Eagle Creek/Little Ugly Bushwhack - March 15th [Completed]

Well, I've mostly recovered, but I slept until 8:30, which is really late for me. The sides of my legs are really sore from the sideways walking, and my shorts-wearing left me with dozens of nasty stickerbush, briar, and holly cuts. My back is stiff, but recovering, and my ankle is nowhere near as bad as I was expecting it would be after that ugly twist at the beginning of the day. Both of my knees seem to have appreciated the work, and are much happier than they were before hand. I do think I need to NOT take the blood pressure medicine I'm on when hiking, got a little lightheaded a few times, which doesn't usually happen to me at that pace.

The hike started late, largely because of the weather slowing me and my friend Jeff down, but also due to a little directional difficulty in Birmingham and Jasper due to some funky Google Maps directions for using the new Corridor-X/US 78/I-22 road. We got started a little before 10AM, and headed down the drainage towards Eagle Creek.

The smaller drainage from the "Seifried" parking area had water in it within a few hundred feet from its starting point, and that was a very good sign. Deadfall in the drainage is much less of an issue than it was two years ago, because some of the Ivan/Katrina damage is rotting away finally. The first side drainage (which is a larger drainage) was a full stream, and we had to do lots of stream-hopping early in the trip to stay even marginally dry. We hit Eagle Creek in pretty good time, and me and Jeff proceeded around the side of Eagle Creek Falls and waited at the base taking pictures while the rest of the group poked around above the falls for a while. After everybody came back, took some pictures, climbed the falls (tsk, tsk), and rested a bit, we headed downstream, but not before running into a group of geocachers, who stayed up on the ridges after Eagle Creek Falls. Almost immediately we encountered several wet-weather waterfalls, and stopped occasionally to take pictures and look for geocaches. After stopping at one of two really tall wet-weather falls, we got split up.

Jaybird, Jeff, and I headed downstream once we deduced the other guys weren't following, and the going was SLOW. We encountered a gorgeous cliff face, but also horribly muddy slopes that made the going tough, and deadfall on those same slopes that made downstream travel darn near impossible for a while. After struggling, we got to some easier going, and passed several more waterfalls. After what seemed like an eternity on the way down, we finally hit Little Ugly Creek, and headed up to the falls. We were all impressed by the boulders and stream course at Little Ugly. We reached the falls, and took pictures of the three waterfalls there, Deer Skull, and the side falls with falls twice, once above, and once below, and then tumbles into Little Ugly. Gorgeous!

On the trip back, we stopped for Jay to take pictures of two waterfalls. I was running out of steam, and stopped taking pictures. Shortly thereafter, I fell waist-deep into some stinky mud, twice. We made it out alive, after a much shorter upstream trek, and bushwhack above the drainage.

I seriously recommend that anybody who loves Sipsey take a trip down Eagle Creek and Little Ugly when they get a chance, but it isn't for the faint of heart. It is only about 2.6 miles in and out, but it is brutal on the way in. Outbound, you know the slick spots, and you are probably wet, so less energy is spent avoiding getting wet. Go shortly after a hard rain, because the streams quickly go back to their base levels, as we watched occur over the course of the day. If I ever go again, I might used the more marked method that Toph uses.

I've popped my film in the mail, and should have it back in a few days. Thanks for posting your pictures Jay, that one waterfall that I was too tired to visit up close turned out to be REALLY spectacular!