Lake Martin Voice Realty
New Birding Trail Opens In Lake Martin Area
The Piedmont Plateau Birding Trail officially opened on November 17 with a nice ceremony held at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.
The Piedmont Plateau Birding Trail is the central Alabama version of the popular birding trails like the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail and the North Alabama Birding Trail.
What is a birding trail?
A birding trail is a collection of locations where bird lovers and other folks can go to observe some of Alabama’s renowned diversity of bird species. The Piedmont Plateau Birding Trail is organized into three “loops.”
The Lake Martin Loop, obviously, is the part of the trail that will be closest to Lake Martin. Some of the observation points are directly on the water of the lake, such as the DARE Park and the Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail head. Others will take you off the water, but to nonetheless interesting spots like Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.
The new trail has already earned some attention. Deborah Storey covered it in this Hunstville Times article.
For what it is worth, I think this is an outstanding idea and brilliant marketing on the part of the various Chambers of Commerce that worked together to get this done. I congratulate the Alexander City Chamber for taking the lead on it. Even if you are not a “birder” – you should realize that birding related tourism is a really big business, and Alabama is a mecca.
Furthermore, it offers yet another thing to do off of the water for people who love Lake Martin. Fall is the time of year that I think gives you the best chance to hike, bike, and explore the area around the lake.
Speaking of things to do, how many of you have never been to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park? Why not? It is only about 10 miles off of highway 280 between Dadeville and Alex City. The dedication ceremony gave me a perfect excuse to tour through it again. When I was growing up, we had oodles of school trips out there. As a child, I never appreciated the sheer beauty of that park, nor did I grasp the historical significance of a battle that shaped the destinies of millions of acres of land, entire nations of native Americans, and at least one President. (Hint: check a $5 bill).
After my tour the other day, I was really getting my nature, my history, and my local pride groove on. I went wild in the Park’s gift shop, buying several (my wife rolled her eyes) books about The Battle, this area’s history, and nature. My fellow nerds will please note I added them to my Lake Martin Voice Library. Check them out, they are excellent reads.
To see my other pictures of the opening of the Piedmont Plateau Birding Trail, and Horseshoe Bend Park in general, please see:
Flickr Photo Set by Lake Martin Voice
Live With Black Bears At Lake Martin
“Black Bear Spotted In Dadeville” – when I read this headline in the Dadeville Record a couple of months ago, I literally did a double take.
What? Bears in the Lake Martin area?
I grew up here. I work here. I hunt, fish, boat, hike, and generally enjoy the outdoors here. While I am no Marlin Perkins, I at least have a pretty decent knowledge of our local flora and fauna. But bears? This is a first.
Apparently we have at least one black bear roaming the countryside around the Point Cloxson area of Lake Martin. This is on the north east section, generally near homes with Jacksons Gap or Dadeville in their addresses.
I am excited. I have seen wild bears before: grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park and plenty of black bears while trout fishing in the Smokies. But those were at safe distances and I was on the alert.
 Black bears aren’t supposed to be around here |
I want a picture.
The Outlook article quoted multiple sightings from plenty of credible people. But no picture. I would love one. I will be on the lookout myself, and would love to scoop Kenneth Boone on this story. Kenneth, known locally as “Mr. Perfect” for his dapper and occasion appropriate attire is our region’s newspaper magnate and a legitimately talented photographer.
Imagine his professional chagrin if, a lowly realtor like me that uses all auto settings on my camera, am able to get a picture of the bear first. Granted, I am relying totally on luck. The bear will literally have to walk out in the road in front of me and stay there for at least 30 seconds while I fumble for my iPhone.
I have one advantage – I have a waterfront home for sale near the bear’s lair. 173 Wood Duck Loop is right off of Point Cloxson Road, not 2,000 feet from the sightings. This may be the only time I ever get to use this tease:
Would you like to own a Lake Martin home near a known black bear habitat?
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173 Wood Duck Loop is a nice one. It’s a 2 bed 1 bath home that is fixed up to the nines. The seller has completely renovated it. Completely new wiring, installed beautiful granite in the kitchen, put in stainless appliances, vaulted the ceilings, even put in a Rennai tankless water heater. All this for well under $300k.
Click here for more info on 173 Wood Duck Loop and watch the full motion video tour.
By the way, would you like an easy way to keep up with Lake Martin area news? Lake Martin Buzz is the way to do it. It combines news headlines from companies like the Alex City Outlook with tweets and status updates from local people and small businesses. It combines them all and tweets them here or posts them all on one website here.
Deer Take Refuge In Stillwaters
Cold weather means deer season here in Alabama. Whether or not you are a deer hunter, you can’t help but notice the increase of pickup trucks dragging loaded down trailers, driven by hunters in orange clothing. It’s definitely a little more dangerous to be a deer this time of year.
Except in one neighborhood.
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You still see deer in the Lake Martin neighborhood of Stillwaters.
Stillwaters is a gated community on the Dadeville side of Lake Martin. It is large by Lake Martin standards, and has a mixture of off water homes, waterfront homes, and waterfront condos. It also has a golf course and marina.
Stillwaters also has a large herd of whitetail deer. It is not uncommon at all to see them on the side of the road, placidly grazing, not a care in the world.
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I have seen a doe in this same general area several times. I guess this is her fawn. They are almost tame. Check out this video to see how close I got to them in my car. I originally posted this on my media blog on posterous.
I filmed this when I was on the way back from one my listings. I have a waterfront condo for sale in Stillwaters, inside one of the condo developments named Villas on the Harbor.
Would you like to see deer like this on your morning walk?
Check out this page for more info on the condo for sale. It is a great one, conveniently close to the marina, with its own owners’ pool.
Lake Martin Glass Minnow Traps
What a cool picture of a glass minnow trap made right here at Lake Martin:
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I found this pic in the Lake Martin dot com forum. A fellow on there is researching its origin. Another reader pointed out an old sign near McCain Road and highway 229. If you know anything about them, feel free to comment below or on the post thread on the forum.
I love to fly fish but I also am fascinated by traps of all sorts, used in the live bait fishing world. Two totally different extremes, I know. We still have the wire minnow trap that I used as a kid to get spot tail minnows. Later on my dad bought a bunch of clear plastic ones that a local dude made out of 3 liter coke bottles (remember those?). They worked well but were fragile.
Last year I bought my dad this trap from Cabela’s, thinking it would harvest a bounty of crawdads for bait. We put it out in a likely spot but all we caught were a bunch of turtles that nearly destroyed the trap. If anyone has any crawdad trapping tips (like how to keep out the turtles), please advise.
Bald Eagle Fishing In Little Kowaliga
Winter at Lake Martin means the lake level gets drawn down. It gives us a chance to work on our docks, at least. It also sometimes means you get some rare wildlife spottings.
Check out these pictures of a bald eagle that was fishing in the Little Kowaliga area of Lake Martin. My fellow Lake Martin Voice Realty agent John Christenberry was over near Real Island Marina and saw this one capture a big bass.
The eagle dropped it on the shore, flew around a little bit, then came back to it.
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Taking off here
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Now he’s almost gone..
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Do you have any wildlife photos from around Lake Martin? Email us at info at lakemartinvoice dot com. Or, feel free to add them to the I Love Lake Martin Alabama page on Flickr or to our Facebook page.
Is Lake Martin Too Crowded on July 4?
The Fourth of July is always one of the busiest times at Lake Martin. That’s a given.
Another given is that you will hear a little whining and “back in my day” stories from the old timers who didn’t have fancy boats. They had to ride to Acapulco Rock on a dugout canoe, back when Sand Island was the size of Goat Island.
Sure, Lake Martin is busier now than it was back in the 50s. Here are 3 residents that I bumped into last week:
Dirt roads still dominate the lake area. So do deer. There are more deer here than people.
Lake hummingbirds get so exhausted from plentiful nectar that they have to sit down for a while to rest. I took this at one of my new listings .
Lake Martin turtles are not shy. They bug you with their endless pacing about.
Off to fight the crowds…….
For more totally amateur pictures of Lake Martin wildlife, see my set on Flickr: Lake Martin Wildlife
Deadening Alpine Trail – Lake Martin
Yesterday I was showing homes for sale in a Lake Martin neighborhood called The Harbor. It is a development that is about eight or nine years old. It is located off of Overlook Drive, just east of the Martin Dam, off of Highway 50.
I was through around 6 PM, and the sun was starting to set. The air was cool, not very humid, basically it was perfect weather.
As I was leaving, I decided to stop by the trailhead of the Deadening Alpine Trail. It is a 3.6 mile loop trail and part of the Cherokee Ridge trail system of Lake Martin. This system is maintained by the Cherokee Ridge Trail Association. The trail runs over land owned by Alabama Power. The trailhead itself is accessed by going into the neighborhood of The Harbor, then taking a left on Long Branch. The drive to the parking lot is accessed off of Long Branch Drive:
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There is a little parking lot just for this trail:
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Here is the trailhead, they even have little bamboo staves with “Deadening Trail” written on them for you to borrow:
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Anyway the trail is beautiful, a real gem for Lake Martin, a great activity if you have never done it. I am embarrassed to say I have never tried it before yesterday, as many times as I have driven by it. The next time my family is with me, I think we will do the whole thing. I encourage everyone to become a member.
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Have you ever hiked any of these trails? Any tips for the rest of us? If so please comment below.
Related Posts:
Cherokee Ridge Trail
