Gulf Coast Region - Hiking Alabama: A Guide to the State's Greatest Hiking Adventures - page 84

Trail contact: Alabama State Port Authority, 250 N. Water St., Mobile, AL 36602;
[phone]; www.asdd.com
Finding the trailhead: From the intersection of US 90 and Bellingrath Gardens
Road in Theodore, take Bellingrath Gardens Road south 2.2 miles. Turn left onto
Industrial Road and travel 1 mile. The paved parking lot is on the left. GPS: N30
31.029' / W88 09.158'
The Hike
So, I live on Alabama's Gulf Coast and thought I had hiked all there is to hike
down here. Then I saw online a posting for someone leading a hike on the Muddy
Creek Interpretive Trail in the town of Theodore. Curious, I shot them an e-mail
and asked where Muddy Creek was and what it was like. They replied that they
didn't know. They had only heard a vague mention of it themselves from a friend
and thought they would check it out. And so did I.
You wouldn't think that there would be much to the hike when you consider the
trail's location. You are in the bustling town of Theodore on the west side of one
of the state's biggest counties, Mobile, heading to the trailhead down a road called
Industrial Road through an area known for its chemical plants. But there it was,
and what a great little hike.
The Muddy Creek Interpretive Trail is a 2.2-mile lollipop loop through wetland
areas on the western bank of Mobile Bay. The property itself is owned by the
Alabama State Port Authority, the folks who handle shipping in and out of the
bay. The trail project began in 1998, when it was decided that the best use of the
property was to preserve and enhance the wetland as part of a wetland mitigation
measure. Five long, hard years later, the trail was completed.
Some of the goals of the Muddy Creek project included the removal and control
of invasive exotic plant species, restoration of native wetland and upland plant
ecosystems, installation of nesting boxes, replanting of 66 acres of upland agricul-
tural fields with native longleaf pines, and the development of an interpretive trail
and boardwalk system. The first goal, the removal of invasive plants, proved chal-
lenging. The process was all done by hand—everything from pulling bushes to
hand-cutting trees to treating stumps with herbicide then replanting native species.