Sipsey Trail Maintenance Trip Planning

“What'd'ja do to your shoulders, HOI?”

“last november after the hurricane last year I did 4 days of sawing in the Sipsey on the upper end of 200 and then did a bit more sawing during the TT trip last year - at the end of this my shoulders and arms were hurting _bad_. Anyways I got myself a case of bursitis that just does not want to heal - the left shoulder is not too bad but the right is bad enough that I can no longer use a trekking pole on that side without paying the price in pain. I have considered getting the shot like currahee got for his shoulders but it doesn't last and I have some reservations about it anyways.”

“Yeowtch. Sorry to hear about that, man.”

“At the Feb Sipsey trip we got to see just how bad the White Oak Hollow route is. It seems that every difficulat part now has a blowdown that makes it even worse. The two places that come to mind are where you come thru the bluff line into West Bee and also the little boulder hope just before West Bee joins East Bee. Not fun.

So you didn't go to the Big Tree? You were half a mile a way when East and West join.”

“I'd love to take my kids t osee the big tree, but neither of them are up for an 11-mile roundtrip hike yet.”

“Shoot, WOH is about 4.5 miles round trip. I'm almost ready for my son to go. He turns 6 this Feb. He might be ready by then. The only part that concerns me is after you slide thru the notch in the bluff you have that little waterfall area to negotiate.”

“Is there still going to be a trip there '06?
last edited: 10/10/05 3:12:25 PM”

“ahh, never mind I see the tread now”

“Dayhiker,

No we didn't get to see the big tree. During all the negotiations of the blowdowns I had not paid attention to where we were (geographically). I was thinking that after about an hour and a half of bushwhacking below the rim we were still fighting our way out of W. Bee Branch. Unbeknowst to me I had actually made the turn up into E. Bee Branch and probably got to within 200 yds of the big tree.

At the time, fearing we were still in W. Bee Branch, I told the kids we were going to need try to see the tree another day and we needed to get going in the other direction. Shortly after the decision, I noticed that an awful lot of W. Bee Branch looked like E.Bee Branch. That was when I realized that somehow we had actually made our way up into E Bee without knowing it. Part of the problem was due to there being no stream flow to point out the error of my navigation.

Still, even in hindsight, heading out when we did was the right thing. Because I was serious when I said my wife called 911 and was coordinating a search and rescue party. She was expecting us home around 5-6 o'clock. Not 10:30.

Now we still have reason to give it another shot. Although now that I know how well my kids can do when they have to, we may take the Borden Creek trailhead.”

“go first and have him come to your arms, and lift him down..or have him slide to you a little at a time. You could use it as an opportunity to play with ropes.”

“What tools should I take to the trail?”

“precision - this thread is from a trip in 03. This isn't a current trip. I'm hoping to organize an 06 trip to Parker Canyon, but it depends on a few things falling in place. More specifically, it depends on a trip to Bryce Canyon falling apart.”

“What are you planning on doing?

A small, folding spade or ET is good, as is a small pruning or bowsaw. Garbage bags are a definite necessity, as packing out garbage is what you end up doing the most of.

here's the TR from the last cleanup I was on”

“dayhiker,
Oops. Guess I dropped a weiner in the warp drive on that one! Thanks for getting me back up to speed on that one.

I want to go on your Sipsey hike, whenever it's planned; however I'm going on HPM's AP trip around that time too, as are a few of the other Sipsey hikers (so could you take that into account in your date planning, please).

If the trip happens, are we doing a clean-up anyway? Maybe, I guess, it's too soon for anyone to know.”

“Assuming Bryce falls through the HPM trip is the other issue. I've never been able to go there because the Sip trip is usually the last weekend in Feb or first in March, and vice versa. Parker is supposedly the most rugged canyon in the area. You can't hike it without getting wet. The other constraint is that it's prettier before the foliage comes back. I'd also prefer to go before the snakes really get active. That means it could probably be about March 15 at the latest.”

“Bryce was Beautiful when I went there, long ago. You'll likely love it, and if your taking your son with you I doubt he'll ever be able to forget it - even at a young age, as he is.

For Sipsey, we'll just wait 'n see.”

“what kinda gear was abandoned..we should go get it..lol”

“The gear we came across consisted of a couple of "rolled" polyester style sleeping bags (laying beside the pack), a green "scout" type backpack with a tent in its bag, lashed below.

It appeared to be abandoned but we weren't certain, so we left it alone.”

“People abandoning gear is more common than you'd think. My chiropractor claimed to have done that on her first (and last) backpacking trip.”

“My first trip into the big tree was in Aug and in the 90s...we took Bunyan Hill Rd...224..(bad choice...so many downed trees from an ice storm...as we hiked in some young folks..probably about college age were hiking in with COOLERS...and passed us ( go figure) they were noisy and we assumed they had alcohol...about 11 pm we heard alot of noise....in the am we talked with some of the kids and they said that some folks had hiked out last eve cause they got dehydrated...(there is water near the tree....)..and once again they passed us as we hiked out...(suprized huh?) ..well..as we hiked out we saw all kinds of gear thrown all over...sleeping pads....clothes...food....... we never found out what happened.....but it was quite a lot of gear....”

“Hee hee hee.
div a slow hiker???
Shocked I say! Shocked! ;-)

...but she is steady...”

“...I have proclaimed to be the slowest TT hiker.....(altho I do remember passing Nowslimmer and TrekkerJohn (sp??) once...)”

“It was probably Dayhiker if someone was carrying a cooler.”

“LOL...dayhiker has been known to backpack in dutch ovens!!!!! (but ask anyone who tasted his wares.....it was worth it!!!)”

“Hey, I had a cooler AND a dutch oven on that trip.”

“Wasn't it BAMA at the last Sipsey trip brough in a iron crock pot or something like that? That's hungry, man, or dedication, or somethin'.”

“He brought an aluminum dutch oven to cook the bbq rabbit in.

The previous Feb he brought that and cooked us all bear gumbo. I brought a cast iron one and did peach cobbler and apple cobbler. One night we had beer, bear gumbo, and cobbler. It was a fun trip.”

“Dayhiker, you always impress me tho with your food...last time I hiked with you, you had pancakes and REAL maple syrup!!!
....is it just me, or does everyone have trouble spelling syrup???”

“Two months ago I took a no bake cheesecake, graham cracker crust, evaporated milk, Baileys Irish Cream and had a cheesecake. We congealed it in the creek we were camping next to. It was in the Smokies, so the water was COOOOLD.

For supper we had fajitas. We took precut onions and bell peppers, olive oil, and fajitas sauce. We simmered up the veggies for 20 minutes or so and then added foil pouch chicken. Mmmm, good.”

“LOL..sounds wonderful.....”

“Uncle Wayne posted some notes about current Sipsey conditions - see link, post at bottom ”

“Thanks for posting this HOI, sounds like there's some work to do.

It also sounds like not too many people using the 209 trail, hmmm.”

“Sorry I've been out west Elk hunting again and have not visited the boards. Anyone wanting to take kids to big tree can go in a differant route. It is a little longer than the White oak hollow shortcut but much better walking. Except for blowdowns. Come in from the north at gum pond. Coming in this way is my favorite way. Especially when bringing in new folks. At the rim the big tree don't look like much, Its after you get down into the hollow that you realize its size. This route only has one bad part for kids. The decent from the rim. Its not bad I have held young kids hand and they made it with no problem.

BAMA”

“What's the best way to get to Gum Pond, BAMA? From Divide Rd?”

“Yep, once there park at the gate and the first part of your trip will be easy as it is open to wagon traffic that usually stays cleared.”

“Hey bama!!! I haven't seen you in a while!! Did you ever get my thank you thread for the wedding present??”

“Yeah, I got it. I just don't have as much time to post anymore.”

“Sorry, after doing a search I found it, no I didn't get it then. So a belated "Your Welcome" I have worker everday since about the first of August. I took 2 weeks off to go elk hunting in Co. and am back to working everday for a while. I ain't complaining, Its just draining me. I have a couple of vacation days left for a trip this fall. Maybe we can hook up on the trip I promised OPIE I would take ya'll on after you were wearing a wedding band.

BAMA”

“"Anyone wanting to take kids to big tree can go in a differant route. It is a little longer than the White oak hollow shortcut but much better walking. Except for blowdowns."

Except for the blowdowns.

And there's the rub. My kids didn't have that much trouble navigating any of the natural obstacles other than the blowdowns.

It has been a while since I've been to the big tree but back in the 70's and 80's I (and later my wife and I) made it into Bee Branch at least 100 times. Then as we got further along in our married years we quit going. Now that my kids are older I'm motivated to get them into the woods and let them experience the things that once gave me so much joy.

My kids and I, are headed in this upcoming weekend for a two-nighter. I was hoping we would have some rain by now though. Thompson and Sipsey were running low 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, Bama, thanks for the alternate route suggestion. But since we are going in camping along the Sipsey, we will probably just make the Tree a day hike (along 209 to Bee Branch).”

“You remember talking about getting 911 involved on your last trip. We nearly met that day. My pager had went off about missing hikers in the bankhead. I was gearing up when the call came in to stand down. Small world ain't it. I live about 5 miles north of the forest. I'm on the local rescue squad. I have been involved with looking for several folks lost out there. Bee branch gets the most of them. I was off work that day. I was leaving on a 2 week trip on the 11th. The pager went off and I thought, here we go again. I'm glad everthing turned out for you.”

“That would have been sumpin'.

We were actually off the trail for quite some time before my wife called 911. It just took us a long time to get cell phone service.

I've since asked her to please not do that again. Certainly not before midnight. As many times as I've been down there I can't foresee myself getting lost. I won't go so far as to say it can't happen tho. Anyway, we had map, compass, flashlight, food and drinks.

We just were caught off guard by the number of blowdowns along the shortcut.

Still, hope to see you on the trail sometime. I just hope it's not a rescue mission. ;^)”

“As a follow-up to Bloodpusher's comment about not many people taking 209 right now, on Saturday, I took a small group from the Recreation Area down 200 and crossed Borden to 209. Borden was so low that half of the crossing was sand and the other half, a scout group had put a few logs and a rope across for stepping. I never even got my feet wet. 209 seemed to be in very decent shape all the way to Falls Creek Falls. At that point I didn't travel any further towards Bee Branch, but did encounter a few people that did. It seems like some trail maintenance has been done in this area. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this area to anyone right now, in regard to the trail conditions. A truly beautiful hike on Saturday exploring above Falls Creek, which is still running well in spite of the dry conditions. Sorry to ramble, but I thought that someone might be curious for a follow-up to Uncle Wayne's post about conditions.”

“Thanks.

Hopefully, leatherneck will see this thread and join the trip. It would be good to see him again.”

“fyi, I'm still hoping to put a March trip together. I just have to work out some other dates first.”

“Can it be as early in March as possible? Towards the end of the month my allergies kick in again.”

“I'd like for it to be mid to early March so that the foliage hasn't had a chance to come back. I want it in March and late as possible because the Parker branch requires wet feet and every little bit of extra water temp helps. It'll be a balancing act. I'd also like to slide it far enough a way from HPM's trip that it isn't too big of a travel problem for folks. I suspect we'll wind up with the 2nd weekend in March. Spring break also comes into play too. I think my Utah hopes are dead at this point and I just need to bit the bullet and get the trip going. I'll talk with the fellow and try to get some focus in the next week or so.”

“My new Corona saw needs to do some sawing.”

“Join what trip chili?”

“The trip that is waiting for someone to take the bull by the horns and post it on the Trip Page, toph.”

“I'm close to being that bull rider, just not quite yet.”