Perdido River Overnight

This is a different sort of country for getting out on outdoor excursions and expeditions.

It is best enjoyed from October through April. The time frame, on rare years, can be extended through May. The other months, between the warm up and cool down, are miserably hot and humid. Hot is not altogether bad. Hot, with high humidity, is a bad combination that can turn hard against a person. The stifling combination, at the least, has a way of depriving one of the simple pleasure of being outdoors.

What you enter into, once you leave behind the comforts and conveniences of modern amenities and wander off into the real surrounding natural environment, is a dense sub-tropical jungle environment replete with sets of challenges and resources.

Shirli and I generally curtail our outdoor excursions and expeditions during the hot weather months. About the time our snow climate friends are headed out to enjoy the outdoors, we are looking for things to do inside in the air-conditioning, or close to the air-conditioning, until the heat and humidity subside.

I do make occasional exceptions.

This past weekend was one of those exceptions.

The Perdido River is not a popular tourist attraction. In fact, before the recent development of two canoe landings on the river, there was very little human activity on the Perdido. You had to know the river, and the meandering woods roads that lead to the river, to access it. I first met the Perdido forty years ago, long before the State and Forever Wild stepped in to create the near 18,000 acre Perdido River Wildlife Management Area.

I’ve gone through some changes in forty years.

The Perdido?

Its changes are barely noticeable. I hope it stays that way but it is already obvious, with the ease of access that has been created, that this once near pristine natural area is feeling the abuse of individuals that grossly lack in their regard for caring for natural habitats.

The meandering river is only 60 miles long and, above Highway 112, is swift enough that paddling upstream is not a reasonable proposition. The two landings were recently developed as a “put in” upstream and a “take out” downstream for canoeists and kayakers. It’s a short run that can be done in a few hours. Or, if you are more leisurely minded, find yourself a private beach along the way and do an overnight camp. 

Be mindful of the weather though. The Perdido can run high and mean in a hurry following a deluge.

There’s a log jam about halfway between Staplefork Landing and Barrineau Road that has to be portaged around.

The Perdido River Trail is being developed as part of the Alabama Trail. This is a collaborative effort being undertaken by the various chapters of the Alabama Hiking Trail Society. The Alabama Trail, upon completion, will allow hikers to hoof the 550-mile distance between Fort Morgan on the peninsula and the Walls of Jericho in NE Alabama. The Perdido River Trail Section will be 27 miles long when completed.

Just off the trail … overlooking the river … near Loggerhead Creek … are a couple of shelters that were built by Forever Wild and the AHTS. These are First Class shelters with screened fronts and small porches.

The shelters are not officially open and, from information that I received, will not be officially open “For Reservation” for a while yet. I do not understand the “For Reservation” thing. How do trail hikers … hoofing it through a remote wilderness area … with pitifully little or no cellular phone service … with no ideal way to gauge “when” they will arrive at these shelters … possibly “reserve” a shelter for an overnight?

There are also plans to develop the narrow woods road that leads to the shelters. Personally, judging by the kind of “local” activity by the “local yokels” out romping and carrying on, a drivable road to these shelters sounds like a sure recipe for disaster for this remote site that is already strewn with toilet paper by people that refuse to take the time to dig a little hole and cover their doings.

Cool weather is the best time to hike this area.

Cool weather hiking will likely keep all but the very most-hardy from wading or swimming in the Perdido. Cool/cold temperatures do, however, put an end to the annual mosquito-yellow fly-chigger season. It doesn’t get cold enough here to put a proper end to the tick season in these woods. It slows them down but regular tick-checks are still necessary. A good cool down also sends the fanged serpents … Eastern Diamondback, Copperhead, Moccasin … into winter hibernation.

If you do hike on this trail during warm weather, I recommend wearing plenty of insect repellent … a couple of us, even wearing repellent … are still generously wearing the effects of chigger bites.  And a good pair of snake boots is a really good idea. We’ve not had any encounters these two trips but this is prime habitat for the aforementioned fanged species. Though a very respectable trail has been cut, there are areas where the native flora is doing what native flora does in a sub-tropical environment.

The problem with cool weather hiking on this trail is that it meanders, albeit close to the river, through a Wildlife Management Area where hunting is one of the acceptable and normal uses of the land. It’s lawful to archery hunt on Management Land from October 25^th through February 10^th.  There are also a number of scheduled weekends during the course of Gun Deer Season when it is lawful to hunt deer with a gun on the WMA. Regardless the type of hunting going on, I’d be certain to wear some Blaze Orange for the sake of personal visibility.