Hurricane Katrina visits the Bankhead

[Uncle Wayne]

What a mess! My father-in-law lives on the Ridge Road which is more or less the northern boundary of the Bankhead forest. In a 2 mile stretch of the Ridge Road there were 7 trees of 18" to 24" in diameter across the road. His yard looks like a solid carpet of mountain oak and whiteoak leaves. Quite pretty I must admit.

I had some major tree damage at my house also which is 15 miles away from the forest. Once I get my yard cleaned up, I'll check out some of the trails and make a report.

Hope all of you escaped any major problems from the storm. My heart goes out to those along the Gulf.

[roothog]

As I watched the trees get whipped here in Birmingham, I thought of all of the blowdowns that were sure to occur in Bankhead. In my opinion, Katrina was much worse than Ivan as far as the wind was concerned. I will be very interested to hear what the reports are for Bankead (and the Pinhoti.)

[alabamat]

Fairly frustrating huh? Just get cleaned up from the last year and then another big hit. I wonder what all of this is doing to the forest? Think it blows down just the weaker trees and so helps to thin the forest? Perhaps it is an important step for making more interesting old growth? Or perhaps it just blows down everything? I must admit that I am not a huge fan of dense forests with small trees...

Lee

[dayhiker]

This for the report. My in laws over in Hamilton had 5 truckloads of debris in their yard. I can't imagine what Sipsey is like.

The lead in to Quillen looked awful after Ivan. WOH route was bad this past Feb.

[jeby]

A friend and I are heading out to Sipsey on Friday - attempting to do the loop, returning on Sunday. Not sure how far we'll get, depending on the condition of the trails. I'm afraid it might be really bad. I'll report next week on how things look. Anyone else heading there this weekend - weather looks great!

Jonathan

[Uncle Wayne]

Finally got a chance to do some hiking in the Sipsey and thought I give a little update as to trail conditions. It won?t be much help because I only covered about 18 miles and some of it was bushwhacking cross country.

Starting at the Randolph Motorway Trailhead: Trail 201 is in bad shape but passable. From the point where Trail 201 leaves the rock road until the junction of Trail 209 there are 8 major blowdowns. Some can be hiked through but most have to be bypassed. Most of the blowdowns are trees 12 to 18 inches in diameter lapped over the trail. Trail 209 is clear from where it leaves Trail 201 and crosses Sipsey.

Between where Trail 209 crosses Sipsey and the Trail 204 junction there are at least 8 major blowdowns with huge trees and tree tops overlapping the trail. Between the junction of Trail 204 on Trail 209 and Trail 202 junction on Trail 209 there are 3 or 4 more blowdowns but not as bad as those previous. From the Trail 202 junction going downstream on Trail 209 the trail is clear of blowdowns until about a half a mile before Fall Creek Falls. There are at least 3 blowdowns within that half a mile.

There is only one blowdown of any significance between Fall Creek Falls and Borden Creek. After crossing Borden Creek, Trail 200 to the Sipsey Recreation parking area is clear if you take the low trail near the water. The optional trail which goes higher into the woods is blocked in several places I could see. Trail 209 is overgrown with weeds and small growth lapping the trail almost the entire way from where it crosses Sipsey to Borden Creek. The foot path is plainly visible but there are considerable and almost constant weeds, limbs and bushy growth lapping over the trail.

On our second day, we started at the Bunyan Hill bridge, the curved one, which I guess is the Bunyan Hill Trailhead. FS Road 224 to the Bunyan Hill bridge has been graded and is in very good condition. We dropped off to the right just past the bridge and followed Borden creek until we came to the Braziel Creek junction. There are several blowdowns in this short section and the faint trail is almost obliterated. We bushwhacked along Braziel Creek, up Clifty Canyon and out to Trail 224 about 3 miles above the curved bridge at the abovementioned trailhead. This trek is not for the faint of heart as it is blowdown after blowdown and dead pines everywhere. It was tough and will be that way for several years, maybe decades even. But Trail 224 has only 4 blowdowns and most of them are within a mile of the bridge.

In spite of the difficulty in hiking we had a great time. The blowdowns are not bad enough to keep any hiker / backpacker from hitting the Sipsey Wilderness trails. They need some work but with a little time and a little work from us all, they'll be in top condition again. The FS has a posting at the trailheads noting that all trails have some trees down across them but all are listed as "passable" to foot traffic but not for wagons and horses.

For what it?s worth: My wife was with me on both of these hikes and we are proud to report we didn?t find the first chigger or tick on us in spite of all the grass and brush we came in contact with during the hikes. I don?t know if it helps everyone but we covered ourselves with Avon?s Skin So Soft prior to both hikes. Neither one of us has ever gotten a chigger or tick bite after doing so. YMMV and probably will. Good luck and happy hiking.

[dayhiker]

Thanks for the update UW. I keep hoping to get out there this fall, but time is getting away from me.

[Uncle Wayne]

Trail 200 is open and in good condition. We started at the Bunyan Hill Trailhead and made our way to Sipsey River Recreation area without any problems. Foliage color was at or near peak last weekend and may last until next weekend. The dry weather hasn't suppressed the color as much as I expected but the leaves are falling quicker because of it.

Not much water in Borden Creek or Sipsey either as a result of the dry weather. My father in law lives in the Bankhead forest and he's had only a quarter inch of rain since September 23rd.