Crenshaw County Loop

[Guidedawg]

I had a day to myself this past Saturday, so on Friday night I grabbed my copy of David Haynes' excellent resource Motorcycling Alabama which has served me well as guide and inspiration in the past.

There are still a few loops in my immediate area that I have yet to explore so I chose Ride Loop 44 – Hope Hull, Ansley, Lapine Ride as the foundation for a good ride.  I say foundation because I planned a few detours along the way to pick up the National Register of Historic Places in Crenshaw County since I would be so close.

I transcribed the directions onto some notecards to tape to my fuel tank and was off after a quick breakfast on Saturday.

Most of his routes begin with Interstate or main road exits in case riders are needing to travel.  Since I am local, I avoided the Interstate and traveled through town to pick up Highway 331 where the route in the book joined at turn 3.

As I made my first planned turn, I noticed the sign for Snowdoun Chambers Road looked a bit askew and appeared to indicate that "other" road and not the one I was sure was correct.  After driving the mileage listed and seeing no turn, I realized the sign wasn't bent – my mind was.  I was thankful I wasn't leading a group as I made a U-turn and went back to where I should have turned originally.

I proceeded along the rolling pastureland to a brief stint on Woodley Road before turning on Mt. Zion Road.  I have traveled these roads short distances but then the territory became new.  As the book says, "This 32.4-mile stretch runs almost all due south and is unusually curvy for this part of Alabama."



However, I thought that the same road simply changed names but was all connected.  I was fine when I went through the small community of Dublin



But then my road ended and I did not know whether to run right or left.  I knew that I was supposed to go through Ansley and noticed a sign pointing to an Ansley church.  I will assume that the County Road 5 mentioned in the book is now Pike County Road 1135.  I was concerned again when I expected that road to end at Highway 29, but there was a merge with another county road along the way with no indication to me whether to run right or left.  Looking back at Google maps now, I can see it was all pretty straight forward, but it was the maps on my smartphone (and surprisingly I had a signal) that got me through that.

In any event, I did make my way to Highway 29, but made a detour by not turning upward as the route suggested.  Instead I went into Luverne, the county seat.

[Guidedawg]

And then I went another 8 miles further south into Brantley



Both are small towns with sections that are on the National Register of Historic places, and since I recreated that section when this site returned, I thought I would get pictures to keep it going.

If you'll pop over to the listing for Crenshaw County http://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=2119.0
You can see what I was up to.  The majority of photos taken on this trip are posted there rather than this report.

I prefer to have a specific address to find rather than historic districts because I'm never sure which buildings contribute and which do not, and often they are along a main street with nowhere to park.  Since I try to get the motorcycle in the shot that meant parking on the sidewalk and moving along before someone reported me.

Nevertheless, this section of Motorcycle Alabama is a hold over from the old days when it was a standing encouragement to get people to find ghost towns, county courthouses or county signs, and these buildings as an "excuse" to travel across the state.  No matter where you are, you are near something on the register so I encourage you to take the time to look over a county or city when you are riding through (Birmingham, for example) and stop to take a pic as a sort of photo tag.  Then post it to the county.  The addresses are all there for you to get in advance.  Okay, commercial over.

I will say this – Luverne and Brantley are Pepsi country.  There are signs everywhere and a bottling company in Luverne.  Brantley also has a Confederate Memorial park (Sons of Confederate Veterans sponsored, I assume) along Highway 331

[Guidedawg]

After my excursion into "The Friendliest City in the South" and "The front porch capital of the South" it was time to return to the route.  I skipped one small section, but made my way to the small town of Petrey and caught up to where I would have come in had I taken Camp Ground Church Road





I made my way along the rural road enjoying the sights





Until I made my way into Lapine







As I was making my way towards the town, I had read enough biker mags in Alabama to recognize the name for the "Shine in Lapine" rally.  As luck would have it, I saw a sign for it along the road and saw tents and RVs set up in some pastureland.  Could it be that I actually arrived during the event...and even more fortuitously done so on a day when my wife will be away for the night?  Surely they could use another wet T-shirt contest judge and....yeah, I kept right on riding.

But I did take a detour of another sort here.  The route called for taking a short road to connect to 331 north.  Instead, I went another direction and caught up with 331 south to go into Highland Home.  One does not ride through this town without noticing the F-16 on display at the high school for the Highland Home Flying Squadron.



My luck continued because the final structure I needed for the National Register for Crenshaw County was across the street.  I had turned into the school parking lot to get a photo of the plane and ended up with a twofer.  The address had simply said "331 west of Highland Home" so the plan was to ride up and down the road hoping to spot it.  Instead it was smack dab in the center of town.

With that mission accomplished it was time for lunch so I made a stop at a place I had eaten before





Yep, you go there when someone says "It Don't Matter" but the food is great.  There were a few other bikes in the parking lot and bikers inside so I suspect I was the only one not attending the rally.

Well sated from the buffet lunch, I returned north on 331 and caught back up to the ride loop route but this is where I left it completely.  I may go back one day to ride the 6.6 miles of West Hickory Grove Road, but that takes the rider into Highway 31 to travel north back to the Interstate.  Although that is a nice ride, I had traveled it recently and chose a different route.

Instead I continued on 331 for a few miles and turned on to Old Sellers Road.  This road parallels 331 on the west and Hobbie Road does so to the east. I've never ridden either so wanted to take the opportunity to explore a new road. 

Remember that "wrong road" I took back at the beginning?  It turns out that was Hobbie, and I rode enough of that to try Old Sellers instead.

This may have been one of the best parts of the trip.  The road had as many curves as any other I had ridden along with a few hills, creeks, and woods to make it a very enjoyable ride for this area.





The road changed to Butler Mill Road and finally ended back on 331 at the intersection with Snowdun Chambers so my loop was complete.  I returned to Montgomery the way I had come but detoured along the way to Huntington College to grab a pic for a photo tag on a VTX website.



It was beautiful weather without being too hot, new to me roads, and success in finding the pics I wanted – a perfect Saturday solo ride.



Thanks for coming along!