay up with us to the end.

We all had a great time and are looking forward to the next ride.

King's Chair Hike

We went hiking and what did we see?

Well Frank from another den invited our den to go on a hike with them out at Oak Mountain State Park (OMSP). So on the Saturday morning of June the 14, the day of the hike, all of the so called Boy Scouts start calling in saying they can't make it. Now just because it is raining buckets of water outside doesn't seem like a valid reason to cancel a Boy Scout hike so Mr T and I head on out to the North Trailhead like real Boy Scouts.

I arrive a few minutes after 8 and Mr T and the Karate Kid are waiting on us. Since it is still raining, we jump in the SUV with them to talk about things. In a few minutes a bicycle and a motor cycle with flashing lights comes flying by. We realize we are about to get to watch the cycle part of the Buster Britton Triathlon. Rain hasn't deterred them. So we watch them come by one way and then a little later come back by the other way. Now we have bikes going both ways. In a short while the rain stops and we are the only Boy Scouts there.

So we climbed out of the SUV and get our hiking stuff together. Now the hard part is getting across the road with all the bikes coming both ways. You can see in the first two pictures it was pretty busy. We scooted across though and only had one lady yell at us. Hmmm.

We start up the trail and run into a couple of guys who had been out hiking in the rain. They said it was pretty cool and they did alright. It was kind of humid but we started out straight up the mountain side on the Blue Trail. I quickly realized just how out of shape I was and that I needed to be doing more hiking. We made it to a side trail that I had loaded in my GPS from some Geocaching friends. They had discovered a trail off the left of the Blue Trail that went up on the ridge and provided some excellent views. So we took off up the side of the hill.

The USS PHAH cache was just off to the left of this side trail. So we eased over along the edge of the ridge to the USS. NovaEagle and KarateKid climbed up on the USS and KarateKid found the cache. You will notice in the pictures that they are sitting in the midst of a lot of poison ivy. NovaEagle apparently isn't allergic and escaped any ill side effects. KarateKid wasn't so lucky. He was later known as itchy drawers for a couple of days.

So we signed the cache log and headed on up the mountain to the ridge top. We followed the ridge to the end where we were awarded an excellent view of the Blue Trail and another cache. KarateKid got it for us and we let him sign it as we had already found it. We also found a box turtle and let him go on his way. We then dropped off that ridge onto the next ridge and the next cache. This was supposed to be a multi-cache but the log was in the first spot so I signed it and we moved on.

As we were headed down this ridge to the Blue Trail we saw a trail that led off the side. We followed it to a very large rock formation. We climbed up on top and were awarded another excellent view of OMSP. You can see us on the rock in the pictures above. We then dropped on down the ridge to the Blue Trail in the valley. We followed it up the mountain to the top of the ridge on the backside of OMSP. Instead of following the Blue Trail to the right we hung a left along an unnamed trail and wound up overlooking Hwy 11.

We eased left along this ridge to King's Chair cache. We could see the Wilsonville power plant from here. We could also see Belcher Lake. The boys liked that one. We stopped for a while and snacked so we would have the energy to head on back to the vehicles. So after a bit we made it back to the Blue Trail and instead of going back down the side of the mountain we followed the Blue Trail along the back ridge. We made it to the second Blue to Red Trail connector and quickly dropped down to the Red Trail.

It was a nice leisurely hike down the Red Trail back to the vehicles at the North Trailhead. At one point we heard a lot of buzzing and looked up into a large tree. It was all budded out and the Honey bees were sucking all the nectar out of the buds. It was pretty wild. We also came across two trees that had been blown over by the wind.

We made it back to the vehicles and agreed that it had been a great hike. The temperature was cooler than normal and the humidity wasn't bad at all. Most of the time we had a small breeze keeping us cool and we usually were in the shade of the trees along the trails. Too bad the rest of the boys wimped out on us.

Cahaba Wildlife Refuge to Pratt's Ferry Preserve

This was a really great canoe trip. The subject was brought up Sunday at church, I researched some that evening and then late that night we decided which section of the Cahaba River to tackle. The Buck Creek to Alabama Small Boats run on Hwy 52 had gotten boring and the water was way too low for that any way. It was Cahaba Lily time and I had missed them blooming the last two years so we chose to take on Hargrove Shoals, the largest stand of Cahaba Lilies in the world. It was a great decision.

We dropped off the canoes at the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge and left the women in charge while us men folk got the pickup vehicle down to Pratt's Ferry. We made it back in time for a whole crowd of folks to be putting in. It was nice seeing all the families with small children coming out to enjoy the river. We started down the river and didn't get anywhere before the kids saw a rope swing. Since we weren't on a mission to get somewhere in a hurry we pulled over to watch the fun.

They swang and swang. Older couples just driving through would stop and watch them occasionally. Finally two women pulled up and got out their chairs and watched the kids swing. One lady even took pictures. The kids then were able to show off their new found skills developed on the rope swing. What fun.

We finally got them to get back in the boats and head on down the river. We had already gone through one patch of lilies and quickly came up on another. We were able to make it through with some scraping and pulling. NovaEagle was riding in a kayak and with him weighing less than a 100 pounds he was actually able to easily float on through. With the wife in front, then a full cooler, then my daughter and then me in the back of the canoe, we didn't do so well. If the front of the canoe would clear something then the back would scrape. If the front of the canoe would scrape then the back would stick us. Not sure why that kept happening. :-) Again there was a group of people sitting on the bank watching us navigate our way through the lilies and over the shoals.

We stopped and snacked on a small sand bar and sponged out the water from our canoes. A sponge is a life saver in a canoe when it comes to trying to keep more water on the outside of the canoe than on the inside.

We then had a very nice little rapid that we didn't drag on and then some deep water. Just about the time we would get bored with paddling in the deep water we would hear the roar of a rapid and NovaEagle would be off like a bullet to be the first through it. We came upon an large stand of lilies down the river that I thought must be Hargrove Shoals. It took some time to get through until we found the right line to run and then SugarPie and I had a quick scary ride while MamaCacher slogged her way to us through the shoals.

We took time for a quick dip in the river and to play in the shallows. We had two squirt guns so the kids made sure everyone was wet and there was plenty of water in the canoes. :-) We then headed on down the river again. After a bit we rounded a corner and there was a bunch of canoes and folks and lilies as far as the eye could see. I knew then that we had actually reached Hargrove Shoals. It was truly amazing.

The river widens out at this point and has a long straight stretch. You can stand up in your canoe and see lilies as far as you can look. Bank to bank and all the way to the end of the straight stretch in the river are lilies. They were all in full bloom and looking very nice today. Of course the water was down and we wound up walking some of the way as you can see in the pictures above. Finally though we found some deep water and a channel down the right side. We paddled to the end and found a sand bar to the right. We pulled over and had our lunch.

At this sand bar there is a small rapid at the end of the lilies. After lunch the kids and Mister H played slide down the rapids with their life vests and seat pads. I was checking out the trail at the top of the bank. There is a walking trail from the end of the road along the river all the way down to the lilies. It actually wound down the bank to the sand bar and ended there. However there was a Y in the trail and it also led off into the woods. I could see where horses had been on the trail also. This fall I will have to see where that trail goes and map it with my GPS.

After a while we loaded back up and headed on down the river. We had quite a long run this time and found a large island in the river and saw a hover craft come down the river. We had swapped SugarPie for Master H in our canoe. Somewhere in the middle of this run his daddy told him he could jump out and cool off. Well he did and then climbed on the back of NovaEagle's kayak. His dad handed him a spare paddle and off they went. It was pretty funny and I have a video of it below. They rode like this for the remainder of the trip, even after we took another swim break.

Speaking of swim break, we had all gotten the munchies and hot so we found a gravel bar across from a pretty cliff and pulled over for a break. After a batch of GORPM it was time to float down the river to the rapids at the end of the gravel bar. We would start at the top of the gravel bar and wade out to the middle of the river in our life vests. Then we would lay on our backs with our feet out front and float down to the rapids. It was neat to feel ourselves speed up as we approached the rapids.

What made this real fun was the snake that I saw while we were chowing down on GORPM. I just happened to run around and there was this big snake coming down out of the woods headed toward the water. The girls screamed and the boys came running. This dude wasn't scared and came right on down through us and into the water. He swam across to the other side and got up on a big rock. We got the courage up to get in the water anyway. However as we would float down by him, he would come off the rock and into the water toward us. This would get the girls to screaming and the guys to flailing. I guess all the commotion would run him back up on the rock. After a couple times of this he got caught in the current and went over the rapids and down the river. We were able to float in peace then.

Eventually the two boys and I floated over the rapids and down into the next deep water area. Mr. H said everyone would come pick us up. So MamaCacher came floating down the river in that big canoe all by herself. Well I grabbed on to the front of it and hooked my feet over the side. I asked Mrs. H if I made a nice figure head. For some reason she didn't think so. About that time a family of Alabama fans came floating by in a canoe. I told them that this was how we did it in Auburn. They just smiled and kept on paddling. Hmmm.

So we pulled over to the next gravel bar and got everyone on the correct side of the canoe and headed on down the river. Soon we were at our take-out spot and everyone was disappointed that the ride was over already. That is a good thing. We finally got everything up to the parking lot, the other vehicle back and everything strapped on. We expressed to each other how much fun we had and that we would be doing it again soon.

The crew paddling down the river.


Master H swinging on the rope swing


SugarPie swinging on the rope swing


Miss H swinging on the rope swing.


NovaEagle swinging on the rope swing.


NovaEagle & Master H's new method of travel


Snake time

Brierfield Family Campout

After it was all said and done, MamaCacher said this was the best camp out she has been on yet. I think it was because we had the campground to ourselves and we weren't set to a time schedule. We got up when we wanted to, ate when we wanted to and did whatever when we wanted to. It was a very nice change.

It all started when I wanted to go canoeing on the Cahaba River down below Brierfield sometime Saturday since the water was up. At first we were going to watch the new Narnia movie Friday night and then go down on Saturday. Well MamaCacher decided she would rather go camping. By the time I got home and got all the camping stuff packed last minute we were running out of time to load the canoe and kayak. Plus I had gotten some word from some fellow canoers that the water was still going to be pretty high and dangerous. So we decided to leave the canoe and kayak behind and planned on a recon mission on the Cahaba and the Little Cahaba to find the best places to put-in and take-out a water floating vessel.

So we loaded up and made it to Brierfield in plenty of time before daylight went away. We had time to set everything up and have MamaCacher start cooking while we finished with the tent and accessories. Then we started getting wood for the fire. That was the hard part since everything was wet. However being the Cub Scout leader that I am, I was able to start a fire and have a good one going for roasting marshmallows. Later the kids played in the tent really well, much better than they play together at home. Hmmm. The wife and I stayed up and enjoyed the fire and the moon.

The next morning, after a fire and a great breakfast by MamaCacher, she finally had to know what time it was. It was really nice just hanging and not having to worry about being somewhere at a certain time. Later we loaded up and headed out on recon missiong to find good places to put-in and take-out a canoe and a kayak.

I was disappointed to see that Bulldog Bend Canoe Park was no longer operated. There was a gate across the road and it was all grown up. So far I haven't been able to find anyone who knows anything about it. No wonder it is closed. We found a spot on the other side of the bridge, across from the park, to put in though.

We then made it to the Piper bridge and found the Geocache there. We saw a hovercraft on the river while standing on the Piper bridge. It pulled into the refuge canoe landing. It was way cool. I think I want one of them. He didn't have any problem navigating over the shoals on the really fast flowing river. Did I mention that it was way cool.

We drove down to the refuge road and there were cars parked all the way out to the highway and then along the highway. People were starting to walk out and my wife asked one dude what was up. He said they had just completed a couple of foot races. Still not sure what the boat was all about.

We saw on the refuge map that there was an interpretive trail back across the bridge. So we headed back there and once there decided to take the hike. It was a very nice hike. Once at the end we found a really cool water fall. It took some getting to but it was cool, like literally, and the wife and kids liked it. We checked out the Cahaba River and it was really flowing. It was a good thing we decided not to canoe today. It would have been kinda scary.

We headed back up the trail and stopped at the two scenic locations. They were very nice. I am sure you can see more during the fall when the leaves are off the trees. We could see the shoals though. The water was really flowing over the lilies.

We made it back to the trail head and headed back. We picked up the Geocache at the Piper mines sign. We had gone past it too fast on the way in but knew we were coming back. There were wild roses all over the place. It was really pretty.

We then headed down to the Hwy 26 take-out point to scope it out. Got there and saw that it was the Pratt's Ferry Preserve. I didn't know that was there. A family pulled in and asked us where the nearest canoe rental place was. They were from Selma and wanting to do some canoeing. Hmmm.

We checked out the take-out and realized it would be a haul from the take-out to the parking lot. I am thinking about volunteering to make a road down to the take-out. It wouldn't be that hard and would make that a really nice place to put-in or take-out a boat.

Afterwards we headed back to the campsite for some lunch. MamaCacher tried to take a nap in the tent but it just wasn't working for her. I was going to take the kids to the pool but decide to lay down for just a second. When I woke up everyone was gone. I walked up to the pool and MamaCacher said they had been there for about an hour and a half. Man did I zonk out. I felt better though.

The kids played some more and then we went back to the tent to make dinner and build a fire. We gathered a ton of firewood from limbs blown down and such in the woods near the tent. In the process we saw a grey fox trot across the trail out the end of the camp ground. He went into the woods into a sunny, clear spot and stopped and looked back at us. The kids got to see him and were really excited about it. It was way cool.

Soon we had a roaring fire and a nice dinner of Chinese chicken. The kids and the wife roasted some marshmallows and made Smores. They gave me one the best tasting Smores I think I have ever eaten. They are getting good at this.

Tonight there wasn't as much playing in the tent as we were all tired. I stayed up for a little bit packing what I could for leaving in the morning and watched the fire then put it out and hit the sack. Of course there was this Chuck-Will's-Widow making its call in the woods. It would fly off and make it far off and just about as I was about to fall asleep, it would fly back in close and make a loud call. Fly off, almost asleep, fly back, fly off, almost asleep, fly back, .... Long night.

The next morning I took a nice hot shower in the park bath house and finished packing up with help from momma and the kids. We loaded up in the car and it went click. AAAHHH!!!!!

We walked to the bath house for momma and the kids to get dressed for church while I went looking for the ranger. Found him at his camp site and talked to him about jumping me off. He said there must be a flux field down there at the campground or something because he was all the time having to jump people off.

It was neat though because he told me about a camping, canoe base camp spot just past the Bulldog Bend Canoe Park and was telling me about a remote campground that Brierfield has that I wasn't aware of. He was also telling me about some archeologists that came into the park and found the foundation of what they believe to be a slave house near the campground. It was all pretty cool and he was able to jump me off also. So I picked momma and the kids up at the bath house and we still made it to church on time. What a great campout.