Much turkey was burned yesterday in Bankhead National Forest. A group of 12 braved the cold start at 47 degrees. Merrill, Rox and I came up from Birmingham, and Doug and eight others came from Huntsville and other areas. We had a great time getting to know each other and checking out some great gravel and amazing scenery.

While I was driving in, I was counting the horses, and thought that it might be fun to play a game where the first person to spot a horse could call out “horse” and get a point. The problem is that there are rarely more than three or four folks in ear shot. So by the end of the ride, the game became call out every different animal you see. From where I was, the list was horse, cow, dog, Pyrenees specifically, Heron with a 7’ wingspan, a fox squirrel that raced us for a while, wild chickens, vultures, and the skunk that they were eating in the middle of the right lane.

We had two main objectives with this route. First, avoid the first day of hunting in zone A. We saw no sign of hunters and heard no shots. Second, the route avoided several roads that logging was supposed to be heavy on. We saw several logging trailers on the side of the road, and several logging hazard signs, but not one truck. We might have seen twenty cars on the 65 mile ride.

We checked out a lot of new gravel North of Wren, but some of what my ALDOT maps show as dirt might actually be chip seal. Either way, it was a beautiful day in Bankhead. No bad dogs were encountered, but there were lots of good ones, and a beautiful husky pup that ran with us for a good while and got a nice petting session.

Thank you to everyone that showed up. It was a great day in the woods.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bk65ufjf8wy0lvu4jjjlp/AJbKzzEr5W3Ut-8HPMydqEQ?rlkey=9ec401v52qnna8191zhc8sup2&dl=0