Chasing Waterfalls in Georgia and Alabama

Before we get into Sprinty's latest adventure, a bit of catching up is in order.

At the end of March, Sprinty and his humans returned from 4+ months of enjoying the warmer weather and outdoor activities (golf, biking, kayaking, walks in the park) in Southwest Florida. Sprinty spent most of the 4+ months nose-to-nose with Charlie (fifth wheel trailer) at Riverside RV Resort near Port Charlotte, FL. He slipped away for an overnight trip in early February to take Kris to West Palm Beach for her first vaccination (see previous blog post for deets).

In late March, he went to visit Harvey (Tiffin Allegro Bus Class A motorhome) and Harvey's humans Jan and Doug for a night. Sprinty met Harvey on the caravan to the Canadian Maritimes in 2019. As Jan and Doug had been vaccinated, Kris and Darrell enjoyed a mostly normal visit which included a boat ride on the lake, a wonderful steak dinner, and a few games of Rummicub.

Sprinty then went to Viera, FL to visit golf friends, Andy and David, from Northern Virginia who moved to Indian River Colony Club. Indian River Colony Club is a housing development built in the 1980s by and for retired military members. About 750 homes, it is a gated community, like Soleil, and has a very challenging golf course winding through the development. David warned us, there is water in play on every shot. Not just on every hole, but every shot. The course rewarded precise golf shots. It was certainly one of the most challenging courses we had played in a long time.

The trip home to Georgia was mostly about getting home. We drove about 2/3rds of the way, Darrell driving Sprinty and Kris following in the Toyota, and overnighted at Reed Bingham State Park near Adel, GA. After driving for about 8 hours, we were itching to get in some exercise so we broke out the eBikes. We rode about 5 miles on unpaved trails (Boardwalk, Yearling and Little River Trail) which required navigating tree roots and a stream crossing. We then rode around the lake for another five miles.

After arriving home in Georgia, we spent the next few weeks catching up on home chores like dental and medical checkups. Sprinty even got his checkup at the Mercedes dealer in the form of an A Service (a few thousand miles early) to be ready for uninterrupted adventuring this summer out west. On the way to the Mercedes shop, he threw a fit about 3 miles before we got there. The transmission roughly downshifted, and dash illuminated up with all kinds of new warning lights. Turns out it was a speed sensor which impacted the anti-lock brakes, cruise control, electronic stability program, and transmission shifting. We were very glad that it decided to malfunction on the way to the dealer for planned service instead of afterwards. Sprinty also got new brakes front and back and new serpentine belts so that he is ready for lots of adventures this summer. Separately, Sprinty also got a new toilet and a few other minor tweaks.

Thursday, 13 May

After prepping Sprinty for his first camping trip in over 6 weeks, we left about 8am this morning.

This trip started over wanting to visit a dear friend who lives 2 hours away. Not wanting to waste an opportunity for a road trip, Darrell managed to convince Kris and Sprinty to make it a 4-day, 3-night trip. Of course, Darrell dangled golf out as a bit of a carrot. With a major trip planned for the summer, it is also a good opportunity for a shakedown to ensure everything was ready for 4+ months of adventuring out West.

Darrell in his happy place:

Our first destination was LaFayette Golf Course, a municipal course in LaFayette, GA about 1-1/2 hours from home. After hitting on the driving range and a few practice putts, we were off. We both started with very nice drives followed by failing at good second shots. Kris found an unexpected water hazard. As is often the case when starting a trip, Kris struggled a bit on the first few holes, while Darrell was hitting well. Darrell was up by 6 strokes at the turn. He started the back nine with two birdies, and was even par for the back nine until the last hole. We got to play at our pace, and we're surprised at how few people were playing such a nice course today.

We enjoyed the course a lot. It had character without being ridiculous. The greens rolled nicely for this early in the season.

Darrell had honors on the day, and Kris invoked the 10-stroke rule, requiring Darrell to pay up with the next larger frappe. Lacking a nearby Starbucks, Darrell paid up with a Caramel Frappe from a nearby McDonalds.

After a quick stop at Walmart for a couple of items, we continued to Cloudland Canyon State Park. Cloudland Canyon has been on our list for awhile. A recent article "The Best State Park in Every Single State" (https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/the-best-state-parks-in-the-us) named Cloudland Canyon State Park as Georgia's best park, which made it a priority for this adventure.

Sprinty had a nice large, level site in the West Rim campground, which reviews suggested was the nicer of the two campgrounds.

After getting Sprinty settled (all of a minute or two), Darrell and Kris set off to do the West Rim Loop Trail hike.

Rated moderately strenuous, it was formally rated as one of the top 10 hikes in the U.S. by Backpacker Magazine. The West Rim Loop Trail is a 5-mile lollipop style hike providing several overlooks that showcase the park's rugged geology, deep canyons, dense woodland, and views beyond. Instead of starting at the main trail head, we took the connector trail from the West Rim Campground, which intersected the main trail about a half a mile from the main trail head. We enjoyed a very nice 4-mile hike with about half of it along the rim of the canyon with several overlooks.

The hike took about 2 hours with many stops to enjoy the views. After the hike, we relaxed in the campsite, and buttoned up early as the temperatures started falling. Our Cricket Wireless plan worked great, and we were grateful we had upgraded our data plan to 100GB/month for $5 more than our 40GB plan. And T-Mobile worked well enough to catch up on our YouTube subscriptions.

Friday, 14 May

A very peaceful night. We woke up to 45 degree temperatures, and were glad we had turned on the heater. We had a slow start to the morning, as we reminded ourselves of old habits like getting the coffee maker ready the night before and doing the galley aisle shuffle. Part of the slow start was to let the temperature get up to the mid-50s before venturing out.

Cloudland Canyon has several hikes. We decided to do the Waterfalls Trail which descended from the Interpretive Center to the bottom of the canyon. The trail map was quick clear " Visitors should note that this trail is strenuous and is not suitable for everyone." The steep hike down to Hemlock Falls involved 600 stair steps one way. With two waterfalls as the pay off, we were game.

Just behind the parking area was the main canyon overlook.

As we descended into the Canyon, the trail hugged sheer rock walls.

We decided to check out Cherokee Falls first as the upper of the two waterfalls.

Getting an early start also meant the trail was not crowded. We continued down to Hemlock Falls. Unlike Cherokee Falls, we were limited to viewing the falls from the viewing platform.

Kris then suggested we at least check out the bridge that crossed the stream and started the Sitton's Gulch Trail. Darrell notice a worn path at the base of the falls that went under the bridge, and took off to check it out. We were rewarded with even more cool waterfalls.

By now, we regretted not being more prepared for a longer hike. We had dressed and equipped for the two-mile Waterfall Trails, and at the bottom, realized the Sitton's Gulch Trail which followed the stream down the canyon was likely to be a really cool hike. We will just have to save that for a future visit to Canyonland Canyon State Park. With the LaFayette Golf Course nearby, we have double the reason to visit again.

The climb out of the canyon was mostly stairs, and a lot of them. We plodded along, and shed our fleece jackets as we got plenty warm from the exertion.

Cloudland Canyon SP also has over 25 miles of mountain bike trails. To access the Five Points Recreation Area to the East, there is a Cloudland Canyon Connector Trail, labeled as easy. We scoped out the beginning of the trail from the trailhead, and Kris declared she was not interested in riding 5+ miles of single track each way. She encouraged Darrell to ride the trail by himself.

The trail was well maintained/used, and for most of it, it was quite rideable. There were several sections of exposed rocks that made for a bumpy and challenging ride. One section was so washed out, Darrell had to walk the bike up the hill. And several times, he had to plant a foot down navigating rocks. He enjoyed the trail to himself expect for two ladies hiking the trail, and one other biker. He managed to ride most of the trail in the lowest pedal assist level, but the electric assist came in handy on several of the rocky inclines.

Our destination for the night was Lil' Mole Run Golf Course in Mentone, AL. The golf course also has a small campground. Sites with hookups are $50 and $60/night. The web site mentioned dry camping as an option for $20. As this destination was only about 20 minutes from Cloudland Canyon, we decided to check out Desoto State Park, which was only 10 minutes further down the road.

We checked in at the Desoto State Park Visitor Center/Country Store to get some recommendations on hiking to some waterfalls. The staff recommended the Azalea Cascade, Lost Falls and Laurel Falls connected by the Blue trail and Orange trail.

We parked at the parking lot for the Boardwalk trail, which led to Azelea Cascade.

From there, we followed the Blue trail to Lost Falls.

In checking the map, we saw we could save about 0.5 miles of trail hiking by crossing the stream at Lost Falls and picking up the Orange trail. Laurel Falls was accessed along the Orange Trail. 

As we neared the intersection of the Red Trail to take us back to the parking lot, Kris saw a red fox off in the woods. Fortunately we stopped to observe the fox, who also stopped to observe us. Then we saw a second fox. And a third. And baby foxes. We had stumbled upon a family of foxes. So cool.

At the conclusion of the hike at DeSoto SP, we had over four miles of hiking for the day, and Darrell had over 11 miles of single track bike riding. A full day. We headed for Mentone and checked in with the golf course. Sprinty is spending the night in the parking lot - much like a Harvest Host location, only we paid a $20/night fee to dry camp in their parking lot.

Saturday, 15 May

Sprinty enjoyed a cool night in the golf course parking lot. As the golf course did not open until 8am, things were very quiet until we'll after we were up and about.

When we checked in yesterday, Lisa put us down for a 1:30pm tee time - later than we usually try to play. But since we were staying here two nights, it did not matter.

After breakfast, we wandered around the property a bit, checked out the RV sites with hookups, and glanced over the golf course. We could see that holes 9 and 18 were going to be tough holes involving water hazards.

At 10am CST, we participated in a Zoom call with Kris' family. Our T-Mobile data worked well throughout the call. After the call, we checked to see if we could start earlier than our tee time, which we could.

We knew the course would be fairly busy, so when Lisa told us to expect a slow play day, we were not surprised. As we were loading up the golf cart, we got to meet the owner. He runs a trucking company in a small town in Georgia, and was looking for some land to buy. He said he did not know he was going to be running a golf course or small RV park (7 sites). We could see from the clubhouse, restrooms and general condition of the grass, he was putting a lot of money and effort into the golf course.

Lil' Mole Run Golf Course is a typical small town golf course. The web site says 5,400 yards from the back tees, which is usually considered a short course. It made up for being short with some very narrow windows for hitting your tee shot. On several holes, the window to hit was 20-30 yards wide due to trees. Hole 9 had an almost island green - the "fairway" to the green was only 6 feet wide, and sloped towards the water on both sides.

Hole 17 was reachable green, but required a pro level shot to keep it on the green from 175 yards. Hole 18 had a large pond to cross on your second shot, provided you hit your first shot perfectly in a 20-foot wide corridor.

We both started off with good drives, with Kris converting hers to a par to take a one stroke lead. She chipped in on the third hole to extend the lead. Darrell played the 9th hole better to make the turn only three strokes back. We both played the back nine better, with Darrell picking up only a couple of strokes. Darrell played the 18th better, and we tied for the day.

After golf, we got the eBikes out and rode on lightly trafficked roads around Mentone, AL. The golf course is located on Lookout Mountain - the same Lookout Mountain than extends all the way to Chattanooga. The road down the mountain to the valley below was closed due to rock or dirt slides, which likely reduced the normal traffic in Mentone. After riding to where the road was closed, we rode north along County Road 89 along the ridge of Lookout Mountain. With houses perched on the ridge, occasionally we could see the vista view they enjoyed from the edge of the ridge. All total, we rode 15 miles.

Sunday, 16 May

Sprinty enjoyed another quiet night at the golf course.  Today was the main focus of the trip – an opportunity to get together with our dear friend Jean and her son Jacob.  We had a plan to meet at Little River Canyon Natural Preserve located just east of Fort Payne, AL.  Out of respect for her grueling schedule, we planned to meet at noon at the Little River Canyon Center located at the Little River Canyon Natural Preserve at noon.

 

As we were up and about before the golfers started showing up, Darrell did a little practicing with the drone:

 

 

With the morning to ourselves, we decided to do a little adventure enroute by doing the Desoto Falls Bottom and Bluff Overlook Trail which was only about 10 minutes away.  It is a 1.9 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail rated as "easy" in AllTrails.  In perusing the reviews, a reviewer had suggested arriving early as the parking at the trailhead was limited. 

When we arrived at the trailhead at 8:25am, there was only one car there, so Sprinty got the pick of the available parking spots.  We enjoyed a nice hike down to the river, passing large exposed rocks along the way.

Along the way, we took various pictures of the stream:

 

 

The waterfall was pretty impressive.  From other photos in AllTrails, we got to experience the falls with some decent flow – not all the photos showed as much flow over the falls.

 

On the way back, we took the Bluff Overlook trail back to the trailhead.  There were some pretty impressive exposed rocks.

After returning to the trailhead, we drove to the nearby park located at the top of the Falls near the dam built for power generation in 1985, and the top of the falls.  We learned from the signs that the hydroelectric dam built here was the first one in North Alabama.

 

We wandered along the short trail overlooking the falls.

 

 

As we went up the stairs back to the parking lot, we noticed the John Muir quote in the risers of the stairs:

 

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, 

where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."  – John Muir

 

We then proceeded to meet up with Jean, and found that the Little River Canyon Center was not open on Sundays so we met at a nearby parking lot.  As we headed for the short walk to the Little River Falls, we stopped and got some information from the Ranger on duty.  He was full of knowledge and we learned more about the Preserve, as well as some of the history of the area.  The Trail of Tears passed through the area as it crossed the Little River in the vicinity of the modern bridge we had just crossed.

 

We picked up a park brochure which was very helpful for planning our visit. "Little River Canyon is one of the most spectacular landforms in this region, carved into the flat top of Lookout Mountain and reaching depths in excess of 600 feet in some sections. It is one of the deepest canyon systems east of the Mississippi River and the deepest in the state of Alabama. The sculptor of this canyon is the Little River, which is notable for flowing for most of its length atop a mountain as well as for possessing very high water quality. The river flows from its headwaters in northwestern Georgia to Weiss Lake in a mostly unimpaired manner."

 

It was a short hike down to the 45-foot falls. 

 

 

We then hiked the 1.4-mile Little River Canyon trail which was a wonderful place to relax, talk, and watch Jacob play in the river

 

After hiking back to the trailhead, we explored the Scenic Drive - Little River Canyon Rim Parkway.  Just looking at the map, it reminded us of Skyline Drive with its meandering path along the rim and overlook pullouts along the way.  The Ranger had recommended several of the lookouts, and said that Crow Point, about 6 miles down the parkway, was his favorite.  We headed for Crow Point as out first stop about 6 miles down the parkway.  We had decided to start with the turnaround overlook (Crow Point) and stop at the others on the way back as they would be on the right side coming back.  This worked out pretty well, especially as the overlook parking were not paved, and some were pretty rough with dips and potholes.

 

As we meandered back, we stopped at each pullout.  With the vegetation, some pullouts offered better views than others, making the point we saw on one of the signs about the views being different in the different seasons.

 

Little River Canyon and its tributaries combine to form one of the deepest and most rugged canyon systems east of the Mississippi river. The canyon rim at the Canyon View Overlook is about 1,180 feet above sea level, and the riverbottom is about 850 feet above sea level - making the canyon over 300 feet deep.

After checking out each overlook on the way back, we called it a day.  Sprinty made a beeline for home, passing up opportunities for fuel as we noticed most of the gas stations seemed to had gas.  Once we got home, we learned that our presumption of normalcy on getting fuel was premature as all the  stations in the Canton area were out of diesel.  It appeared that with the disruption last week, gasoline deliveries may have taken a priority over diesel, so Sprinty had to go to bed (into storage) hungry.

 

Sprinty and his humans had a great trip filling the days with golf, hiking and bike riding.  One of our objectives was to make sure everything was in order for this summer's adventures.  And to spend some quality time with our dear friend, Jean. Another successful adventure.