Sunday, April 1, 2007

Isaac Creek Campground, AL

Day 1, Sunday

Our first destination was Isaac Creek campground, a Corp of Engineer campground on the lower Alabama River, near Monroeville, Alabama. We were on the road by 8:30. We planned to avoid the interstate and use secondary roads through the Alabama countryside. Union Springs was our favorite town -- lots of beautifully maintained victorian homes, a thriving town. The drive was pleasant until the rain started. It rained pretty steadily for the last hour of our drive. After driving 305 miles in six hours, we arrived at Isaac Creek campground. The rain finally let up. We liked this campground.

Most of the sites provided concrete pads for RVs. Most of the sites were situated along Isaac Creek, with small "courtesy docks" for those fishermen/campers staying at the campground. The sites were well spread out and most are located in the mature woods which provide lots of shade. Only a few campsites were in the open, facing Claiborne Lake, a reservoir created by a nearby dam (with locks). Isaac Creek is barely flowing as it empties into Claiborne Lake. The creek is muddy and inhabited by alligators. Swimming is discouraged.

After getting set up, we walked down to the dam and got soaked by a thunderstorm on our walk back. No problem, we just changed into dry clothes, had a delicious meat loaf, fresh brocoli, and mashed potatoes dinner and watched a little TV before going to bed exhausted.

Day 2, Monday
We used the campground laundry facilities to wash and dry our soggy clothes from yesterday. We checked out a museum next to the dam and locks to see what the hours would be -- Friday and Saturday only (so it won't be open while we're here). We drove about a mile below the dam to see what else the Corp of Engineers development offered (baseball field, bathrooms, fishing platform and boat ramp).
The sun came out after lunch -- the beginning of a mostly sunny afternoon. We headed over to a nearby boat ramp, looking for a trail to follow. Nothing. Eventually we found a trail behind the fenced park equipment yard. It was an old woods road along the edge of a pine forest, above the creek. Eventually we found a real pretty cypress pond behind a recently rebuilt dirt dam. The road across the dam led to a recent clearcut above the creek. This may explain why the water is so muddy. Further on we crossed the paved road to the dam and continued on through the woods on a clover covered road to the boat ramp a mile south of the dam. The trail continues further down river -- we decided to save that for tomorrow. The trail was finally identified as the Cypress Swamp Trail. We then walked back to the campground, back along the woods road we'd found. The total walk came to more than nine miles! Mostly level ground, but still may help get us ready for the mountains out west. Now for a well earned beer!

Day 3, Tuesday
We planned to walk early but decided to go to town to get the truck fueled for our Wednesday departure. After fueling the truck, we treated ourselves at a local bakery, then headed back to the campground. We packed a lunch, and changed into shorts and drove to the trailhead we'd spotted the day before -- resuming our exploration of Cypress Swamp trail.
The trail (another woods road) followed a ridge high above the river. Suddenly we spotted something large, moving through the brush, heading out of the woods and onto the trail. We stopped dead in our tracks. The last thing we expected to run into in these woods was a seven foot alligator. He stopped with his head projecting into the trail. There was no way we were going to walk in front of him. He was about twenty feet from us.

Since we didn't know if we could outrun an alligator, we backed down the trail, putting a little more room between us. We waited and after five minutes, he proceeded across the trail and down the ridge toward the river. We listened to the large limbs cracking and popping as he alligator scrambled down the ridge. When he sounded far enough downhill, we resumed our walk. The trail later curved down and away from the river, eventually delivering us to a large cypress swamp! We suspect the alligator was moving from the cypress swamp to the river when he earlier crossed our trail. We flushed a lot of turkey along this part of the trail. The trail continued beside the swamp until reaching the northern end of the swamp. The trail then curved back to the west and returned us to the clover covered road we were on yesterday. We followed it to a spot near where we'd left the truck and settled in for our lunch.
Before we'd finished eating lunch we spotted a Alabama fisheries truck (with a large tank mounted on the back) pull into the boat ramp area. It started to back down the ramp, so we hurried to see what they were going to do. We assumed they were going to dump some fishery raised fish into the river. We were surprised to learn that the fishery boat waiting at the end of the ramp netted a rare Alabama sturgeon (last one seen in 1999). They were hoping it was a female and the fishery truck was there to transport the sturgeon back to the fish hatchery.
Since we'd walked all of the Cypress Swamp trail, we decided to explore another woods road around the cypress swamp we'd found yesterday. It didn't take long to walk to the end of that woods road, passing one small cypress pond after another. We found some interesting holly trees and took some pictures. Then we followed the park property line back to the Cypress Swamp trail and back to the truck.

Tomorrow we leave, headed for Louisiana.

No comments: