Usually, when I say “hiking”, I really mean “backpacking”; the difference is really one of distance and intent. In my mind, when one goes hiking, it is normally a trip of short duration, miniscule distance and generally light loads - backpacking, however, is different. Backpacking is an extended duration (several days at once), long distance (10+ miles/day) and heavy loads. So, when I look back on my trip this past weekend, it was actually a hiking trip in the truest sense of the word…

Our group journeyed to the beautiful Sipsey Wilderness, a part of Bankhead National Forest, in northern Alabama. We only journeyed about a mile or so in and made camp beneath a massive rock overhang that sat just a bit off the trail - not so far as to be inconvient to the trail or to Sipsey Branch, but far enough off to remain unnoticed by anyone as they passed by on the trail below. Before we left, I had decided to set a base camp at a single location and then day hike out to the various sites that we intended to see (the fact that my 6 year old son was joining me on this, his first “hiking” trip was a large determinor in that decision - I knew that he simply would not be able to maintain our usual hiking rate at about 12 miles a day). Further, I knew that this would be a welcome change for the other “backpacking vets” who would be attending.

The Sipsey is a place of unparallelled beauty and diversity in Alabama (and, in fact, the entire south-east) and she did not disapoint, garbed in her glorious robes of fall coloration. The leaves would rain down on us like golden, fiery rain as we walked along the trail, our boots crunching in the ankle-deep, depleated foliage. The water was resplindant with them and they stood out in stark contrast to the deep blue, clear fall skies and the aged, pock-marked faces of the boulders. Filled with massive, monolithic-like rocks and gorgeous waterfalls (beautiful even during this dry time of the year), the Sipsey is a magical place that brims with hardwood river bottoms, squaw-wood filled ridges, and dark hemlock groves that enchant the imagination and relax the mind.

There is just something about this place that speaks to one’s soul. A wisdom that reaches down from heaven and instills peace deep in one’s core. I find myself drawn much closer to my Creator here, in this gorgeous natural place. I find myself wondering how much more stunning my Lord’s House will be… It seems that even the dogs (my true and faithful Wick and newcomer, Belle) truly enjoyed themselves and found some respite, too. Perhaps they sensed what I did?

All too soon, it was time to bid farewell to the lovely canyons and lonely sentinel rocks of the Sipsey, I knew that it would not be long before my boots drew me, as ever, back to those paths.

I look forward to that time…