Triking & Hiking the Backcountry

Sunday, 28 April
Gulf State Park  — Gulf Shores, Alabama
Temps: Lo 66F / Hi 77F (19C / 25C)

With the weekend at hand, we postponed plans for sightseeing until the crowds dissipated.  Instead, we went triking and hiking — OK, walking — on the backcountry trails, enjoyed a sunrise breakfast on the beach one morning, and spent a couple of hours relaxing in the shade of our beach shelter on two afternoons when the sun was out and the breeze off the gulf kept the temperatures comfortable.

Saturday, 27 April …

Since we had determined that there were no over-the-ocean sunset opportunities, we decided to try for a sunrise instead.

Our plan to watch the sun come up from the beach pavilion was a bust.  With the parking lot closed, there was nowhere safe to leave the car.  So, we did our sunrise vigil from the section of the beach accessed via the boardwalk at the intersection of State Park Road 2 and Hwy 182.

The bonus from this part of the beach … a photo of the full moon.  With the Canon SX50HS at full zoom (~1200mm), I actually got details of the moon’s surface.  The downside from this spot … our view included the Orange Beach high-rises, which we opted to think of as Mont Saint-Michel :-)

Rather than shoot a pale, wide-angle sunrise I zoom into highlight the brilliant colors
as the sun starts to clear the buildings that are about 2 miles (3.2 km) from where we are.

As the sun continues its ascent, a couple of fishermen join us on the beach.
Bonne chance guys!

With the sun high on the horizon, and the temps quickly warming up, we returned home, picked up the trikes, and set off to ride the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail (HSBBT).  The 11-mile (17.5 km) trail has two access points from within Gulf State Park, one of which is at the back of the campground.  The really nice thing about this trail system — aside from its setting, which traverses heavily forested areas as well as wetlands — is that all but one of the trails are paved.  Some of the trails have a bit of a grade in sections, but most are flat all the way.

The Cotton Bayou is gravel, but still doable if you’re careful;
Gulf Oak Ridge and Rattlesnake Ridge have some ups and downs, but nothing major.
The trail system goes through six ecosystems.

On this first foray on the HSBBT, we started out by triking 2.3 miles (3.7 km) from our campsite to the Gulf Oak Ridge trailhead; skipped Rattlesnake and went up Catman Road; cycled a bit along Hwy 161 — there is a bike path paralleling the road; re-connected to the trail system via gravelly Cotton Bayou; triked along Rosemary Dunes with a stop to see Lefty, the resident alligator (no luck); and returned to camp via the bike path on Hwy 182.  All said, we did 15 miles (24 km) … our longest trike ride to-date.

Oak Ridge to Twin Bridges to the Catman Trail.
Along the way are benches and covered swings for people to enjoy, each inscribed with a
message from the donor … on this bench, Margaret, from Gulph, Ontario, invites us to sit.

Taking a break at the intersection of Twin Bridges and Catman.
Despite diligent searching, I am sorry to say we did not come across the Catman —
a part man/part wildcat creature that has allegedly been lurking in this area.  Maybe next time!

By the time we returned home we were drained.  Not from the long ride, but from the sticky humidity that made the 72F (22C) temperature quite uncomfortable.  Cold drinks and a quiet afternoon enjoying the screen shelter and the beach shelter revived us sufficiently to plan a similar itinerary for the next day — this time on foot.

Back to today …

Up early after a good night’s rest, we were raring to get going with our planned walk on the HSBBT.  A quick breakfast; snacks packed … and off we went.  While the overcast skies weren’t nice, we appreciated the cloud cover as it kept the temperatures comfortable for most of our walk.

Starting with a .9-mile (1.4 km) walk from our site to the back of the campground, we connected to the Catman Trail.  At Little Lake we found this critter taking an early-morning swim.  No wonder swimming is only allowed at Shelby Lake!

Continuing on Catman, we arrived at the Butterfly Pavilion at the intersection with the Rosemary Dunes Trail.

No butterflies today; nor yesterday for that matter.  The pavilion is actually a covered shelter with several picnic tables where people can rest and have a packed-from-home bite to eat.  Its proximity to the only restrooms and water fountain on the trail make it a popular place.

We used one of the tables yesterday to enjoy mid-morning snacks while we chatted with a biker who reported a bobcat sighting.  Today, we stopped just long enough for me to take photos of the colorful flowers in the adjacent garden.

This stop came with a bonus!

Finished with the flowers, I was walking back to join Mui when the unmistakable pecking sounds of a woodpecker stopped me in my tracks.  Searching the high reaches of the trees nearby, I located the source of the sound — a red-bellied woodpecker, which stood still long enough for me to capture a shot of it.

I never did get a good-angle to see the reddish belly-wash for which the bird is named.  There’s always next time, I suppose.  In the meantime, I enjoyed the “bird in hand,” so to speak.

Sorry; I didn’t take the time to research these flowers, but I am guessing they
all attract butterflies … thus the name of the pavilion.

Resuming our walk, we turned on to the Rosemary Dunes Trail.  Our next stop was at the gator pond — home of the trail’s resident alligator: Lefty.  She gets her name not only because she is missing her right front leg, but also because her right eye is damaged.  How this happened, I do not know, but despite her handicaps she’s apparently attractive to some male alligator as she has a litter of baby gators.  None were visible today, but we spent a nice time with momma Lefty even so.

Lefty shows us her “good” profile today!

Bidding Lefty good bye, we continued further down the Rosemary Dunes Trail before using a utility service road to cross over to the beach to complete our self-made loop trail.  The gravel road wasn’t the most scenic, but it made for a decent short cut; and it did take us by a pond where the water lilies were blooming.

Even though it was only 9:00a at this point, the humidity had increased to uncomfortable levels — again.  Nor was there much of a breeze on the beach to keep us cool.  Add to that the fog, which hid the view from our eyes; and the soft sand, which made walking a rather difficult proposition.  In the end, in order to make headway on the 3.1 miles (5 km) we still had to go to get back to our site, we decided to walk on the bike path on Hwy 182 instead.  I will say that this last portion of our walk wasn’t fun, but it was good exercise.

From morning fog on the beach, to relaxing and swimming — Mui, of course — in the afternoon.

All in all, we walked 15,963 steps — about 6 miles (9.5 km).  And we deserved taking the afternoon off to read and relax — first on our patio, and later under our shade shelter on the beach.