Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge (Blog Hike #280)

Trails: Creek, Allison Lake, Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, and Pine Trails

Hike Location: Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge

Geographic Location: northeast of Forsyth, GA (33.11118, -83.67853)

Length: 5.5 miles

Difficulty: 6/10 (Moderate)

Dates Hiked: June 2009, May 2013

Overview: A rolling multi-loop hike on remote trails with good wildlife viewing.

Refuge Information: http://www.fws.gov/piedmont/
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=722487
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: In central Georgia, take I-75 to Juliette Rd. (exit 186).  Exit and go east on Juliette Rd.  Follow Juliette Rd. 18 miles to the signed refuge entrance on the left.  Turn left to enter the refuge.  Follow the main road to the Visitor Center on the right.  Park in the blacktop lot in front of the Visitor Center.

The hike: Located immediately southwest of Oconee National Forest, Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge protects 35,000 acres of abandoned farmland.  When the refuge was founded in 1939, decades of poor cotton farming practices had left the soil depleted of nutrients.  Moreover, many of the farms had been abandoned during the Dust Bowl, creating a barren, desolate, lifeless waste whose clay soil was highly subject to erosion.

            Scars of the Dust Bowl damage can still be seen along the trails here, and the soil still only grows mostly pine trees and grass.  Still, the situation is much better than in 1939.  Pine tree roots help hold the soil in place, thus lessening the erosion problem.  Birds and other wildlife call the forest home.  The land has not completely recovered, but the recovery process has well begun.

            The refuge is open year-round, but I recommend a late winter visit to Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge.  If you come in the fall, although the trails are in a no-hunting zone, you will have to contend with hunters on adjacent land.  In the summer, the open nature of much of this forest makes for a hot and sunny hike.  Also, because the location is remote and this is a refuge, not a park, trail maintenance is not a selling point of this hike.  Thus, you will find the trails more navigable before the plants turn green in the spring.

            The trails at the refuge form three adjoining loops.  A pair of parking areas and trailheads allow you to hike any of the three loops separately.  This hike combines all three loops to experience all the Visitor Center area of the refuge has to offer.

Trailhead for Pine/Creek Trail

            Begin by exiting the back door of the Visitor Center, which contains some interesting wildlife exhibits, and head downhill to where the Creek and Pine Trails begin.  These two trails form the first of the three loops.  For no particular reason, I chose to turn right and hike the Creek Trail first and use the Pine Trail as the eventual return route.

            The Creek Trail heads downhill through a sparse loblolly pine forest with lots of grass and shrubby plants in the understory.  In 1939, this hillside was barren, and the effects of the erosion can still be seen in the form of deep ditches along the hillside.  At 300 feet, the trail arrives at the rock spring that creates a tributary of Allison Creek.  Water slowly flows from underneath large boulders and continues down a very steep-sided channel, another sign of the former erosion problems.

Rocky tributary of Allison Creek

            At the creek, the trail curves left and begins following the creek downstream.  The creekside forest is lush with plenty of hardwoods such as ash and sweet gum.  The Creek and Pine Trails are probably the worst maintained trails in the refuge, but sufficient white blazes, carsonite posts, wooden waterbars, and other trail markers exist so that you should not lose the trail, provided you look for the markers.

Hiking along the Creek Trail

            At 0.4 miles, the trail passes a bench and curves left to begin a short but steep climb out of the floodplain.  Curving right, the trail remains just above creek level as it crosses a couple of small tributaries that were dry on my visit.  As you approach the headwaters of Allison Lake, the trail curves left and makes a final climb away from the creek to arrive at an intersection with the Pine Trail at a bench.

            The faint Pine Trail heads left and continues climbing, but this hike turns right and descends rather steeply to lake level where it intersects the Allison Lake Trail.  The Allison Lake Trail forms the second loop in the trail system, so you could go either way.  This description will stay close to the lake by heading right and using the left trail later.

            The trail heads west with the lake on your right and the hillside rising gradually to your left.  Normally some good lake views can be had, but on my visit the lake had been drained for dredging, so I got some good views of a dirt pit.  1 mile into the hike, you arrive at a short spur trail which leads right to a wildlife viewing blind.  The blind overlooks the lake, so your chances of seeing waterfowl here are quite good.  Unfortunately some poison ivy has been allowed to grow around the blind, so watch your step.

Allison Lake, taken in 2013

            Past the blind, the trail angles left as it heads gradually uphill, keeping the lake in view to the right.  At 1.5 miles, the trail comes out at an information kiosk beside a large blacktop parking lot.  Vehicles access this parking lot by continuing along the main refuge road past the Visitor Center.  If you wanted to hike just the Allison Lake Trail, the easiest trail in this section of the refuge, you would want to park here.

            The Allison Lake Trail continues on the same side of the refuge road, and this description will continue with that loop later.  The third loop is the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Trail, and it is my favorite trail at the refuge.  To reach it, leave the Allison Lake Trail, walk around the vehicle gate, head down the paved road toward the lake, and continue along the gravel road which crosses the dam.  There used to be a concrete spillway built on top of the dam, but it was replaced during dam reconstruction in 2010.

Dam Creating Allison Lake

            Across the dam, the two-track gravel road climbs away from the lake.  Just after a sweeping right turn, look for the carsonite post uphill and to the left that marks the beginning of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Trail.  The single-track dirt trail begins as an undulating course over a couple of low ridges and through a couple of shallow ravines.  At 2.1 miles and on one of the ridges, the trail intersects an old road and a bench in a grassy area.  Though unmarked, this is the start of the loop portion of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Trail.  To reach the woodpecker colony more quickly, I continued straight here and used the left fork as the return route.

            After passing through one more ravine, the trail enters a grassy area sparsely dotted with slash pines.  As you might have guessed, these grassy areas on the ridgetops used to be farm fields.  The grass makes for a nice change of scenery from the wooded lake and creek areas, but some shin-high grass also grows on the trail itself.  Ticks and chiggers love this tall grass, so be sure to check yourself for ticks after the hike.  This is also a good reason to wear pants for this hike: I found three ticks crawling on my pants and socks during my post-hike inspection.

Red Cockaded Woodpecker Trail

            At 2.6 miles, the trail crosses another unmarked old road.  This road is not an official trail, so you should continue straight.  Soon a gravel road comes within sight ahead and to the right.  The trail never reaches the gravel road but instead curves left to parallel it, still in the long grass.

            2.9 miles into the hike, you arrive at a bench and interpretive sign which mark the site of the red-cockaded woodpecker colony.  At only 8.5 inches, the red-cockaded woodpecker is small by woodpecker standards.  Unlike other woodpeckers, this bird, which is on the endangered species list, nests in living pine trees, using the resins to deter predators.  My brief scan did not locate any red-cockaded woodpeckers, but due to the heat and bugs I decided not to try for very long.

            Past the woodpecker colony, the trail heads gradually downhill, soon leaving the grassy ridge behind for the forested area along Allison Creek.  Upon reaching the creek, the trail curves right and begins heading upstream along the slow, still, steep-banked creek.  I saw numerous turtles sunning on logs in the creek bed.  Unlike the ridgetops, the area along the creek is lush with vegetation including azaleas and ferns.        

Red Cockaded Woodpecker Trail

            After paralleling the creek for 0.3 miles, the trail curves left and begins the gradual climb back to the ridge.  Soon the tallgrass dotted with pines reappears.  After taking a left turn onto an old road and climbing over a small ridge, the loop is closed.  Turn right and retrace your steps first back to the dam and then back to the information kiosk along the Allison Lake Trail.

            If you wanted to take a short-cut back to the Visitor Center, you could walk along the blacktop refuge road for 0.5 miles, but that route is less scenic and more sunny in summer.  To stay in the woods, angle left from the kiosk and continue around the Allison Lake Trail counterclockwise.  The trail crosses four steep-sided gulleys on wooden bridges before descending moderately to lake level, where the loop is closed and the Creek Trail exits to the right.

            Turn right and retrace your steps somewhat steeply up the Creek Trail to its intersection with the Pine Trail.  The Creek Trail you began on turns left at this intersection, but for some new scenery, continue climbing on the faint Pine Trail.  All of these trails are lightly traveled.  In fact, other than park rangers, I did not see another person in the refuge during my visit.

Gunn Cemetery

            After gaining the high ground, the Pine Trail undulates somewhat as it makes a beeline for the Visitor Center.  Just before reaching the Visitor Center, you pass the historic Gunn Cemetery, dating to 1825.  At 5.5 miles, you arrive at the rear of the Visitor Center where you began.  Walk through the Visitor Center, browse the wildlife exhibits if you haven’t already, and return to your car to complete the hike.