Saturday was a cold morning start. The thermometer reflected it was 28 degrees
and the campfire felt good! After
grabbing coffee and some food we loaded packs and prepared to officially start
Leg 4 of the Walk Up Alabama!
The walk on Saturday was planned to be shorter mileage
stopping at about noon as David had a wedding to go to in Birmingham. Also, Austin’s twins birthday was on Saturday
so he went back with David to celebrate the birthday! Since David and Austin were returning to
Birmingham we left David’s car in Wadley so we could maximize our walk before
the early pickup by Victor.
Victor shuttled us to the start point where we stopped at
the end of Leg 3. The starting point was
Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church just out of Lafayette, Alabama. It was a bright, beautiful, and cold day for
our start through a rural part of Chambers county.
As earlier stated, Saturday was a short day for walking and
trying to get as many miles as we could, visit time was limited. As we went through the community of Penton,
we stopped at a general store for a picture in front. We didn’t take the time that is normally
spent at a store such as this one. After
passing the store the Union Hill Volunteer Fire Department building was waiting
for a picture. When we first started our
Walk Up Alabama the Stapleton Volunteer Fire Department was our main support
and location of base camp. Therefore, we
can’t walk by a volunteer fire department without getting a picture.
We spotted a casualty by the road side, a coyote was not
successful in crossing the road alive!
Sure wouldn’t want to see a live coyote that close!!
There was an open gate with a good spot to sit down and take
a break. As the temperature had warmed
some it still felt good to take the break in the sunshine.
Victor dropped Shelton off in Wadley for him to explore some
of the business there and then came on down the route hunting us. He gathered us in after we walked 9 miles for
the day. We drove back to Wadley where
David’s car was left and met Shelton. We
agreed to meet back Sunday morning at the same spot in case David and Austin
didn’t come back to base camp later that night.
We had already received the weather forecast that rain was moving in
during the night. David and Austin were
not real excited about getting back in the middle of the night in the rain to
crawl into a tent. Therefore, we were
expecting to meet up in Wadley by 9:00 am.
David and Austin left for Birmingham, and Victor, Shelton,
and I left on a sight-seeing venture. Our first stop was at the covered bridge in
the Waldo community. We made our way up
through Talladega, Oxford, and Anniston to Piedmont to check out canoes and
kayaks at Terrapin Creek Outfitters.
After spending time drooling over all the inventory of watercraft we began
our way back to Base Camp. We stopped
enroute at my cousin, Rhonda Watson’s house for a visit. We got to visit with
Wayne & Rhonda, Rhonda’s granddaughter Paisley, and Aunt Geraldine
Bohannon. Over the years Aunt Geraldine
has hosted me and some of my hiking buddies to crash at her house for sleep and
then she would shuttle us to trailheads for departure on a backpacking trip.
And the best part is we could count on her and Uncle Edward to be at the point
we would be getting off the trail. I
love my Aunt and Cousins and so glad that Shelton and Victor got to meet them!
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