Upcoming Activities
CANCELED due to RAIN!: JANUARY 22, THURSDAY, 9:30 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Leisurely Weekday Hike
Where: Beeswax Creek Park, Lay Lake, Wilsonville, AL
Details: Beeswax Creek Park, bordered by Beeswax Creek to its north and Lay Lake (Coosa River) to its east, is located in the Columbiana/Wilsonville area in Shelby County, Alabama. Beeswax Creek Park has many amenities including two picnic pavilions, three fishing piers, a 2.8-mile multi-use trail for hiking, two restroom facilities and a huge parking lot. A resident caretaker provides security for the park. Alabama Power Company, through its "The Preserves" program, has added a boardwalk and a bridge to the trail system, created a pollinator plot with interpretive signs, and Alabama Power has also built two gazebos on the trail overlooking Lay Lake.
The walking pace for this hike will be moderately easy. We’ll stop often to catch our breath and note views, trees, birdsongs and the trail and woods around us.
We recommend that you bring binoculars with you on this trip if you have them. We will be walking along the water for over ½ of the hike distance. On our scouting trip in December, 2024, we saw numerous herons, egrets, gulls, ducks and even possibly a loon on or over the water.
Please meet at 9:30 a.m. at the McDonald’s Galleria. We plan to depart from there at 9:45 a.m.
Admission to the park is free.
Information and Trip Leader: Caroline Boone, 205-567-8389.
CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER: JANUARY 24, SATURDAY, 8:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Waterfowl Viewing Trip
Where:Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR), Decatur, AL
Details: Experience the thrilling sight of thousands of sandhill cranes, wild geese and ducks plus herons and other birds. The Refuge has the largest concentration of wintering cranes, geese and ducks in the entire state of Alabama! You don’t need to be a bird watcher to enjoy this outing! Experienced birders leading the trip will share their knowledge with all.
This 35,000-acre refuge attracts thousands of wintering waterfowl each year. WNWR is comprised of diverse habitat types including bottomland hardwoods, wetlands, pine uplands, shoreline or riparian woodlands, agricultural fields, and backwater embayments. These habitats provide excellent feeding, resting, and roosting sites for wintering waterfowl, white pelicans, sandhill cranes and a few endangered whooping cranes as well as nesting sites for migratory songbirds and many species of resident wildlife.
We are highly privileged to have as our guide Dwight Cooley, the retired Refuge Manager. Dwight will take us on refuge roads behind locked gates as we drive to various bays and sloughs where you can easily see hundreds of ducks and geese in large numbers. We’ll also see many other types of birds including, hopefully, bald eagles. We’ll even see a huge flock of sandhill cranes which winter at the refuge each year. This winter the Refuge expects to host in excess of 22,000 sandhill cranes and about 20 endangered whooping cranes. The gated roads are closed to the public but will be open to our group.
Please bring binoculars, a birding field guide and a spotting telescope with you if you have them. The leader and Dan Frederick will each bring a spotting telescope which they will share with participants. Also, please bring your picnic lunch and drink with you.
This outing is rated easy as there is very little walking involved, and we won’t be climbing any hills or walking through thick brush. Please dress for the weather. The wind at the refuge can be biting, blowing across open water on cold days.
Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age 10 and over who can remain quiet for extended periods of time (so as to not disturb the birds and bird watchers) are welcome.
Possible optional dinner after the birding trip depending on what time we finish bird watching.
Reservations Required: If you wish to participate in this outing, you are required to call Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or email your reservation to southeasternoutings@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 22, 2026. When you contact Dan, please be sure you leave your first and last name and either your phone number or email address. If you are bringing guest(s), please be sure to give Dan the first and last names of each of them.
At a later time Dan Frederick will advise meeting time and place only to those who have signed up and been approved for this trip.
We look forward to seeing many of you on January 24, 2026.
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, email southeasternoutings@gmail.com, landline 205/631-4680
JANUARY 31, 2026, SATURDAY, please meet 8:45 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Dayhike
Where: Brushy Creek and Sougahoagdee Falls, Bankhead National Forest
Details: The hike will be 6 miles long and is rated moderate. We will follow a beautiful trail which runs from the Brushy Creek Bridge along Brushy Creek. At the intersection of Brushy Creek and Sougahoagdee Creek, we turn and follow Sougahoagdee Creek less than ¼ mile upstream to Sougahoagdee Falls, one of the largest and most scenic waterfalls in the entire Bankhead National Forest.
We usually observe about eleven waterfalls on this hike. We should also see lovely cliffs, hemlock trees, canyons and perhaps some additional waterfalls. If we have time, we may also visit the nearby natural bridge (not the one at the town of Natural Bridge) in the Natural Bridge Recreation Area of the Bankhead National Forest.
No charge for admission to the Bankhead National Forest, the Brushy Creek Trail, and the Natural Bridge Recreation Area in the Bankhead National Forest.
Southeastern Outings is both honored and privileged to inform you that this outing will be co-sponsored by the Alumni of Middlebury College. The College is located in Middlebury Vermont. We expect to have some Middlebury College Alumni participate with us on this outing.
Carefully-supervised, well-behaved children age 8 and older welcome.
Please bring a picnic lunch and water.
Optional dinner after at a delightful Italian restaurant in Double Springs.
Please meet 8:45 a.m. at the Hayden-Corner Park and Ride at Exit 284 off of I-65 North. We plan to depart from there at 9:00 a.m. Or you may meet the group at 9:20 a.m. at the Mile 300 Rest Area on I-65.
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, email southeasternoutings@gmail.com, landline 205/631-4680
FEBRUARY 7, SATURDAY, 1:30 p.m.
Southeastern Outings Dayhike
Where: Five Mile Creek Greenway Extension in the Brookside Areas, just northwest of Birmingham
Details: You are invited to participate in an easy and leisurely-paced, fun Southeastern Outings dayhike on a portion of the Five Mile Creek Greenway Trail, a rails-to-trails conversion route on an old railroad right of way. This smooth trail is wide and level. No hills! This finely-crushed rock surface trail goes through mostly wooded terrain.
Note that the trail has been extended recently. Our hike on February 7 will be entirely on the new section where we have only hiked twice previously. So come out to see and experience what the new part looks like! Total hike distance is about 3.8 miles.
No motorized vehicles are allowed on the trail! This outing should be lots of fun for everyone.
Other portions of this trail have consistently been one of our most popular places to hike since the hike is easy and the trail is close to Birmingham.
Please meet in the WalMart Gardendale parking lot at 1:30 p.m. We plan to depart from there at 1:45 p.m.
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, email southeasternoutings@gmail.com, landline 205/631-4680
FEBRUARY 8, SUNDAY, 12:45 p.m.
Southeastern Outings Second Sunday Dayhike
Where: Oak Mountain State Park
Details: Enjoy a moderate 4-mile walk in the woodlands near Birmingham on a Sunday afternoon. This is an excellent outing for introducing your friends to Southeastern Outings and for making new friends who enjoy the outdoors. Parts of this hike may be off the color-coded trails. There will be some ups and downs.
Well-behaved, properly supervised children age eight and up able to walk the distance of about 4 miles without complaining and complete the hike are welcome.
Well-behaved, properly supervised children age eight and up able to walk the distance of about 4 miles without complaining and complete the hike are welcome.
Please meet at 12:45 p.m. in the Oak Mountain Park office parking lot. We plan to depart from there at 1:00 p.m.
Please bring $5/person ($2.00 seniors) park admission fee plus your drink.
Information and Trip Leader: Randall Adkins, 205/719-7719
FEBRUARY 14, SATURDAY, 1:45 p.m.
Southeastern Outings Dayhike
Where: Montevallo Parks Trail
Details: Enjoy an easy 4-mile hike on a trail in Montevallo. The main trail is two miles one way and goes through several parks, by two picturesque, flowing streams, and around a beautiful university-owned lake in a wooded park.
This walk will be Southeastern Outings’ thirteenth or so hike on the Montevallo Parks trail. Come with us for a guided tour of an easily walkable trail. Please bring plenty of water and wear good walking shoes or boots. Dress appropriately for the weather.
Optional dinner after the hike.
Please meet 1:45 p.m. at the McDonald’s Galleria. We plan to depart from there at 2:00 p.m. or you may meet the group at 2:45 p.m. at the parking lot beside the larger bridge over Shoal Creek which is the wide creek that flows through Orr Park between the ball fields and the open recreational area in the park in Montevallo. The bridge is right beside the parking lot along the creek at the back of the ball fields. Please email Dan Frederick at the email address below if you would like driving directions from Hoover to Orr Park sent to you before the hike.
Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age 7 and over able to complete the hike are welcome.
Admission to Trail and Park: Free
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, email southeasternoutings@gmail.com, landline 205/631-4680
Anticipated March events (details later):
- MARCH 7, SATURDAY, Dayhike, High Ore Line Trail, Birmingham
- MARCH 8, SUNDAY, Second Sunday Dayhike, Oak Mountain State Park
- MARCH 14, SATURDAY, Day hike, Barton’s Beach and Perry Lakes Park
- MARCH 14, SATURDAY, Low Country Shrimp Boil, Historic Marion Female Seminary Building
- MARCH 21, SATURDAY, Dayhike, Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
- MARCH 28, SATURDAY, Dayhike, Upper Quillan Creek, Sipsey Wilderness, Bankhead National Forest
- Date & location to be announced: Leisurely Weekday Hike
