Last updated: October 30, 2023

Title inspired by Karen

Photos by me unless otherwise indicated

I’ve made a decision… I’m going to become an avid hiker! With all the hiking options surrounding me, it’d be silly not to… plus, I truly enjoy it and it’s great way to stay fit. I also own a ridiculously expensive camera and this will allow me plenty of practice.

To prove my seriousness to myself about hiking, I found a group on Facebook dedicated to hiking in Alabama and made a plea for someone to join me on some hikes at Bankhead National Forest. It’s known as “The Land of 1,000 Waterfalls”, so I really wanted to get to know the forest but didn’t want to go alone because I don’t want to get lost in the 181,230 acres. The last thing I need is to be featured in the news as the lost Alabama woman with a rescue squad looking for me. This is not how I want my five minutes of fame…

A fellow hiking lover, Wendy, responded to my post and before I knew it we had two others, Karen and Gypsy, interested to Alabama’s biggest tree. As is the Alabamian way, the tree is simply named, “Big Tree”.

From what we gathered online, it would be an 8 mile loop. Karen and Wendy were experienced hikers and lead us by map. Gypsy and I were just along for the ride (I didn’t confirm this with Gypsy, but I think she would agree!). I was impressed with their skills and 100% would not have made it there without them… but alas, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I realized as I packed my backpack the week of the hike that I didn’t own a hiking backpack. I owned a North Face which after researching, is not the backpack you want for day hiking. North Face has all kinds of hiking clothing and accessories, but no hiking backpacks… just one for backpacking that would be much too large for a day hike. They do make excellent commuter bags, but that’s not what I needed. In my online research and through Wendy’s recommendation, I decided on a Gregory backpack. Sadly, it did not get here in time for the hike which was annoying because my North Face did not have a place for a water bladder and it was going to hug my back which I knew would trap heat. Given the day was going to be almost 100 degrees, I really wanted to use the 3 liter bladder that came with my day hiking bag but a bottle would have to do this time around.

I decided on hiking pants and long sleeve shirt specifically made to wear in the summer (wicking and breathable). I decided this for a few reasons:

• Bugs – it’s summer in Alabama. It’s a forest/wilderness. I really didn’t want to be eaten alive and prefer to spray bug spray on my clothes; not my skin.
• Ticks- kinda the same as above. No thank you.
• Sunburn – these clothes were UPF 55 and would keep me protected without needing to reapply every other hour or so.

I had already tested the pants while exploring Hurricane Park and as promised, the were lightweight, sweat wicking, and breathable. I was really happy with them. The top came in the day before the trip but since the pants had been so great, I figured all would be well.

Last but not least, I decided to hike with my Canon. Land of 1,000 waterfalls… how could I not?

Wendy, Gypsy, Karen, and I met around 6:30am in Moulton and carpooled over to Thomason Creek Trailhead (a big thanks to Karen for driving!). I was pleased to find out that Karen’s dog, Ranger, would be joining us and he happily hung out in the back on the way. It was a bit of a drive and we started out trek around 8:15am. It’s July in Alabama and the high was forecasted at 98 degrees. I considered myself fortunate to find three other gals who were as crazy as I was to attempt a hike in such high temperatures. Wendy and I had already discussed it. If we’re hot, who cares? We wanted to hike!

This was a forest so I was pleased to discover that the hike was going to be completely shaded. The air was pretty thick though… like you could almost wear it. I would say after about 20 minutes, I had indication that my shirt was going to be a problem. It was soaking wet with sweat and there didn’t seem to be any wicking happening. Furthermore, it didn’t feel breathable… like heat was being trapped rather than freely escaping. To make matters worse, the padding on my commuter backpack was definitely not designed for summer hiking as it hugged my back, building and adding heat. At one hour in we were over 80 degrees with no breeze and still had a ways to go and I felt like a furnace was attached to my upper body. I was determined though and given the terrain was pretty even, I was confident I would be fine.

The trail was marked once at the beginning with the trail number (206, Thompson Creek) and that was the only trail marking available for the entirety of the hike. This is not a national or state park with colored markers on trees highlighting the way or signs telling you which way to go. This is a forest and all I can say is you better either have a map and know how to read it or go with someone who can because at times, the trail isn’t even clear and one could easily get lost.

Because I was sweating so much (I’m talking more than I ever had in my life), I went through my liter of water very quickly. It had been previously discussed that Wendy would bring her water filtration system and we would travel along the river and fill up along the way. I ended up drinking more water than I ever have in one day… 12 liters. I feel like this was significantly more than everyone else was drinking and I regretted not wearing a tank top like everyone else as my shirt situation was causing me to lose my water intake quickly. Not that everyone else wasn’t hot and dripping sweat, because they definitely were, but I am sure my shirt was trapping heat and causing me to sweat much more than I would have if I’d just risked the bug bites and worn a tank top. That’s lesson number one learned. IF I wear another long sleeve summer top, I will be packing a tank top as a backup.

Along the way, we saw someone had set up camp. Looking back, I think overnighting it would allow for a better experience at Sipsey as you could split up the miles and not be worried about running out of daylight.

While I love that I took my camera, I tried out a front harness instead of my sling. My sling has the camera by my side which works great, but it’s constantly swinging and I am always worried about it getting banged up, especially during hikes. I tested the harness at Hurricane Park and it was great. The problem was, I explored Hurricane for about 90 minutes. After about 3 hours of hiking, the piece that I snapped my camera into became loose and eventually came all the way unscrewed. This happened three times and I almost lost the hardware once. After Big Tree, I ended up putting the camera in my backpack as I did not feel it was safe in the harness. While I had a safety strap in place, this wasn’t helpful as I climbed under fallen trees with it only inches from the ground as it came unattached. This, along with my shirt issue really took away from the enjoyment of the hike as I was constantly worried about my camera (insomuch that I put it away completely!). This was a bit of an issue as the weight was no longer distributed on my body and the pack was now pretty heavy. I had to deal with that for the remainder of the hike which was the most difficult and had significant elevation. This was my second mistake, so lesson learned; I won’t be taking my camera on long hikes in the future. However, I enjoyed photographing some residents of Sipsey Wilderness as I traveled through!

While Sipsey Wilderness is known as the land of 1,000 waterfalls, it could easily also be known as the land of 1,000 mushrooms. I have so mushroom in my heart for the beautiful outdoors (sorry, I couldn’t help myself)!

A unique feature of Sypsie Wilderness is the trees growing on rocks. I was enthralled by this as I’ve never seen anything like it.

Right before we made it to Big Tree, our fearless leader, Karen, suddenly began running and yelling at us to RUN! She was about 15 feet ahead of us and rather than run, we all just stopped and backed up. Was it snakes? We were confused until we heard her yell out, “Yellow jackets!”. Wendy yelled at her to get in the river and we saw her take a sharp left and when I say she was a streak of flailing arms, that is what she was. I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone run as fast as this lady. We made a detour and met her at the river where she was coating her legs with mud. Apparently, Ranger had riled up a Yellow Jacket nest that was in the ground and those things went into attack mode and were clumped all over her, even stinging her through her clothes! Wendy jumped into action to help her. After about 20 minutes, she was ready to continue the hike, albeit while still on fire from the Yellow Jacket venom… a truly tough lady! Gypsy and I agreed that we would have been sobbing had this happened to us.

About 20 minutes later, we made it to Big Tree. There’s no sign, but it’s clear when you get there. It’s majestically standing as big as can be. At 150 feet tall and almost 30 feet in circumference, this Yellow Poplar is not as big as those giants out West, but it’s big for us Alabamians!

While Big Tree was the main event, just behind it the to the left is a gorgeous waterfall. It’s not buckets of high pressure water, but a small trickle. What makes it so majestic is how tall it is… I felt transformed into somewhere tropical when I saw it. This made the hike worth it for me!

Our original plan was to hike out and back. While this was more miles than doing the loop, it was easier terrain with little to no elevation. We hadn’t planned on it taking us six hours to get to Big Tree though and taking the way back would not get us out before dark. We got lucky and met some friendly hikers that arrived at Big Tree after us who were familiar with the loop. They were super helpful and shared that while the remainder of the loop was tough, we could be out in 2-3 hours. This legit saved the day for us as we were originally under the impression that the trail wasn’t a well traveled trail and would have to be bushwhacked. We were assured there was in fact a trail. Although this path was going to be more difficult due to rock scrambling and elevation, we really didn’t have a choice at this point. None of us were prepared to stay overnight and no one wanted to hike in the dark… it was challenging enough during daylight; I’m not sure it would have been possible in the dark. Karen whipped out her map and let them walk her through how to get us back to the trailhead so we could get home and take the much desired showers. With her 20-30 yellow jacket stings on fire, she once again became our fearless leader and began to lead the way. I begrudgingly put my pack back on, this time with my camera tucked away safely so I could focus on the difficult description I had heard of the trail that awaited us. I didn’t want to put us too far behind as I was sure I’d be the one bringing up the rear because inclines are not my friend and I’m just so bad at hiking with elevation.

…and I was right. Honestly, I don’t think I would have struggled so much if I would have had the proper ventilation, but it was about an hour later that I’m pretty sure I suffered heat exhaustion and legit hyperventilated. I had to take a good five minutes and just have a panic attack or whatever happened. Once that was over, I was able to compose myself and continue the hike. If I could redo this hike, I’d start the loop this way so we could do the difficult part while fresh… before the heat sucked all of our energy.

As we neared the end of the hike, we had to cross a creek. As we started across at the most natural part from the trail, we heard quite the commotion from Ranger. We stopped and heard the rattle of a tail. While Ranger was excited to see a rattlesnake, it was not so happy to see him. It was hiding behind a rock, which was directly in our path to get across the small stream to the trail. All four of us frantically yelled for him and although he struggled between staying to play with his new friend and obeying the calls, he slowly came back across to us. Wendy grabbed his collar and we detoured and crossed further upstream to avoid the snake who was not at all pleased with the commotion. No one was bitten but we would have certainly passed within striking distance had it not been for Ranger. He definitely redeemed himself for rousing up the yellow jackets!

I’ve never been so happy to see the end of a trailhead.

As a reminder, here we are at the beginning of the hike, and here we are after (still smiling😁)!

I am incredibly fortunate to have met these ladies! Everyone had every right to complain, but no one did. Awesome attitudes the whole grueling hike and while I don’t think any of us would do it again anytime soon, I think I speak for us all when I say I’m really glad we did it!

Some things I’d do differently:

1. You guessed it: wear a tank top! 🥵

2. Leave my Canon at home… I worry about how the humidity and overall dirt from the hike might have affected it… I guess we will see. 😬

3. Take my face fan. I’ve had this since January 2021 and it is awesome. I use it everyday to dry the serum on my face quickly before adding my moisturizer. I know this sounds silly but that one 15-second breeze we had was glorious. This would have felt amazing.

4. Buy a hiking backpack from REI (I have one only 30 minutes away from my house!) to use and then return it if I didn’t love it. Just about anything would have been better than that North Face.

Lessons have been learned and I’m looking forward doing better the next time around.

Enjoy these photos from the rest of the group (in order by first name)!

Photos by Gypsy

Photos by Karen

Photos by Wendy

Here’s to future adventures at Sipsey Wilderness with newfound friends… (albeit not until fall!). Until then, stay cool!