Father-Son Backpacking/Camping Trip to Sipsey Wilderness

For Matthew's 11th birthday, I took him on a 2-day, 1-night backpacking expedition in the Sipsey Wilderness over the weekend of 15-16 Jan 2011. The trip was arranged via Born Wild Ministries, with 8 Father-Son pairs out in the snow and wilds. Matthew was excited as all get-out in the preceding days, has been bugging me to go camping for a while now. Well alright kid, you wanna sleep outside, we can arrange that!

We left home 0700 on Saturday morning, linked up with other Father-Son pairs in Big Cove then Madison, and drove to the Bankhead National Forest and Sipsey area. It took about an hour to get vehicles shuttled into the right places (left one vehicle on the east side, or exit point, other vehicles drove around to west side, entry point). But we finally shoved off from the Thompson Creek Trailhead around 11am. And yes, there was still plenty of snow hanging around



The group followed 6 mile route along the headwaters of the Sipsey River to a sandy, riverside campsite at the intersection of Sipsey River and Bee Branch. After setting up camp, Matthew and I explored north up the Bee Branch canyon area until sunset around 5pm. Boiled some water and Matthew got his first taste of mac-n-cheese dehydrated meal, for which he was so excited he managed to overlook its processed taste! Rest of the evening was spent staring at Hiker TV (i.e. campfire) and drying out our shoes and socks from trudging through the snow.

After a very cold night (got down to about 25deg F), Matthew and I got up on Sunday morning around 0630. Spent some time teaching him how to break down the gear, re-pack his backpack, and use the small stove to boil water. Hot oatmeal around the campfire was certainly welcome at that point.





Leaving the campsite around 0930, the group went north along Bee Branch Canyon to find the falls along the east branch and view the largest tree in Alabama (a 500-year old, 150 foot tall Poplar). The view along the canyon walls was pretty cool, about 300-400' deep with huge icicles hanging all along the walls. The boys had a marvelous time standing underneath the falls and seeing all the ice.





After another 6mi of hard hiking, we exited the trail back near Borden Creek. Matthew was a champ,; with shoulder hurting and tired from the pack, he kept mentally tough and steadily hiked out of there, never complained one iota or stopped for anything. Took us about 90min to shuttle vehicles into place and load all the people packs.

The group took a lunch stop in Moulton at Pizza Hut, and we all got home around 1800. But wait, one more teaching point for Matt as we first pulled out the sleeping bags and tent to air them out for the night! (Can't quite head to the shower yet). Overall, it was a perfect opportunity to let Matthew try overnight backpacking.