Sipsey 07 - Parker and Quillen

“I am not sure if I will make it. I am going to call the kids mother to check on my daughter. She had strep throat and it depends on how she is.”

“Jolly Swagman said:

It's practically a boulevard from the pulloff on cty rd 3434 to Parker Falls. Previous GPS track shows it to be about .7 miles of easy walking before dropping into the canyon. Short and easy trails invite church groups, boy scouts, and lots of day hikers (such as me).

I had no idea. I've been eyeballing a possible route from the west, but I didn't know it was already established. I always thought most folks came in from Cranal Rd.

Ya'll have fun this weekend. A friend of mine is going to upper Quillan; I may join him. We might run into you, but probably not. Between the Arnold Motorway and Riddle Creek is quite a trip.”

“Hope she gets better chili.


I'm still coming up tommorrow. Be into camp sometime that afternoon, Lord willing. ;-)”

“You know we all will welcome him, dayhiker.”

“Thanks.

If Friday wasn't a test day at school then I think I'd just pull him out and bring him along. He'd probably learn more on the trip than he would in class.”

“Sipsey's getting a good soaking right now...waterfalls should be EXCELLENT tomorrow morning :)”

“I hope you're not spending the night at Brushy creek with all of these storms blowing through.

It'll be a mud slog on Friday.”

“LOL
OPIE will be there.
Reese might learn a LOT of new stuff. ;-)


That's what I was thinking, toph, but I'm not driving up in that stuff.
Be there tomorrow afternoon.”

“Big bad Reece has hiked with OPIE before. Remember, he hit Michelle in the temple with a rock on the hike back from the marker tree.”

“I'm drawing a blank on that one, dayhiker.
Don't remember Michelle being hit. I may have been somewhere else then.

Michelle, may be going "Oh GREAT, Rocky Reese may be going!" ;-)”

“He was attempting to skip a rock and she was knealing by the creek.”

“It was about 5 minutes before this happened:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1214085016039041315ybNhed”

“Still planning to go tonight. Storms are supposed to clear out by mid-evening so by the time I get up there everything should be fine...”

“Hey...i'm not that bad...just at trail days....and titanium chef...holy crap...i better watch it or I'll become the next "prowler"”

“All packed except for rinseing out my water bag and filter!!!!!”

“Done. Time for a nice beer.”

“Sorry guys, I have to bail out on this one at the last minute. All is not lost though, I still will get to do a hike, just not in the Sipsey. I will be doing a day hike Sunday to Barr Camp on the side of Pike's Peak in Colorado. The trip is 6.8 miles one way to an elevation of 10,200 feet. After that I will be doing a weeks worth of Hazmat training in Pueblo. Toph, be sure to post a bunch of pictures. I'll catch you guys on the next trip hopefully.
Be careful out there.............
Bearbait”

“As of now, I'm planning on hiking in sometime on Saturday and hanging out around the fire on Saturday night. I hope to get there early enough to cut wood and such. Work is much to hectic these days for me to take today (Friday) off.

PPpffttt !”

“awwww... bring little reese! even if he did hit me in the head- he's still a little cutie!”

“I was going to bring Busybee but she is getting over a bad cold and is pooped.

Busybee turned "10" last Sunday...where did the time go?”

“I'm hitting I-10 to Mobile then UP to Sipsey right now!
See Y'all!
Woo Hoo!!!!”

“I am new and I got this late but I will be camping there during this weekend and maybe we will see you guys there!”

“I saw 4 large wild hogs out there and some turkey and several deer. It was lovely until the storm hit! I ended up sleeping in a cave!

Yall have fun!”

“Hey greytroll...meet up with the group and introduce yourself...don't be shy. You'll have a good time and meet some good folks.”

“I have never found big tree but we are planning on finding it this weekend and camping nearby. We are leaving Saturday at 5 and starting at the Thompson Creek Trail then heading down it to the Bee Branch to big tree. I am not sure how far that is but if anyone missed the gang look for 2 idiots out there that have no clue what they are doing and say hi!

Benji”

“Butane and I will hike in after noon on saturday...She is definately staying, I'm a maybe...I'm just coming down from a BAD illness......

GreyTroll as you head down to Thompson Creek TH, there is a hairpin curve and a small pulloff to park in...this group will be 1 Mile due South near the junction of Parker and Quillen....once you hit Quillen, turn upstream for approx 1/4 mile.

Hey, Hey, Hey....I'm the SUPER Troll...(and I AIN'T GREY!)”

“....ya gota HAVE hair for it to be grey...”

“When do you think they will be at the big tree?”

“Please note that this trip is 100% off trail. Since the foliage will not be back this time of year there won't necessarily be much underbrush, but there won't be trails and will be exploratory in nature. In other words, I don't know what we'll find until we get there. These trips have been fun in the past but everyone needs to know what the intentions are. If this is your kind of trip, sign up and do some exploring.

Also, the route in has three waterfalls. Each of these would be extremely easy to fall off of. DO NOT HIKE IN AFTER DARK.


I plan to mimic the intended route of last years trip, which I had to bail on at the last minute.

Friday: Meet at the trailhead around 9am or so. We'll hike a bit over 1 mile to camp. This could take over an hour due to the downfall from the hurricanes. Once at camp, we'll setup for the weekend and then try to explore as much of Quillen canyon as possible.

Saturday: We'll hike over to Parker canyon to explore that area. It's been described as the most remote, difficult, and beautiful canyon in the forest.

Sunday: Pack up and hike out. We can do a 4.5 mile roundtrip sidetrip over to the Big Tree for anyone that hasn't seen it.


Grey, all you need to do is go to the red toolbar up above and click on TRIPS, the select Quillen/Sipsey...the trip description will give you all you need.....”

“I think we talked to one guy from your group but I think that was it. We saw him at the eye of the needle. I am not sure who it was but I heard they got a bit turned around Friday night. We went in at 7:30 Saturday morning and hiked from the Thompson Tailhead until we got down to the beautiful moss rocks and falls then hiked back to trail that lead to the needle. Then we hiked to Bee Branch and the Big Tree. From there we went up and around what seemed to be a nice loop through some really dead section of the hike back to the Sipsey where we came back to our original trail and back out. It was a great day hike. We were packed to stay Saturday but we got through early and decided to go back and camp another time. Sorry we missed you guys! Checkout our pictures!

Benji”

“I may try the alternative route JS mentioned this time around - my only concern is the fairly long distance on 36 which is only a two lane road I think vs the four lane 24 which is very nice to drive. The drive through Decatur has not been a problem for me but I could see that it could if you hit it at a rush hour.”
Hog On Ice


I always take the route thru Hartselle. The only problem is if you get stuck at the railroad crossing. I sometimes take the route back thru Decatur but thru Hartselle and up hwy 31 only to stop at Big Bob Gibson's BBQ. It is a post hike favorite and if I bring some home, the missus doesn't even mind me going on a trip!”

“greytroll - you talked with longlosthiker. Pretty appropriate name.


I wish Pardner would show up.”

“dayhiker, who did show up?”

“Well, Pardner showed up on Friday, hiked in with us, left 30 minutes before us Sat morning and we haven't seen him since. Bama called EMA and gave them his tag and VIN #.

Attendees:
dayhiker
toph
Pardner
Stovestomper
OPIE
Mrs. OPIE
MDS
longlosthiker
Butane
Supertroll

I believe that's it. It's roughly in the order that they showed up.”

“wow that's a bit scary about Pardner - was Pardner's tent still set up and all that - that is to say was Pardner just dayhiking on Sat.?

Since you mentioned talking with Bama I assume he also showed up late Sat.?”

“Pardner was hiking out with all his gear on Sat. He felt that the terrain was too rough to continue hiking and thought it would be best to head home.

Bama showed at the TH on Sun around 12. He had been with the scouts all weekend. I say he got there at 12, that's when we got there and he was already there. I'm a bit freaked out about the whole weekend.”

“We kept hearing a whistle on the back side of the Big Tree but we could not seem to find the person whistling. I think they must have been moving in the opposite direction fast. There were alotta trees down! I bet yall had a tough hike. I am definately going with yall next time. I haven't been on here in ages so I just got back on and barely missed your hike! We saw like 3 Boy Scout groups there.”

“We also saw where yall parked ( I think it was your groups parking) and there was a guy and a girl sitting in the back of a pickup truck in chairs Saturday morning. Were they with you all?

Benji”

“I flagged down a US Forest Service Ranger on the way out and made a formal report....

At First it was "We gotta wait 24 Hours" then I told him of the situation and how strange it was, he took the tag number and was ID'ing the Saturns owner.....

Turns out Pardner is diabetic (Got that tidbit second hand from MS Opie through Butane....all this just keeps getting better and better....”

“So was Pardner's car still there when you guys left today?

Just freaked out over Pardner or did something else happen after I left?

Have a good hike into Parker yesterday?”

“Hey greytroll. That was me at the Eye of the Needle. I wasn't lost, just exploring a different area of the park. heh, heh, heh.

If I hadn't gotten "lost" I wouldn't have had a wild boar encounter or picked up those nifty souvenir deer antlers.

I'll have pics ready later.

Oh man, I was hoping to get online and read good news about Pardner. It sounded like Bama might know some of the EMA folks. Maybe he can keep us updated. ???
last edited: 3/04/07 7:19:48 PM”

“Oh and by the way...good game today:


”

“NICE!!!!!!

I'm back home.”

“I was just goin by what the 2 dudes and the kid said. They were like we found this guy swimming in the river LOL. Thanx for letting us know the eye of the needle was there. We haven't been there before and it was neat climbing around and through it. I hope the fella yall are talking about is ok. I didn't get any antlers or see any boars....I did see a few boars last weekend though, but I did see a overweight fella squatting and TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS RIGHT ON THE TRAIL! Ewweeeee!”

“MDS..I have your trekking pole..it was in the grass next to my truck..so i thought it was mine (they are the same, cept for the duct tape)..i can bring it to you in 2 weeks or mail it to you.

Michelle noticed her wedding ring was missing in Arab, AL...she left it in the truck during the trip..so we emptied it and searched..and then drove back to the gas station in double springs and checked it...nothing..so we drove back to the trailhead around 1730 and searched were i was parked...nothing...we did pass a park service SUV coming from the parking area..and pardner's saturn was still parked there. Not good, cause it was getting dark again.


Greytroll that was us sleeping in the bed of the truck..we got in around 10 the night before and sacked out. You had the troy state sticker?


Great trip, pretty area and good friends we've missed for too long a time.”

“Sorry I wasn't able to join Ya'll on this trip. I did enjoy seeing folks at the trailhead, sorry I missed the others.

I went back to the parking area after dark and Pardners car was still there. The other guy Ya'll ran into in the white car was gone. After the concern from ya'll I went ahead and got some things in motion as far as a search. Normally there won't be anything done this fast. This happens about ever weekend. Most of the time someone just spends a miserable night or two and walk out to a road and are picked up. The forestry service don't do anything for 24 hours after someone is reported late to return. I saw by the concern Ya'll had about the sitution this may be more than just a lost hiker. I started the ball rolling early on this one. There is a helicopter coming out of B'ham tonight with infrared.As thick as it is in the area it will be hard to spot anything, at least the leaves are gone. I gave the pilot the cordinates of Ya'll's last contact with Pardner and he will fly the area tonight and tomorrow. There is a full patrol riding the roads tonight as well. We were not able to contact any family. I'm going back tonight with the sheriff to open the vehicle to see if we can get any futher information. StoveStomper, or anyone else with a picture of him, send it to me at wjeffp2000@aol.com. I'll try to keep Ya'll informed but I may carry in a dog team and be away from the computer for a while. If anyone knows anything else that may be pernert to the sitution (medical history, etc...)that don't need to be broadcast over the internet can email me as well and I'll relay it to the proper authorities. Also I don't want to put my cell # out but if you can think of anything you can call DayHiker or StoveStomper and they will give you my Cell number.

BAMA”

“Opie we were in a white Cherokee there is a sticker on the back but I am not sure what kind lol. I have never had a pickup tent!
I probably have to take some of the blame for the emergency teams slow efforts there. It was just last weekend they were at my car with tape around it about to go in for me. My wife said they are terribly slow! I found my own way out. They were called Saturday at 9 and they were there Sunday at 10:30. I hope Parnder is ok.

Benji”

“oh and she lost her engagement ring..not wedding...$$$

bama..good luck, and thanks for all you do.”

“bama - thanks for the update. I got your last call.

Sorry to hear it OPIE. That sucks big time.”