are great kids all over the world, but these that were in my world this weekend are part of the reason I do what I do. I love 'em ... And, you're saying to yourself, so, get on with the story ...
Homecoming Week at our high school ... several of the campers
were sweethearts, princesses, escorts, and such, so we couldn't leave Friday until after the football game (which we won 39-6) and everyone had a chance to take a shower. Can you believe that kids went camping right after they were all loaded-up with beauty for their Homecoming presentations at halftime? Just before the end of the game, I observed one of our campers leaving the game with five very attractive young ladies ... he was 40 minutes late getting to the meeting place ... at his age, with those ladies, I probably would have been late also ... real late! (He said he went to get ice cream ... sure ... we believe that, don't we?) It was after 10:00 PM when most of them got to the rendezvous point and they looked tired and ready to get away from it all. We got away from our rendezvous point about 10:45 and were on our way in three vehicles. One of my colleague teachers has gone with us on both trips -- a long-time backpacker. She is a super art teacher and a very creative lady. I am thankful that she is willing to join us.
After dodging one large doe and a couple of raccoons on the road, we arrived at the trail head at exactly 1:00 AM and because we had already loaded our packs, we were crossing the bridge at the Thompson Creek TH shortly thereafter with headlamps blazing. We didn't have far to walk in the dark, but it was the first time the kids had had a chance to backpack in the dark. We didn't see or hear anything too frightening, so we got to White Oak Creek in about 20 minutes. I had chosen a campground that I have only seen people in once in my many trips. It's not in a great place because everybody who hikes in on FT 206 walks right by the campsite, but it was at the end of the White Oak Hollow Trail (unnumbered) that we would use to go over the "shortcut" to Big Tree the next day. As everyone was choosing a spot to pitch their tent, I was looking for two well-spaced trees between which to string my hammock. For kids who don't get a lot of practice, the tents went up amazingly fast. One of our students is kind of a 'take charge' guy, and he had everyone working to pitch tents, because they couldn't wait to crash in their bags after a long week and a long day.
Because it's only rained for about 45 minutes in the Bankhead Nat'l Forest over the past eight or nine weeks, the NFS has issued a burn ban in the
Wilderness and we were all disappointed that we couldn't have a campfire. White Oak Creek that would have put us to sleep babbling over the rocks was silent. It hadn't had any water coming down from the Hollow for six or seven weeks. It would have been perfect to hear water flowing in the creek and to be able to have a camp fire. However, had we been able to have a campfire, we might have stayed up even later. As it was, I snuggled down into my bivey sack at exactly 3:00 AM.
I woke up about 6:30 Saturday morning, but didn't get out of my comfortable hammock until about 6:45. Of course, none of the students were up. I got up and putzed around with my gear for a while and then got my Jetboil going to get some coffee water heating. I started my freeze dried granola re-hydrating and sat on a log thinking about the day. (FWIW, that Mtn House granola is really good.) The plan was to get the kids to Big Tree, do some water coloring with them and get back to camp before it got pitch dark. We had to make sure we had water bottles filled before we left.
The other teacher and her son were the next over to my area looking for some hot water for coffee and oatmeal. We had just enough to get both of those covered and knew we needed to get down to the water source before heading to Big Tree.
After the kids all got up and ate/drank whatever morning nourishment they had brought, we all went east to the next campsite to get down to a pool of water to fill our water bottles. The pool has a small spring keeping it filled, but the standing water is beginning to get a little filled with debris; enough to make me work on my filter when I got back home.
I had hoped to get off to Big Tree about 10:00, but it was closer to 11:00 when we left camp, but it was a gorgeous, sunny day, and I was glad to be in the woods on such a beautiful day. We headed up the White Oak Trail to FT 205 on the top of the ridge, stopped for water and a photo, then headed down the east side of the ridge to the Bee Branch watershed. The trail down is a nice trail, normally paralleling a stream with several small water falls, going through several hardwood stands before getting into fir forests and bluffs to scramble down. When the soil is dry (as it was this day), the scramble is not too difficult. When the soil is muddy, the way down is much more of an adventure to keep from slipping and landing hard on the big boulders of the stream. We had fun under the bluffs and fir shade, taking photos and eating snacks, but I urged us along to Big Tree.
When we got to the bottom of the trail where it empties into West Bee Branch, we turned south and went to the confluence of the West Branch and the East Branch where we intersected with the East Bee Branch Trail up to Big Tree. This trail used to be a beautiful little trail, but so many trees have fallen across it that it has become quite a scramble at several points. Actually, I went up this trail a year or so ago when one of the larger oak trees uprooted and fell on the trail. I almost never got my pack through all of the limbs, leaves, and up the muddy slope. The kids were excited, however, and scrambled up the canyon pretty quickly. When we first arrived a Big Tree, another family with kids was there and our students hung back a little to let the smaller children get out of the way.
Everyone counted coup on Big Tree and then we settled on the rocks to eat some lunch and drink some juice. I had predicted that--because of the extreme dry--neither of the falls would be running, and that was true, except from the tiniest dripping off of the right-hand falls. After we ate, the art teacher got our her art supplies and prepared them for us. As one of our students joyfully exclaimed, "Art supplies -- in the woods!" and, indeed, they were. After all of us had grabbed papers, paints, a pencils, and some water, we spread out around Big Tree to paint. Some sat on rocks, some disappeared to the bottom of the (non) falls, and one even held her paper up to the tree to trace the shadows of the leave on Big Tree (wish I had thought of that). We painted what we saw or what we imagined ... some heavy work and some minimalist work.
At around 3:00 PM, we packed our trash, our art supplies and headed up the side of the bluff to the trail that connects with FT 204. I had been on the north end of 204 connecting with 223, but I had never gone down 204 to the intersection with 209 ... I manipulated the students into thinking they had chosen that trail ... I later admitted my sin to the art teacher. Actually, the south end of 204 is a pretty trail to descend ... it intersects with 209 about a half mile east of the confluence of Bee Branch and the Sipsey.
We passed several groups of hikers/backpackers on 204 asking 'how much farther' to Big Tree. One of the groups was five day-hikers who had walked by our campsite about 8:30 that morning asking about the trail to Big Tree. They went down 206 to Bee Branch and should have taken an immediate left, but missed that trail and went on half a mile until they saw 204 go up the hill. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, with another 30 minutes to Big Tree, then about four hours to hike out. I asked if they had headlamps, and they said yes, but they never came by our campsite that evening, so I don't know where they bivouacked, if they did. Anyway, it took us almost exactly an hour to get to FT 209. I had not been on that little section of 209, so it was nice for me to see that portion of the trail.
It took us 15 minutes to get to the bottom of Bee Branch, cross the log, and continue on to the 209 crossing of the Sipsey--where it goes up to intersect with 201. At that point, the trail continues on "not 206" through private land to a point where--supposedly--206 comes back across the Sipsey near the confluence of Parker Creek and Thompson Creek and continues west toward White Oak Creek.
That sounds confusing, but since the NFS can't number trails on private land, I call it "not 206" across the private land. Most people don't know it's officially not FT 206 ...
Okay, back to the story ... when we finally got back to the east side of the Eye of the Needle, the kids scrambled up the hill and through the eye. This leg-weary old man decided to walk the 10 minutes around the parrot's beak to the Ship Rock campground. The kids and the my colleague scrambled through quickly and got ahead of me by 1/4 mile.
(Okay, here's a diversion story ... while we were at Big Tree, five middle aged guys came up and ate lunch and took pictures and such. We chatted with them some and swapped hiking stories and left a little before
we did. . When the kids scrambled through the Eye, the five men were camped at the Ship Rock campsite (where these kids camped last spring) and had a fire in their fire ring. Our students were incensed that these adults would violate the 'no campfire' edict of the NFS. One of our students asked them, "Oh, did the Forest Service lift the burn ban?" One of the men replied that "they didn't know anything about the burn ban." Yeah, right ... a big sign at the trail head that one almost had to step around to get up the trail ... Hey, not that they'll ever read this, but, "Way to go, guys ... nice example for our younger campers.")
I was extremely proud of the maturity of our teenagers when not one of them asked, "Those guys had a fire, so why can't we?" I was extremely embarrassed at the immaturity of the five experienced hikers who built a fire even though they knew they shouldn't have. No wonder we picked up trash on every trail we traveled on ...
We hiked pretty quickly from Ship Rock to the Auburn Falls trail. At that point, the kids were desperate to get back to their camp, and started running. It's probably a mile or more from that point to White Oak Creek and they ran the whole way. This old man walked a fast pace, but he definitely did not run. Ah, youth!!
Dinner that evening was around the fireless fire ring. One of the guys put his stove in the middle of the ring and we lit tea lights around on the stones. It wasn't quite the same as sitting around the campfire, but we had good camaraderie anyway. We ended the night together telling stories about our childhood and such ... another good time together.
I went to my hammock about 10-ish or so, reminding the group that we had to get-up-and-get-around the next morning so we could break camp, hike out, and drive back to give them time to work on
an IB internal assessment that had due the next day. I thought would be early enough ... they got up about 8:45 ... oh, well ...
Hiking out of the woods is always a downer for me ... I love to be in the woods and would be there every week, if possible. It is a spiritual connection for me. It relieves my stress, gives me a chance to right my perspectives and realign my priorities. At the end of the trail near the Thompson Creek TH there is a hill I always think of as Disappointment Hill ... disappointment and headed back to civilization ... Alexander Supertramp: where are you?
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