JANUARY 10, 2026, SATURDAY, 1:45 p.m.
Southeastern Outings Spectacular Dayhike
Where: Upper Quillan Creek, Sipsey Wilderness, Bankhead National Forest
Details: Moderately strenuous, 4-mile dayhike in a highly scenic location, Upper Quillan Creek Forest Area. Most of the hike is off trail, there are lots of ups and downs, and several rock-hopping crossings are required across small creeks.
We’ll walk along two creeks and on an old road. At a beautiful waterfall we’ll visit the site of an old mill. On this hike we’ll see several small waterfalls on side creeks and tributaries to Quillan Creek. We will visit at least three very pretty waterfalls on Quillan Creek itself along the way. We expect to see a minimum of a total of twelve lovely waterfalls on this trip.
Please bring picnic lunch and water for the day. We expect to finish hiking about 4:00 p.m. Optional dinner after. Well-behaved, properly supervised children age 9 and over able to walk 4 miles off trail without complaining are welcome.
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 8, 2026. When you contact Dan, please be sure you leave your phone number and/or email address. This outing is limited to 10 people in order to comply with U.S. Forest Service regulations. We hope the limitation will not prove to be a problem.
If you make a reservation with Dan to come on this trip and then for any reason decide later to not come on this outing, please telephone Dan, 205/631-4680 right away. If we have 10 people signed up on the day of the hike and, for example, we have two people on the waiting list and then two people who signed up don’t show up for the hike, those two no-show people have in effect deprived the two on the waiting list from participating. Please don’t be a no-show. If you aren’t coming after making a reservation, please notify Dan.
At a later date leader will advise meeting time and place only to those who have signed up and been approved for this trip.
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, southeasternoutings@gmail.com, or phone 205/631-4680
JANUARY 11, 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 and complete the hike are welcome.
Share an adventure! Bring a friend.
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 and children) park admission fee plus your drink.
Information and Trip Leader: Randall Adkins, 205-719-7719
JANUARY 17, SATURDAY, 9:40 a.m.
Southeastern Outings Cave Tour and Woodland Hike
Where: Cathedral Caverns State Park, Woodville, Alabama
Reservations Required
If you want to come on this outing, you must call trip leader Dan Frederick, 205-631-4680 before noon on Friday, January 9, 2026 so that we can abide by the Park’s group tour reservation deadline policy.
Please give Dan your name, telephone number including area code, and email address if you have one. Cave tour admission arrangements for participants who register by this deadline will be compliments of Southeastern Outings. This means that Southeastern Outings will pay your $20 per adult and $9 per child cave admission charge, provided that you make your reservation with Dan Frederick, trip leader, before noon on Friday, January 9.
Details: Tour one of Alabama’s largest developed caves. After we arrive at the park, you can use the restrooms. We then are required to assemble together at 11:45 a.m. right outside the cave entrance for our tour which starts at 12:00 noon sharp. The cave, which maintains a constant temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, includes a very large entrance and several beautiful formations. Please be sure to bring with you an upper outdoor garment like a warm winter shirt, a sweatshirt or a lightweight jacket to wear so that you will be comfortable while you are in the cave.
The cave tour walk with tour guide is 1.5 miles in length and takes 1.5 hours. Following the cave tour, we will enjoy having our lunches on the park porch. Then we will hike in the park through hardwood forests on gentle slopes and through grassy meadows.
Please bring your picnic lunch and water with you.
Optional dinner in Guntersville after the outing concludes.
Please meet 9:40 a.m. at the Cleveland Chevron, 36320 AL Highway 79, Cleveland, AL 35049. We plan to depart from there at 9:55 a.m.
Remember—If you want to not pay the $20 per person cave tour admission fee, please be sure to make your reservations for this outing before noon on Friday, January 9!!
Information and Trip Leader: Dan Frederick, email southeasternoutings@gmail.com, landline 205/631-4680
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.
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
Anticipated February events (details later):
- FEBRUARY 7, SATURDAY, Dayhike, Shoal Creek Park
- FEBRUARY 14, SATURDAY, Dayhike,Montevallo Parks Trail
- FEBRUARY 15, SUNDAY, 2nd Sunday Dayhike, Oak Mountain State Park
- FEBRUARY 21, SATURDAY, Dayhike, Moss Rock Preserve
- FEBRUARY 26, THURSDAY, Weekday hike, To Be Announced
- FEBRUARY 28, SATURDAY, Dayhike, Double Oak Park
