Sipsey weekend trip

I've been lurking around the forums a little for a few years. I just decided to join and contribute to the discussions, since I've been able to find a lot of helpful information around here. So, for that I say, "Thanks."

Me and my dad left for Sipsey from the Jackson, MS area on Friday around lunch. We were off to a late start, so we arrived much after dark. We hit the trail at the Thompson Trailhead around 9:30pm with headlamps blazing. After about 5 minutes, we realized that the moon was so bright we didn't even need them. Honestly, this was one of the best hiking experiences I've had. It was about 35 degrees, but carrying a heavy 2 day load kept us pretty warm. Our intentions were to just get in the woods and set up camp, but since it was so nice, we continued to about half way between Ship Rock and the Bee Branch area on 209 and set up camp.

Saturday morning, we decided to try to get to West Bee Branch via 205 and meet the trail where people go in from White Oak Hollow. Bad idea. We knew that it hasn't been maintained for a while but figured that we could manage. If we didn't have a compass and map, and a good sense of direction, we would have been in serious trouble. Down fall on the ridge was almost overwhelming. We were able to follow the trail off and on and had to backtrack a few times, but it was basically a bushwhack for about 4 hours and we ended up coming down from the west ridge into West Bee Branch just south of that trail that we were searching for. The spot that we intersected West Bee Branch was about a 90’ drop, so we had to search for a while for a safe way to come down into that canyon. All in all, the journey to West Bee from our camp was tough, but we had a good time and had a great sense of accomplishment when we finally made it. When we came out of the small canyon on the west side of West Bee we found a north facing bluff covered in huge ice-cycles with tons of broken ice at the foot. It was really cool, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many ice-cycles at one time. We meandered around down to the intersection of Bee Branch and 209. The stretch of 209, from Bee Branch to the rapids below Ship Rock is one of my favorite areas.

Sunday morning, we took our time going back to the trailhead. We headed up 209 and 206, explored Ship Rock and The Eye of the Needle, then back to our truck.

This makes our 3rd trip to the Sipsey Wilderness in 3 years. My plan and intent is to come back every year. I’ve been completely blown away at the beauty of this place, and from the sound of it you could spend years discovering new interesting and beautiful sights.

Sidenotes:
- Friday night when we were getting ready to start at the Thompson Trailhead, a local man and a deputy sheriff asked us to be on the lookout for a 76 year old man that had gotten separated from his friend, after pretty serious hip problems around the Big Tree. The man’s friend had gotten a little ahead of him coming back, then when he went back for him, could not find him. So, he headed out for help. Luckily the man was located later the next morning somewhere around Bee Branch. Unfortunately, he only had a light jacket, one granola bar, and no light or way to start a fire. I can’t imagine the miserable night he must have endured at about 26-27 degrees. Please, if your reading this, don’t go far into Sipsey without being prepared for the unexpected.

- During this backpacking trip we ran into a few other MS guys. We met them at the right place and the right time. They were exploring around, looking for the Saltpeter cave. They asked us to join them, because they feel that they had finally found it. We had never heard of this at all, but were very interested after they shared a little information with us. They had found the crevice that is often mentioned, and it’s definitely behind a waterfall. We crawled down into the hole and looked around at some bats and some other larger openings. We plan to explore it a little more when we have more time.

EDIT: I'll post some pictures of our trip later. Will a moderator please move this post to Sipsey/Bankhead, I posted here by mistake. Thanks.