Alabama ECT Sipsey trip -Jan.

“With several of our group recently heading to Sipsey I wonder if there is enough interest to get another group up? I'm thinking 3 days sometime in January. Any takers?”

“I'm interested for sure. I'll just have to see how work is going at the time.”

“I might be able to make it,,,depends on which weekend. It looks like the weekend of the 18th is the only time I will have in Jan.”

“why does eveyone have to plan hikes for january?

bizarre!”

“where's Alabama?”

“somewhere near... blech!... mississippi and LOOSiana.

yuck!”

“Well the cool thing is you can do a hike in January in Alabama, and probably still wear shorts. What a country!”

“Just kinda pencil me in for a maybe.

Winter and late fall's the only time you can go hiking in the Deep South.

Alabama's a few miles from Rad's house. He passes through it all the time to visit relatives and flirt with his cousins in LUZiana.”

“You can also hear Rad's chickens squaking all the time from the Alabama border. Why doesn't he feed those animals? And smell them too.”

“steve, no one in their right mind goes west of that border. it's like another country. one that smells like sewage. i'm not kidding, either. we avoid the near west like the plague.”

“and steve, i'm not familiar with y'all's local mating habits. whatever floats your boat, man!”

“Now why did you go and do something like that Radagast...running off at the mouth and all. And I was just beginning to like you!!LOL”

“i think it's just southern alabama. pee-yew! LOL!!!!”

“Sad thing is, I tend to agree. If it weren't for personal circumstances I'd get the hell out of the Deep South. What a pit it is.”

“Ok Radagast, I'll pi$$ on the fire and call off the dogs. LOL”

“pi$$ on the fire.....

THAT's what it smells like! LOL!!!!”

“Yeah, I think about getting the hell out too Steve Hiker. Have you given any thought about maybe Montana?LOL”

“I'll see.
Cool place, that Sipsey...”

“Southern Alabama?? Rad, there is no such place. Do you mean Lower Alabama??? And don't go trashin' LA.”

“North Alabama's a little better than south Alabama, and north Ga. (north of Atlanta) is a little better than south Georgia. But there's no saving grace for Louisiana or Mississippi.”

“isn't that alabama's motto?...

"at least we're not mississippi!"”

“sorry, i meant...

"et lest we ain't no missipippi!"

LOL!!!!”

“I just got back into the office and saw 23 responses. I thought it would either be alot of interest or severe thread detereoration(sp?). Well, glad some of you are interested. Rad, it's "thank God for Missippi". Just kidding Leatherneck.

Rad, you need to hold your nose, come West, and go to Sipsey. I'm planning out that far in advance because that's the earliest I'll be able to take a trip with the newborn. If you can't take a trip, you can at least plan one.

By my count we have:
dayhiker
Leatherneck
chili36 (maybe)
steve hiker
gojo (maybe)

I'm going to go ahead and volunteer rad and towndawg”

“Just let me know when, so I can plan ahead.”

“put me as a maybe too”

“bpbaby,
How was the trip? Was it dry enough for ya? LOL”

“It was a great trip! Not a dry item in my pack! LOl Beautiful place, great company. What more can you ask for??? Sunny and mild on Sunday for the hike out.”

“Hey Rock, are you gonna bring your site back up at some point? It was so informative.

bpbaby, glad yall made it out ok. There was a tornado about 30 minutes away from yall on Sat.”

“My site is still up, I just moved to another server. There wasn't any way to post a re-direct.

http://sgtr0ck.tripod.com/”

“I already got two trips planned for January so I dout I could make it. Yall have fun.
The best I could do would be a two dayer in Feb.”

“I think I might be able to make it in January. That is,if I'm not too busy slinging chitlins,coon-huntin,square dancin,tobaccer spittin,sister marrian,lynchin and other worthy pursuits that us Southern Alabamians do.”

“Dayhiker, is this trip still on? Rabbitman and I were wondering, trying to decide between this and Linville.”

“Yeah, it's still on. I'm thinking either the 2nd or 3rd weekend in Jan. We can go 2 or 3 days. Either is fine w/ me.”

“Y'all decide when and I'll plan on being there.”

“If it's the last weekend in Jan., I might be able to go. Might even be able to drag my hubby along to meet everyone.”

“Lets say the weekend of the 18th. There are 2 and 3 day routes available. It doesn't matter to me.

Looks like we have:

dayhiker
Leatherneck
chili36 (maybe)
steve hiker
gojo (maybe)
Rabbitman
bpbaby (maybe)
sandy

I will add that if it winds up being very cold, like lows in the low teens, I'll windup skipping myself. I don't have the gear for days below about 25 or nights below about 18.”

“I will look at this trip and try to work around the Ark,Linville, fla ect, and what ever comes up! Ha HA! Soooooooooooooo many hike so little time!”

“As soon as we set a weekend for this, I can make plans. Weekend of the 18th looks best for me.”

“Weekend of the 18th works best for me too.”

“Rabbitman says the 18th looks good for him too.”

“The weekend of the 8th it is. Is there any preference for 2 vs. 3 days. It looks like several folks will have a pretty good drive and may prefer an extra day to make it worth their while. Also, there is a place to camp within about 1/4mile of the trailhead for anyone coming in late Thur or Fri.

PS. I left katibug off the maybe list. Looks like we're up to as many as 9 folks.”

“I would rather plan for 3 days. Start on Friday and finish up on Sunday.”

“Either way. Sipsey is a good place to be able to come in late and catch up. What route are you planning on doing?”

“I'm still working on the route. I had one recommended to me that's 30 miles, but you dry camp the second night. I don't like the sound of that one, but have emailed the fellow who recommended it to find out what makes the last of it so special as to have to dry camp. It looks like you could bushwhack 1/2 mile to the head of a small stream. The route is to go up 209 until Bee Branch. Set up camp and then hike up to Ship Rock and back to camp after you're finished exploring. Camp in the Bee Branch area and then hike up to the head of the branch. Then take a trail out of the river valley and follow a ridge out towards Borden Creek. Dry camp night 2 and then cont. on trail to tie into Borden creek. Follow Borden creek until it ties into the Sipsey and head back to the vehicles.”

“so I won't tell it, except to say my hiking time just dramatically increased...due to a job change...suffice to say that no job done well is kept, I'm being reassigned....In the commands best interest...what I get for solving a problem that wasn't mine to solve....anyhow, looks like all my weekends will again be free...place me on the list...”

“Looking forward to seeing you again Super Troll!”

“Let me see if I have this straight:

Linville is the weekend of (Janaury)the 18th - 20th; Ozarks is the weekend of the 25th - 27th, Florida ECT is w/e of Feb 1-3.

So, Sipsey will be the same weekend as Linville Gorge Trip..if I have all this right.”

“True, I asked when people wanted it and the only answer was that one guy said that the 18th was the only weekend he could go. As a side note, it's about a 9 hour drive from Sipsey to Linville. Probably the same to the Ozarks and around 12 to the Florida trip. They really shouldn't conflict with one another.”

“The route we take will depend on when everyone is able to get started Friday. Will yall be arriving Thur. evening or Friday morning? Will we be able to set out at about 8 am. That will give us 8 1/2 hours of sunlight. Also, when will everyone want to try to finish Sunday? If we get back to the trailhead by 1 will that give everyone time to get home?”