Presentation To Bankhead National Forest Liaison Panel

This a copy of the Presentation to the Bankhead National Forest Liaison Panel earlier this year about the volunteer efforts of the Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club to clear the Mitchell Ridge Trail (Trail 210). This presentation will probably require a good connection to the internet. I recently added some captions to some of the slides. There's also a full screen mode if you want to see more detail.

Presentation To Bankhead Liaison Panel

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: forest national)

Trail 202 Hike

Since there was a lot rain during the previous week, we changed the hike so that we wouldn't have to cross the Sipsey Fork. The river turned out to be about six feet deep, so crossing it would have been a dangerous and unpleasant undertaking. We visited three nice waterfalls instead. The waterfalls had good flows from the rain. I didn't get good photos of everything, so someone may want to post some additional photos. My few photos are here.

Club Completes December Trail Maintenance on Mitchell Ridge

The Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club completed monthly trail maintenance on December 6th. With this outing, the club was able to clear the entire trail with the exception of two large downed trees. These last two logs will be removed in January when crosscut saws can be carried in to cut them. Present on this work day were, from left, Durwin Jones, Johnny Morin, Mimi Barkey, Larry Barkey, Mike Henshaw, and Gary White. Click on the photo for a larger version. A link to a GPS track of the Mitchell Ridge Trail, also known as Trail 210, is available here.

SWHC Overnight Hike-Trails 206 and 201

The Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club made it's regular monthly club outing on November 15 and 16, 2008. The trip started for most hikers at the Thompson Creek Trailhead and ended at the Randolph Trailhead. Some members day-hiked the trails, while others camped out overnight near the Eye of the Needle.

Photos from the hike are located at this website.

Trail Maintenance on Trail 210

The Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club completed it's regularly scheduled trail maintenance on November 8th. Present were Danny Millwood and his daughter Emily, Anthony and Jennifer Lawler, Larry and Mimi Barkey, Mike Henshaw, and Andrew Tigert. The team cleared 3.3 miles of the trail. More photos are located here.

Aunt Jenny Speaks to SWHC Club

Aunt Jenny spoke to the Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club's regular meeting in Double Springs on November 4th. Aunt Jenny is the legendary Cherokee Mountain Woman of the Black Warrior Mountains. On this evening, she was portrayed by Carla Waldrep, the Librarian of the Haleyville Public Library, and a member of the Haleyville Historical Society. Aunt Jenny spoke, in character, to the club recounting story after story from her life as an prominent resident of the area. She spoke of the cane that she carried and the meaning of the many notches in it. While her life was rife with tragedy and sadness, it was redeemed by healing as both a medicine woman and midwife. More photos from her presentation are located here.

Carla Waldrep to portray “Aunt Jenny” at Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club Meeting

Louisa Elisabeth Jane Bates, better known simply as “Aunt Jenny” was an important early resident of the Bankhead National Forest area. Carla Waldrep will portray the life of the Cherokee Mountain Woman at the November 4th meeting of the Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club. Aunt Jenny was born in 1826 and lived to be 98 years old. She raised many children, served as a midwife, and was considered to be a medicine woman or herb doctor. Her husband and oldest son were killed in attacks during the Civil War, and this lead to a sequence of events that ended with the deaths of many of her children. Carla Waldrep is the Librarian of the Haleyville Public Library and a member of the Haleyville Historic Society. Her presentation will be part of the Sipsey Wilderness Hiking Club meeting in the Bernice Hilton Walker Building in Double Springs on Tuesday, November 4th at 7:00 p.m. The program is free, and members of the public are welcome.