Getting out in the Sipsey Wilderness in AL

Gunny Webb

Outdoor Member
Messages
126
Points
18
Location
Alabama
My brother and I had been trying to get out for over a month. Because of work we never could get together. We finally set a date and had 4 others going with us. Well, you know how plans go. Brother calls that morning and said his partner has the flu and he's covered up at work. Only the second time in 15 years he's even had a sniffle.
I meet up with two others from our hiking club and we meet two others from Huntsville AL and we hit the trail at one PM. We go up trail 224 a mile and a half or so and go south till we cross Falls Creek. We follow the watershed a half mile or so and come across as fine a campsite as I've ever seen. We have over a quarter acre of flat ground, water 10 feet away, large Beech trees mixed with small Hemlock. Large hill on one side filled with firewood and beautiful bluffs on the other side of the creek. We'll take it!
The five of us set up camp which consisted of 3 tents and a tarp. With 5 people and 2 saws firewood was only a 30 minute project and we found an old firering that had gone unused for 10 years or so. It was about freezing when we arrived and by 9pm it was a balmy 22 degrees.
Dinner was steak cooked on a stick for me, one freeze dried meal, a large bag of chicken salad and a father and son did something I had never seen. Take a thick porterhouse steak and throw it directly on the fire coals! About 4 minutes on one side and 3 on the other. Take it up and (using a stick of coarse) scrape the coals off. They said it was fantastic.
The next morning I was first up (at 8 AM) and restarted the fire using last night coals. I think everyone else thought it was too cold to be first up. One fellow said it was 12 when he answerd natures call at 4 AM and it was 17 when I got up. It had had water in it, it was frozen. Water bottles even froze solid in tents. It was so cold we never heard a feral hog or a peep from coyotes. Only a solitary owl was stirring. After a variety of breakfast ideas we warmed up and casually took down camp.
About 10:30 we took off down the creek. Stopped a bit to find a "bearing" tree. That is a Beech tree that was marked in 1826-ish to mark a section corner. A stone nearby was marked in 1831 from the next survey and on that stone was a plate from the USGS in 1933. That tree is one of the few known left from the original survey of North Alabama. We continued down and went by five young people setting up camp and a short while later came out at Falls Creek Falls and the Sipsey River. Quite a few people at the falls and met many more on the walk out. The predicted low for the night was up to 34 degrees, so everyone was hiking in to camp.
On the way out it was very slick in places because the sun was up and had thawed the frozen ground. You would take a step and all of a sudden the top quarter inch of ground would go out from under you. Saw several folks with a muddy backside and one of our party suffered a minor ankle twist. It was about five and a third miles out. Maybe a total of eight and a half miles for the trip. Nobody suffered from the cold as all were highly prepared with adequate clothing and an assortment of who's who in the high dollar down sleeping bag department. Those bags are overpriced till you sleep very warm in one at 10 degrees, then you say they sell them too cheap.
Got home, showered and loaded up the telescope and was off again. Mrs Gunny sure had a large to-do list when I got up the next day. Oh well, I had fun for a while anyway.
If anyone is interestedin seeing the area there are free printable maps available from the Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club at sipseywilderness.org. Come give Alabama a try!
 

Grandpa

Well-Known Member
Messages
5,904
Points
113
Location
SE Idaho
Excellent Gunny. And an excellent example of how good gear and being prepared makes for a great time in any conditions.
 
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