DeSoto Scout Trail(DeSoto SP to Little River Canyon backcountry)

[OwenM]

This is a follow-up to the thread I posted last week after discovering Little River Canyon National Preserve had a backcountry section: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...mpse-of-Little-River-Canyon-s-backcountry(AL)
Yesterday I did part of the DeSoto Scout Trail. Started at the state park, and continued until it hit Little River Canyon's dirt backcountry roads. Here I diverged from the trail(which at this point is actually the road I was on last week), and hiked a couple of back roads to Hwy 35, and back into the park. Was packed for an overnighter to Hartline Ford, but was not hyped about retracing what I did last week, or hiking back up the same trail I'd just done.
The cold front pushed all the clouds out, and the sunlight wreaked havoc on my photos. I took a lot of videos, and may upload a few of those.

Shame my pics didn't come out better. The first 2.5-3 miles below Indian Falls is now one of my favorite sections of trail in Alabama. For awhile there, I was literally stopping every hundred feet or so to look and try to get pics. I actually took ~360 pictures yesterday, though many were mutiples, since I was struggling badly with the lighting.
Can't wait to go back after the leaves change(and on a cloudy day)!

Indian Falls

For some reason, this reminded me of the comic book character Wolverine:

 

[OwenM]

This is called Poison Ivy Falls:

Cable bridge over Straight Creek

Hard to see laying in intermittent light. I stopped two steps shy of running over him(this is an "after" pic, which is why it's agitated; the one I took when I first saw it was blurry):

Pretty fat little bugger. I took a bunch of pics from different angles-some of them are great zoomed in, so I may post a crop later.

Mostly dirt roads and then paved ones after this. I didn't take a lot of pics of the woods, because they're woods...
The trail is worth discussing, as it can be anything from really rough along the river to wide, smooth, and flat in the woods, so maybe I'll get a video or two up. Even short ones take forever to load with my ISP, though.

 

[OwenM]

[youtube]yH99EkZCHV0[/youtube]

[youtube]L9G5cnelSHc[/youtube]

[youtube]8-7kFjTpXzk[/youtube]

 

[22-rimfire]

I am fairly new to DeSoto SP and the Little River Canyon. I appreciate your post, photos and so forth. I think that I'll head there for some hiking and photo taking in a couple weeks when the leaves start to change a bit more. The maps of the area really don't give you very good feel for getting down to the river by vehicle. But that area is fairly undeveloped. The roads could be very rough (aka 4x4 stuff) or fairly good.

Pretty good shot of the Copperhead. It has the classic coloration.

I notice that the Little River seems to be pretty buffered from significant flooding even after substantial rainfall. We got 8" of rain over two days during the last bout of rain and there was really not much flooding in my area either.

 

[OwenM]

Pretty good shot of the Copperhead. It has the classic coloration.

I notice that the Little River seems to be pretty buffered from significant flooding even after substantial rainfall. We got 8" of rain over two days during the last bout of rain and there was really not much flooding in my area either.

Thanks.
That copperhead simply wouldn't move. Most of the time they'll sit there, but when you get close, they want to move away. If you watched the video, I stepped between the snake and that tree for a second, maybe 2ft from him, and he still didn't move. Probably just got done eating
I ran over this one in the trail October before last at Cheaha:

Watch your step around this time of year, they're a lot harder to see than in summer time!

I'm not familiar with where all the Little River sheds water from, but it does flood pretty big sometimes.
No telling how long this had been there(this is from this week), but you can see the other debris, too. Even though it had curved a little away from the river at this point, the trail would had to have been several feet under water when this stuff got stuck here:

Not the first footbridge I'd seen around there, though this one from a couple of years ago was below Little River Falls:

 

[22-rimfire]

I know it floods, but the coloration of the water seems to be more clear than turbid (hence the buffering) unless it is a big flood. I recall the Bear Grylls episode he did along the Little River and it was obvious that it does in fact flood pretty significantly. By the time you get to the Little River Falls, it is a fairly large river where you might expect rises of 5 feet or more when it really floods. There is a smaller "river" up my way that the increase in flow is amazing during flooding where all the USGS river gauges are under water. This is a "river" that you can often hop across on rocks during early summer flow rates. It is a trout stream and pretty which is why I go there. They stock it, but at least it is a place to go to wet a line during much of the year. In Tennessee, catching 8 trout is considered a great day, where as I have been used to doing much better than that with native trout on a typical day. I do the catch and release thing pretty much exclusively.

 

[sicily02]

I like the pics you took, Owen. That snake decided that was his place lol. You have a great place to hike in.

Bryan

 

[Allen R.]

love little river canyon i live about 20 minutes from it , but i work about 3 minutes from it. It really is beautiful up there. Nice pics especially a place so close to home. I would of done one thing different than you though, If i come across a venomous snake I feel it's my duty to get rid of the animal, that's just me but you never know when a child or even another adult is gonna be coming thru next and they might not have the eye you do, thats why it's good nite snakey if I see them, but anyway live the pics bro, just curious what part of AL you from you don't haft to say a city , you can say northeast, central etc, or mind your own business allen either one Also up there at little river correct me if I'm wrong but from your pics it looks like you went into the mouth park/camping area and went down that trail, If you've never been to 3 layer rock up there it is awesome you have to follow the road up the moutain and there is just a little gravel parking area off the side of the road , and all you see is woods from the road but if you walk down you will see one of the best swimming places I have ever been too there is a small water fall but there are these huge rocks that create a dam effect and the water is crystal clear and almost as still as a swimming pool, it gets its name because the rock face has 3 layers that people jump off of, really fun, you should check it out if you ever go back up there.

 

[OwenM]

Thanks, Bryan. He was probably just too lazy to move!

Allen, I'm just above Birmingham, so it takes me about an hour and a half to get to LRC.