Little River

It’s misting a rain as I sit here in the cabin beginning this keystroking.

The mist in the air is the preliminary stuff ahead of the faint rumbling of that weather front that my sense of hearing is able to detect way off to the west.

We’d still be there enjoying a leisurely morning and going about breaking camp at a slow-mosey pace was it not for the weather images on our phones that prompted us to pack it in and get back to the cabin late yesterday.

There are a few things about this modern era that even a dinosaur can appreciate … a weather app on a smart phone happens to be one of them.

I’m not sure when it was that we personally discovered Little River. It was quite a while ago on one of our spur of the moment day-rides. Many of our day-rides have no particular destination in mind … we just hop in the car and take off exploring backroads and byways that would cause tears of boredom for a lot of the people we know.

Little River.

That’s what it was known as in the beginning when it was built as a State Park. The name, somewhere along the way of its existence, was changed to Claude D. Kelley State Park but everyone that knows the place still calls it Little River. Claude D. Kelley Recreation Area is its official name these days but that’s a lot more syllables to pronounce than the four found in Little River.

Little River sits fairly well in the center of the 2100-acre Little River State Forest. It was so named for the aquatic feature that meanders through it and makes its way to the Alabama River some twenty bird-miles to the west. Those bird-miles, translated into river-miles, are likely close to fifty miles with the greatest part of the distance unnavigable. Following the course of the Little River would make for a mean trip.

Little River Lake was not formed by damming Little River.

The small river is bridged just before the gatehouse on the way into the park.

The lake itself is fed by a couple of small unnamed creeks, one from the north and one from the east. Overflow from the lake, via the spillway, connects with Little River a couple hundred yards from the spillway. Also designed into the earthen dam (3/4 of the way across the dam from the spillway) is an additional overflow (A well-thought out just-in-case measure?) to keep the earthen dam from being cut and compromised by high water seeking its escape from captivity.

Little River is no longer a State Park.

We watched it lose its status and close down when the prior Governor mandated budget cuts as a band aid remedy for the budget crisis that he inherited when he took the Oath of Office. Closing Little River, one of fifteen or eighteen smaller State Parks, did not solve the budget crisis and came as a hard slap to the faces of residents in smaller less commercialized areas that used these parks for wholesome recreation on a regular basis.  

The first closing broke our hearts. It was our go-to spot. We lost our favorite place to camp. We had grown to know the staff that ran Little River. They were doing a great job. Little River wasn’t a day-job for them. It was their day-home and their grief at losing it, though they tried to not show it, was pretty obvious.

Since it is part of the Little River State Forest, responsibility for the park fell into the hands of the Alabama Forestry Commission. The job of the Forestry Commission is to manage State Forests. There is no clause in their job description that puts them in the business of managing parks. Their financial and man power resources are directed toward forestry management.

Two dilemmas were now at work. (1) Little River was closed to the public. (2) There is a clause in the original deed granting this land to the State. The clause says something to the effect … If this property ever ceases to be used as a public area, ownership reverts to the heirs of the original benefactors. It was no secret that those heirs wanted it back.

Little River was closed for a couple of years while the Forestry Commission looked for someone to step in to reopen it. A non-profit did step in (I’ll not mention the name), the park reopened, and everyone thought that all was well. Things were happening again at Little River. Then, without notice, these folks pulled the plug, fell off the face of the earth, and the gate was locked with an affixed sign that said Little River would be opened again when the Forestry Commission found a suitable manager.

We lost, again, our go-to spot. We lost our ideal spot to introduce people to camp. We also lost our ideal location to hold bushcraft training camps.

Little River reopened under new management last month.

We spiked our camp midday Friday. It was the first time to set up again since our last camp in April of 2016.

A lot of good Little River memories garnered over the years were relived during those 48 hours. And, as a small group of volunteers known as Friends of Little River, we were able to make a very visible mark on getting one of the neglected walking trails back into something that makes it a very pleasant 1.5 mile stroll through the woods.

There is something about Little River that grabbed us the very first time we drove through checking it out. That something attracted us at the beginning. It still attracts us and holds our attention and affection. Some of that something has to do with knowing the history behind it … how it came to be in the first place. Some of that something has to do with the way Little River extends an invitation to simply kick back, relax, and leave all the crazy hecticness of the world out there at the gate on Highway 21.

Check out the following links.

https://cccresources.blogspot.com/

https://forestarmy.blogspot.com/