AlaTrails Birthday Camp and Wild South Famiily Hike on Borden Creek

Last weekend was the 1st Annual AlaTrails Birthday Campout. And like many 1st-time events the turnout was a lil' lower than what was originally envisioned. It was only Matthew, Lesley, DW, my 3 DDs and myself. But the small group size didn't put any damper on the fun we had. When DW had asked what the itenary was early Thurday evening, I simply said leave "early" Friday (I had the day off) and then hiking on Saturday.So after cleaning up breakfast, a load of laundry (ugh!), and loading up our gear, then a couple of errands, we left at the crack of .....2 pm. Luckily we live fairly close to the Bankhead NF so we arrived in Wren at 3:30.

After quickly confirming w/ Janice Barrett on the time of our hike the next day, we went on down to the Brushy Lake Campground. Brushy Lake, though virtually unknown outside of AL, is also small. If you go on a Friday, plan to arrive early in the afternoon. We got to the CP @ ~4pm, and there were only 2 other camps there. By 4:30 there was only 1 site left, and luckily Matt and Lesley arrived in time to snag it.

Other pertinent facts concerning the CP, there is a central privy and 5 minutes down a paved trail to the recreation area is a bathhouse w/ showers (hot water?), the price is cheap $5/nt. There is a good bit of downfall wood around the sites, but if you like your canpfires roaring you might consider bringing your own, as there is no campstore selling any nearby (the Wren General Store (across from the Warrior Mtn Trading Post) has said they plan on carrying FW soon). Each site has a firering with double grills(one high, one low), a nice picnic table and tent pad. There are a couple of community water spigots throughout the CP. Practically the entire area of each site is gravel, so plan on wearing some shoes nearly all the time.

After we got the camps set up and dinner, we had M&L over at our campfire for some s'mores and merlot. Then we retired to our warm tents and sleeping bags (lows were about 50). The next day we ate, then drove over to the Borden Creek Trailhead and met Janice Barrett and the others for a family hike down the Borden Creek Trail. The trail was in excellent shape, however it was a lil' crowded, the first 3 or 4 campsites nearest the trailhead were all taken. Our kids made it pretty well hiking until about a half mile past the cave, then our 2yo was tired and sat down on the trail. Well that ended the part of our hike w/ Wild South, we were now "those people". Oh noone said or did anything unkind at all, we just were aware how our kids were holding up everyone else. This is the reason we chose to participate in a "Family w/ Kids" hike, however ours were the only kids there.

After Janice and the others went back, we decided to go on down the creek and explore a lil' more. About a half mile down, DD1 was leading and we saw some muscadimes, we stopped and pick a couple of handfulls. But DD1 went ahead. It took about 5 tense minutes to locate her ahead on the trail, we had forgotten our whistles earlier. Lesson learned, always bring whistles for lil' ones.   

About a half mile before the Sipsey-Borden Junction, we crossed the Borden (it was only a small stream here). We then hiked back to trailhead , meeting Matt and Lesley again along the way.

After we returned to camp and had dinner, we walked down to the Brushy Lake peir and stargazed for about a half hour. Then we cranked up the campfire for s'mores, popcorn, cocoa and conversation till late.

Sunday morning we awoke, had breakfast, broke camp and then said "goodbye and thanks" to Matt and Lesley for another great weekend. Then to close our weekend at Sipsey we stopped and visited the Pine Torch Church and had a picnic at the Sipsey Rec Area.

Pics: http://www.alatrails.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=59