Trip Report: Sipsey Wilderness (William B. Bankhead National Forest, AL) September 16-20, 2015

[rednevednav]

Trip Conditions (5 days/4 nights)

• 85° High/52° Low - Mostly sunny/clear - sorta perfect
• 0" Precipitation
• 80-100% Humidity
• Heavy on the mosquitoes
• Heavy on some weird, itchy red mite looking things
• Zero wildlife....notta, zilch...not even a squirrel

Trip Planning Objectives

• Easiest possible ingress/egress
• Base camp and day hike (if at all) from there
• Immediate water access
• Off/away from the heavier pressured trails and 'campsites'

Activity Objectives

• Cook meat on a rock
• Carve and successfully use a bow drill fire start

Camp and Ingress Data

• Pack Drop: 34°16'56.1"N 87°26'47.7"W (Cranal Rd., 1.1 miles east of Wolfpen Cemetery)
• Parking: 34°17'01.5"N 87°25'43.2"W (Wolfpen Cemetery)
• Route: Traverse ridge from pack drop to camp coordinates
• Camp: 34°17'18.4"N 87°26'45.8"W (just above/upstream from Eagle Falls)

Day 1 (Wednesday)
A long-time friend drove up from Destin, FL to meet me. He was dealing with nagging pains from a recent injury so we planned our trip to be the least physically demanding as possible....but to remain 'wild' and remote as possible. I decided the ever-awesome site just above Eagle Falls would be our ticket for success. I mapped our ingress route to follow the ridgeline to a point just above the campsite so the only elevation we would deal with would be the last 50+ meters. On the drive in we dropped our packs in the woodline on top of said ridge. This way we could park at the cemetery and walk the 1 mile back up the same paved road (Cranal) without packs and only have a short 1/2 mile hike with weight to our campsite. Perfect plan as we had an easy hike in and arrived at the site by 1430hrs.

We spent the first half-hour picking up garbage left by obvious jackasses (almost HALF of a 30gal bag of garbage! It's this crap that gives me pause when considering the viability of mankind.....grrrrr!).

As we were descending the final elevation to our site I immediately noticed the ultimate and perfect rock of all time for our planned activity of cooking meat on a rock. With almost a full canopy there were only a few patches of sunlight beaming into the camp area....one of these beams was directly on this rock (seriously!). What a gift we had been blessed with! (see pictures below and you'll agree!). It took us another hour to improve the existing fire pit...mostly digging out garbage (again, grrrrrrr!)...to create the proper configuration to accommodate 'The Rock'. We set up our respective shelters, gathered firewood and prepared for the ultimate camp feast...I had packed in 2 16oz ribeyes, an onion and vegetables for the occasion. Am I bragging? Yes, yes I am...rightfully so, because it was an amazing meal!

Day 2-3 (Thursday-Friday)
My buddy's knee was still giving him fits....sucks getting old....so we lounged around camp these 2 days. Mostly carving....I carved a bow drill set and a spoon. This was my first time carving anything...I had a helluva time with the bow drill as the wood was damp....humidity down there was so high that nothing would dry. I uncovered a natural split in the grain on my spoon during the final phase of carving...obviously a rookie mistake! In hindsight....I should have used the fire to dry the wood first, but oh well....I learned and that was what I had set out to accomplish.

Day 4 (Saturday)
FINALLY! I couldn't take the sitting around any longer and finally chided my buddy to get off his ***. I managed to get him only a 1/4 mile down Ugly creek, but at least I got us out of camp for a while. We spent most of the afternoon just below the fork @ Deer Skull/Eagle. That ravine is beautiful and one of my favorite areas in Sipsey...looks like something from a movie/Middle Earth/Lord Of The Rings-type terrain. However, not a lot of water flow so we were not blessed with raging falls on this trip....not even trickles.

Day 5 (Sunday)
LOL....My buddy had a harder than expected time ascending the initial elevation leaving the campsite. Kids, you will not always be young and vibrant! But we had an easy hike out, leaving our packs in the woodline again to walk the final mile back to our vehicles without weight.

I highly recommend this site as an easy in/easy out excursion in Sipsey. It is located within 1-2 miles of 8 waterfalls...provided there is sufficient flow. And for the love of all that is holy.....PLEASE PACK OUT YOUR GARBAGE!!

IMG_0804.jpgIMG_0720.jpgIMG_0806.jpgIMG_0808.jpgIMG_0812.jpgIMG_0039.jpgIMG_0809.jpgIMG_0813.jpgIMG_0738.jpgIMG_0805.jpgIMG_0814.jpg

[MABfromLa]

Nice report and nice spoon. Too bad it broke. I was up there on the 21st-23rd. I mostly stay on the western side of the wilderness 202, 209, 204, 206, 201. Next time I go back I'm gonna spend my time on the eastern side. I saw a few squirrels, two black hogs, and two deer. I agree with you on the trash situation. I picked up alot. More than i thought i would have to. You would think the people that go to places like this would know better or care more but they don't. Leave no trace people and don't carve your names in the trees. It ruins the beauty. I guess i'm just preaching to the choir.

[rednevednav]

Thanks man!

In the 8x (or so) I've been out there I have never seen any wildlife. I see scat, tracks, destruction caused by hogs and hear birds/owls....have never actually seen any of them....birds either. It's bizarre. I know they're there and I'm much more quiet than the average person, alert as little evidence of my movements as possible and rarely use the trails...I even do weird things like sit silently at points I find interesting...sometimes for a hour+....so it's not like I'm bowling through the woods and scaring off everything. Plenty of adverse encounters at other places so the solitude is welcome here....it just seems strange.

You drive from Louisiana to camp here?? That's dedication man!

[MABfromLa]

All of the wildlife that i saw was on trail. I saw the hogs on 208. I read that they were up that way and they are. Signs all over the place. I heard a bunch of owls too. I love laying in my hammock at night listening to them. I did drive up there to camp because i was ready for a new place but my brother lives in Arab outside of cullman so it was two trips in one. It's only a 5 and a half hour drive. I wanted to go camping on my vacation so i looked for a place to go that was in his general area and sipsey is what i came up with. I spent saturday and sunday with him. Monday morning he went to work and i went to the woods. It worked out good. What was really good about it was with it being mon.- wed. I didn't see a soul except for the group that came out monday morning as i was walking in.

[Bankheadboy]

Very nice trip report, I really liked the way you started it with trip conditions, trip planning etc. looks like you guys had good meal too. I was hoping you had taken pictures of Deer skull or both falls this time of year. Those two falls are awesome after a big rain.

[rednevednav]

Thanks Bankheadboy! Was disappointed to find very little>no flow through any of those down through there this time! Life forces me to schedule in advance and go regardless...hopefully one of these days I'll get lucky with my timing! CHEERS to all of you at the group hang in 2 weeks!

[MagicPaddler]

I looked at the pictures before I read the report. When I saw the picture of the spoon I assumed you had tried to stir some really bad coffee. Nice report.

[ofuros]

Such a dense green wilderness...I'd like to explore it.
Good pics.

[Bankheadboy]

These pictures are for anyone one who's planning a trip this fall or winter. As you can see the water flow was not great but pretty non the less. I call the other cascade waterfall the secret fall because no one seems to take a extra few minutes to go the extra 100 yards to see it. Eagle creek has got about five or six nice waterfalls when the water is just right. I got to warn you if the water level is up the narrow canyon is a rough trip trying to keep your feet dry and just plan rough on your body for us that is getting older. I've got more pictures if anyone wants me to post them?
image.jpgimage.jpg

[Grey Mouse]

More pics please Bankheadboy. I know that this is an old thread but the wife and I would love to visit this area in October and pull some trash detail ourselves.