Nubbin Creek Trail

I found myself hiking the Nubbin Creek Trail within the Talladega National Forest under the premise of looking for waterfalls.  A book I’d purchased claimed I’d see three falls, and I love waterfall hunting.  The claim of a “Gorge Falls” being the first fall to be found along the route from the trailhead yet before the Cheaha Wilderness sign on the trail didn’t seem to be valid. I think the book I was working with had had someone out there during a very rainy time of year and a seasonal cascade must have been flowing, because I could kind of see where something might form from a certain vantage point down a really bushy trail spur during special circumstances, but it just led to a wild goose chase for this trip. The book didn’t have a picture of this supposed fall either, which maybe should have been a hint that something was amiss. So I call BS, Gorge Falls doesn’t really exist.

The second cascade/fall noted along the Nubbin Creek Trail was however pictured in the book, I found it since the trail goes right past it, and even in somewhat dry conditions, it was flowing.  Since it doesn’t seem to have a real name that I’m aware of, I ended up nicknaming it Crawfish Falls because there were lots of crawfish in the pools where it intersected the trail.  This made the hike worth it.

The third cascade/fall was obvious a bit farther down the trail but was dry, and probably stays that way, more of a temporary drainage canal then anything and there wasn’t a picture of it in the book either, so I just ended this little outing by assuming the only picture I had to work with was Crawfish Falls because only one fall was a real persistent fall.

So 1 out of 3 things found wasn’t bad, and I had a thrilling encounter with a cranky rattlesnake.  Through hikers will go farther than I did since I was only in the scope of the first couple miles out for what I was doing.