Sipsey trip in Sept.

“For those going in thursday. If the storm gets really bad thurs. night there is a bluff shelter a little ways down the trail by Borden Creek. The latest list is as follows


BAMA - noon Friday
ALA - noon Friday
Tango - chasing a storm, maybe
Miss Opie – thursday
Opie - thursday
Rabbitman – thursday
HogonIce – late thursday
Walkingdude - late Friday night
Packrat – late Friday night
Ewker – late Friday night
Bitpusher – noon Friday
StoveStomper–redefining PEE Gravel
Chili – the jury is still out
Bits brother - Late friday
Father Goose - noon Friday

If its pouring rain at the parking lot. There is shelter under the main bridge.

P.S. dont forget wading gear, depending on this rain the creeks and river can get deep quickly. Wemay have to change routes as we go. We will meet up at the parking lot friday noonish. When you go on the trail and walk under the bridge there is a monument on the right side of the trail. I will put a note behind it for those coming in late friday.

BAMA”

“Yeee_HAAAAAWWWWW!!!! Let's hike!!!”

“Hey Bit, can you call me at work tommorow???

864-4522”

“Stovestomper - I hope everthing goes well with your kidney stone. I had my first about 6 months ago. I had to have the search and destroy surgery done. Then the stint. It wasn't to bad. If you think poking a golfball through a garden hose is possible. I had promised a bunch of cubscouts I would take them hiking. 2 days after surgery and with the stint still in I hiked about 6 miles. Big mistake !!I didn't let them know it but I thought they were going to get their rescue badge on that hike. If you pass the stone come on down we would be glad to have ya. If not we understand. There will be other hikes.

Good Luck,
BAMA”

“* Sorry ya may not make it Stove Stomper. Get well soon!
* Hope you can makw it Chili!
* Tango, You better show up! I'm lookin foward to seeing ya in a wet T-shirt!! hehehe :)
* Ewker & Packrat, Looks like I'll probably have to work till 3:30 on Friday. Be at my house about 4:30 and I'll be ready to travel.
* BAMA, Is camp on Friday night still going to be near the Falls 1/2 mile in after the Borden Creek Crossing?
* Look Foward to seeing everyone!!!!”

“WD. Yea hopefully we will be camped above the falls at falls creek as planned. If we get 5-6 inches of water Borden creek will be impassable. In that case we will hike back to the parking from turkey foot and drive to borden creek bridge then hike back down the other side. I'll leave you a note at the monument as to how to find us.

BAMA”

“Coolness!”

“walkindude,
What time are you guys gonna be arriving fri nite. My vacation day got cancelled for fri and I will be in meetings all day. I'll have to come down late fri or early sat morn.”

“I don't know the big wigs haven't made up their minds yet. It still looks like Lily is heading straight for Central FL.

Dude I think I need to show up so you can get your AA (attitude adjustment) Tango style! HeeHeeHee”

“Uh-oh rabbitman. Hiking in on a Saturday morning in the rain. Does that seem like deja-vu”

“Not sure if my bro is going to be making it. I've talked to him about it, but he got engaged last weekend, so he might not be coming this weekend. I've got to call him again though, we'll see...”

“Bama,
If I come in on Sat. Where can I hook up with you guys? Also how will 5-6 inches of rain affect the crossing where 201 crosses the Sipsey over to 209.
If I do come Sat. I may come that way.”

“Rabbitman, if Borden Creek is too high where the 201 and 209 meet, we'll be taking FR224 to the Borden Creek bridge TH and crossing there, then going to the campsite above Fall Creek Fall. BAMA, is there a definite trail to that campsite from Borden Bridge?”

“we'll be in with the rest on friday..post here to let me know when most of you guys are going in...i just bought a 6x8 tarp...anyone else bringing something to sit under and BS or cook??...what's the best line to tie out a tarp..i don't like parachute cord”

“I'm gonna bring my 8x10 siltarp as well as my tent. I've got 50' of Kelty Triptease to guy it out with. It grips pretty good and it's reflective, to boot.

FG and myself will be there around noon.”

“The hammer has dropped! I am stuck here working 12 hours on and 12 off. They said that since Lily hasn't changed course and will be hitting or close to Orlando, the hurricane crew is on duty. The only reprieve is that it is 1800-0600. So don't talk about me too badly! Sorry to miss all you guys I've met before and sorry to not be able to meet the new ones! Have a good time!”

“Another one bites the dust...ah, it's too be expected I guess...

We will miss you tango! WD especially!”

“You should've seen me bit! Thank gosh they told me over the phone!

DAMN!!! DAMN!!! DAMN!!!!! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Sorry to hear that tango. I was lookin' forward to meetin' ya. Be safe.”

“Thanks FG! Have extra fun for me!”

“I can't make it. Tennessee State Chili Championship is Sunday.

Although I would rather go to Sipsey, my son placed second in the Junior championship last year and put the sad puppy dog face on.

Duty calls. I have to support the next Tennessee Junior (under 18) Chili Champ on this one.”

“Kids are always first, chili. Wish him good luck from me.”

“He is cooking better chili than I am lately. Maybe he will let me see his recipe.”

“bitpusher,
The crossing I'm talking about is up near the eye of the needle.”

“Oops. I got the 200 and the 201 confused.

I've been there after some heavy rain, and it was essentially uncrossable. I wanted to try and cross it, but it looked a couple of feet deep at least, and I didn't want to risk it.”

“Are you guys heading to the big tree Sat. morn. If I don't make it Fri. nite, I may take 224 Sat. and meet up with you there. I've been down the trail on the other side of Borden creek from the bridge and I don't think I want to do it solo at nite. There was a nice sized hole I almost fell in and it was daylight.”

“When you get to the parking lot walk down to the wooden bridge. From the center of the wooden look at the north support for the main bridge. At the bottom of this support is a weather station. If the water is above 3 - 4 feet Borden creek crossing will not be possible. The water falls at turkey foot are worth the side trip even if we have to backtrack back to the bridge at sipsey. If crossing Borden will not be possible we can cross at the bridge at borden TH. Hoi and others will go past the crossing on their way down friday morning. They will be able to tell if a crossing is possible. It is not the amount of rain that is the biggest problem, its the timeframe of when it fell. Borden can swell to over 8 feet overnight or 3 feet in less than an hour. If it has a couple of hours to drain it will be back down shortly.
Worstcase we can all load up and drive back to the Borden th and come down from there. the trail on the west is not as pronounced as the east side but is still passable with lots of water. If we don't drive around it will add about 2.5 hours.
We will leave a note behind the monument for WD and his crew. BTW if you are coming down borden on the west side after dark the trail follows the creek except for a couple of places that it loops back.

WD. what time do you expect to be there friday night. If the weather is to bad, I know of enough sidetrips around the park we can delay our departure until we meet Ya'll.


BAMA”

“Rabbitman - the best way to hook up with us on saturday is to take trail 224 from the borden creek bridge. west then 204 to the cutoff to big tree. We will be on the creek aout a 1/4 mile south of this trail. We should be able to pick you up on channel one with a radio. The cutoff on 204 to big tree is well marked but it splits a little ways down, go back to your right to get to bigtree if we miss you on the trail.



BAMA”

“Bama,
Will you get to the tree sat. morning or will you be taking side trips and get there sat. afternoon”

“WHAT! NO TANGO?!?! I guess I'm just gonna have to get the BB gun and kill myself!
*Bing* ouch!
*Bing* ouch!
*Bing* ouch!
*Bing* ouch!
OK, so I'll just give myself a series of painful flesh wounds.

We're gonna miss ya Tango!
ugh.....You too Chili.


Now for the serious part of the post;
We'll be showing up about 8:30 to the parking area.
So there is a trail that we can use to get to Fall Creek Falls on the other side of the creek from Borden Creek TH? That sounds easy enough (famous last words).
Where will we camp Saturday night?”

“Wait Dude that sounds suspiciously like another trip you were on:

bzzzzz-ouch!
bzzzzz-ouch!
bzzzzz-ouch!!

HaHaHaHa!!”

“Tango and Chili Ya'll will both be missed on this trip, we'll do another sometime.

We can camp near the tree on saturday night. There is a pretty big campsite where Bee Branch runs into Sipsey. About the same place that the big crosscut was used in April.Its about a 5 mile walk out to the park but all of it is on a trail. Unless Borden is not passable. By sunday Borden should be back down to a safe crossing level.
Rabbitman - We won't be at Bigtree very early Saturday. This rain thing will slow us down. I figure it will be well after lunch. Thats why I said you could link up with us by radio on sat. morning. Do you use a gps we could give you cord. by radio.
for those going in thursday and want to get in touch with me beep me at 256-219-6783.

WD - look for a note behind the marker just as you go under the bridge on the trail from the parking lot.

BAMA”

“HAHAHA!!!
ROTFLMMFAO!!!!!!!!”

“I don't have a gps. There is a good possibility that I can get there about the same time as walkindude friday nite. I should know for sure tommorrow.”

“Gotcha BAMA. We'll check out the water at the Rec. Area first.”

“Thanks BAMA, I will be missing all of you too!”

“For those interested you can get the info from the weather station here.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/al/nwis/uv?format=gif&period=31&site_no=02450250

Help me with the link WD.

2.6 gagehight is < 1" waterin borden
and 10 Cubic feet per second is < 1" at borden.

BAMA”

“Best of luck to your son, chili36. Budding chiliheads must be nurtured and encouraged. Catch ya next time.”

“Tango and Chili.. you will both be missed! I am sorry to hear you guys can't make it.

Now I am going to be the only girl!”

“Tex is going to be there, isn't she?”

“At first she said something about it, but I ain't heard from her in a while. Tex come on over ifin ya can.

BAMA”

“where is Sipsey?”

“It's about an hour west of Huntsville.”

“you have directions? i work about 50 minutes ffrom huntsville. probably 40 the way i drive.”

“Stand by, I'll get you a mapsite...”

“Extended forecast for Haleyville, AL from accuweather

Friday 9/27
Some clouds then sunshine
High 75 / RF 76. Low 60/ RF 64. Max. UV 4.


Saturday 9/28
Mostly sunny and warm
High 80 / RF 79. Low 56/ RF 60. Max. UV 4.

Sunday 9/29
Beautiful with sunshine and patchy clouds
High 79 / RF 78. Low 54/ RF 58. Max. UV 4.

Monday 9/30
Mostly sunny and warm
High 82 / RF 80. Low 58/ RF 63. Max. UV 4.


bbinkley...It's a lil late for me to think of the excate directions...but if you want a good estimate punch in a map for haleyville, al..i'll look for them later..i'm between moulton and decatur”

“thanks. i'll get on mapquest now”

“Here ya go, pal.
http://www.mapquest.com/
E-mail me and I'll give you my address (just click on my name). Bitpusher is picking me up at my house @ 10:00 am Friday morning. You can follow us over.
Oh, $hit, I see OPIE beat me to it.”

“Thurs night: Windy with thunderstorms likely. A few may contain very heavy rain. Low 67F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph and gusty. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall may reach two inches.

Friday: Windy with showers and thunderstorms likely in the morning...storms becoming more isolated later on. High 79F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Friday night: A few clouds from time to time. Low 64F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 60s.

Sunday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 50s.”