Dayhiker's Sipsey Bushwack 3/4-7/04

“This thread is linked to the main TT forum. Let us post to it so other's will see.

As an extra added attraction, I will be teaching Gemini how to rappel at some point in this trip.”

“Good, after a while she should be a well rounded TT'er. I taught her how to dance with the horns at TC2.”

“I thought she was pretty "well-rounded" as it was...”

“A climber's seat harness WILL round out a female bottom.
Who's going to volunteer to be on belay at the end of the rope? Could be a nice view from below. ;)”

“Is she going to be wearing a skirt?”

“Thanks SS, I should have put the trip report from my last trip here so that it would be linked as well.”

“Cut - n - paste, dude!”

“dang, the date on this thread title is messed up!! ;-)”

“It does sorta look like a four-month-long trip, doesn't it? lol...”

“sure does!! i thought he was preparing us for a possible longer trip because the bushwacking may go awry and people would be getting lost. :-)”

“Who would be the first one to be eaten?”

“not gemini. she's nothing but skin and bones, she wouldn't be worth it. :-)”

“Want me to start ANOTHER thread with the dates reformated? ;)”

“nah. i'll try to get over it and move on. it'll be hard too, though.
;-)”

“LMAO @ all of you!!

I will be wearing a skirt and thongs!!”

“I'll belay her! I'll belay her!”

“Update: Over the weekend of New Year's I will be hiking the trail to the campsite again. It had two waterfalls that were very pretty so my dad, son and I will be hiking in to see the falls. The last falls is fairly close to the intersection of Quillen. What I'm going to do is take pictures of the trailhead, getting to the route from the trailhead, and every main landmark in between. I'll post these pictures for use as a visual map to the trailhead. All you do navigationwise it get to the trailhead, head SE for 100 yards, hit drainage bottom and then head S for about 1.25 or 1.5 miles until you hit Quillen Ck. Turn right and head upstream for 5-10 minutes until you hit camp. I'll have photos from the traihead to the intersection with Quillen so that folks can make sure they're not getting lost.”

“If you want some company that weekend then let me know.”

“Weekend before or after New Years?”

“It'll be the weekend after. The three of us will just be going for the morning. We're going to check out those two falls and also see the cave paintings over by Kinlock. We should be in and out by about 1. The actual day will be decided by weather.

chili might come down with his son. I'm not sure if they'll day trip it too or try to camp. Any company is welcome, but I won't be able to finalize the date until we get more accurate weather info. It'll either be 1/1, 1/2, or 1/3-04”

“I was considering coming down the weekend after New Years.

However, I just inherited two tickets to our corporate suite at the Pyramid for the Grizzlies/Jazz game on the 2nd.

Personally, I would just as soon go hiking, but my 13 y/o son is going to be excited about the game.”

“Yep, an NBA game versus camping in the cold isn't much of a decision for a 13 year old. Console yourself with the complimentary whiskey that accompanies corporate suites.”

“Dayhiker, do you have a GPS, if so you could get GPS coordinates for the trailhead, waterfalls, roads, etc.”

“I agree, email GPS info to us on the trip page.”

“I got GPS coords the last time I was there for the trailhead and campsite. I'll double check them next week since it was cloudy and I barely got readings last time.

Dub, when are you planning on arriving and are you planning on driving? It looks like about 560 miles one way with maybe 520 being on the interstate. 520/75+1hr to trailhead = about 8 hrs.

For anyone coming in late on an evening I can give directions to various campsite close to roads. I'm not sure I'd fool with trying to get to the main camp unless I was sure I could get there before 8 or 9. There is a good campsite about 3/4 mile in at the first waterfall.”

“Dayhiker, I'm on spring break that week. So most likely I will be coming from Charleston, WV or Columbia, SC. I'm not sure where yet and what time, but I'm pretty sure I wanna come on this trip. I'll definately be heading back to Columbus early on Sunday.”

“Let me know if it's from Columbia or not. I live in a town along I-20 between B'ham and Atlanta. arclite and I will be heading out sometime Thurs morning depending on if we have to swing by the airport for Dunadan or not. If you come that way you can follow us.

If you're coming from WV then you'll be coming in on I-59 from Chattanooga. It would probably be quicker to get off at the US231 exit and drive through Oneonta to Cullman and get on US 278 than to have to drive all the way down to B'ham and backtrack to Cullman. I'm throwing out town names so that you can see it on a map.”

“If your coming in from Chattanooga it is better to come through Huntsville on 72/565. Then through decatur on 20 and then on through Moultonon 24. I live pert neart at the edge of the forest. I can give directions or even shuttle folks around if I need to.


BAMA”

“If anyone is going to be near Kinlock Falls in the next day or two you need to watch out for a washout between the bridge and the church. I was there today and coming up from the Mount Hope side on the road to Kinlock. After you make the turn and pass the church there is a tree across the road. This is impassable to cars. The tree is nearly across the road and where people have been going around has created a huge hole. I was dragging my skid plates as I went through. I didn't have to put it in 4 wheel drive but a car would bottom out. I didn't have anything with me to clear it with, but I will get it in a day or so.

BAMA”

“we had to go around that tree when we were there...and the tracks going around it were fairly new and few....i saw that it was going to be a pretty bad problem..but since pple lived on that road i figured the county or some one there would clear it”

“Thanks for the info. I'm planning on going down that road next weekend. I was down it the 1st weekend in Dec and it had just happened. I'm surprised it's still there.”

“MDS and others had mentioned possibly meeting up for my recon trip.

On Thursday my son, dad, and I will get to the turnout to the Kinlock Bluff Shelter around 9 am or so. We'll go check out the cave paintings and then head over to the Quillen trailhead. We'll take a rope in case the log mentioned above needs to be pulled out of the way. I don't recall it being large. We'll have about a 2.5 mile round trip hike to 2 waterfalls and back.”

“Well WTF??! Where's the county/township/city/state road crew to get the tree off the road?? HOW LONG has it been there??!? sheesh........”

“lizs, it ain't like the thing is across I65....lol...”

“I bet Opie was there at least a month ago, I remember reading Miss Opie's report. That's just crazy! Unless there was damage from a bad storm -- where tons of trees go down -- you wouldn't see a tree across a road for even half a day around here, even on weekends!”

“I get it, the government should do something. Write a scoop on it. I was there 3 weeks or so ago and it had just happened. I can imagine it's a mess now. This is about 4 or 5 miles down a forest service road. It's also beyond houses. There are some houses past it, but they are actually after this road ties into another dirt road. This is presumably how these folks get home. To put this in perspective for how far out this is, the first time I took someone to this trailhead we get maybe 1/3 of the way there and he says, "Man, they got folks with 3 eyes back in here."

Yeah, it's bad the tree is still there, but no big deal. It's not that big of a tree. If it's still there Thursday I'll tie a rope to the trailer hitch on the pickup and pull it out of the way. End of story.”

“I had a good recon trip to Sipsey over the weekend. I'll post GPS coords later. I hiked to within 10 minutes or so of our campsite. The following webshots folder is a type of visual map to get there. There is a trail, but it's faint and doesn't show up on maps. When arclite and I hike in on Thur morning I'll put tape in the trees every so often.

Here are the pics: Visual Map”

“is the parking at the trail head to the right or to the left as one drives toward the Thompson trailhead ?”

“The first picture is looking down the road towards Thompson, so the parking area is to the right. We might could have gotten 1 more vehicle there, but that's it. This parking area is a a sharp left hand turn switchback about a mile before Thompson. I'm going to edit a jpg map I have that shows Thompson, the double switchback in the road, the trailhead, and part of the Quillen area so that folks will have a topo map to the trailhead.”

“I need to add that if you're driving towards Thompson there is a sharp left and then sharp right hand switch back about 1 mile before Thompson. This shows up on trailmaps really well. The trailhead is on the right side of the road at the left hand switch back. If you see the trailhead you'll see a drainage basin by the trailhead. This goes straight south for a little over a mile until it flows in Quillen. This is the route we'll take to camp. When you dead end into Quillen you'll turn right (upstream) and head up Quillen 5-10 minutes and hit camp. You can't miss it. I have GPS coords that I'll post in a day or so.”

“Trailhead: 34.3370833,-87.4841389
Campsite: 34.3217500,-87.4876389”

“The FDA, hospital & my Dr. are all giving me the run around for my surgery. What does this mean you ask? I may put my surgery on hold until next fall & if so I will show up at Sipsey”

“Thanks for the coordinates dayhiker.”

“I hope you can make it.

Did you see my offer the hike your pack in? I'm more than willing to bring your stuff in since this is a basecamp. The hike is about 1.5 miles to the trailhead.”

“Ha Ha! I guess that will be my chance to let YOU try out my new 7000 cu.in. pack.”

“Dayhiker...that is soo sweet of you......awwww...”

“I really am willing to hike it in. This trip will be low miles, but detailed exploring. The main Quillen canyon has lots to see. You can get up next to the bluff line and hike along it and check out each waterfall you come to.

I was up there this past weekend and got some pretty good waterfalls pics on the hike into the campsite.

Arky, I'll email you a couple of other pics.”

“divinity - will you write that same statement over on one of knuckleheads threads?”

“LOL..why is that??”

“WGS84 datum - right? - at least it looks right on the map”