West Point Lake - 9/13

[ThumperTriple]

Quick ride up to explore just a little of West Point Lake with a buddy in a Jeep.  Took a little less than an hour to get out there from Auburn without hitting I85. Gave me my first chance to try out my new highway pegs, I'm in love.

First stop, the dam.




This being BamaRides, we stuck to the AL side of the lake. Google Earth had unveiled an enticing looking road, and this would be our only real adventure for the short time we had. It didn't take us long to sight water from this little dirt road, so we found a parking spot and hiked into the woods to check it out.

A washed out road, it's incredible how nature has begun to reclaim the asphalt farther inland.




We didn't attempt to find a path to this side because there was a tree down not far from the water, but naturally we had to try to find the other side.

We pressed on to the end of the little peninsula first, and ran out of road. A brief rock crawl and some non-Jeep accessible trekking later I made it here. I could have gone farther, but didn't want to leave my poor buddy in the dust. 1WD > 4WD.




At last, we turned around and found the other side of the washed out road.



The current water level is about 4 feet higher than the minimum usually seen in Mid-Dec, so it may be worth coming back to see if I can ride across.

[klaviator]

Interesting.  Here in the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge there are some roads which are only there during the summer months when the water is lower.  Perhaps this summer was unusually wet.  Or maybe West Point lake is managed differently?

[ThumperTriple]

I'm not sure what dictates the level at West Point, just referred to historical data.

Alabama Power Co. drops the level of Lake Martin somewhere around 9 ft every winter and raises it back in spring to compensate for increased power needs.