Into the Woods

Last weekend my girlfriend Eri flew in for the 6-day weekend--she also attends U of I, but she's doing an REU internship at MIT in Boston. So we decided to take a trip to the wilderness and go camping. After five hours in Walmart (the minor highway we took had 4 Super Walmarts in a 70 mile stretch), we finally made it away from civilization. Not that there's much civilization here--I mean, it's freakin' ALABAMA.

Anyway, we spent 3 nights and 3 days in the Sipsey Wilderness before getting too hungry, tired, and bug-bitten. After setting up camp at 2am, we realized that the trail area we were at (which Eri dubbed "Tick Heaven") sucked. Luckily we found some friendly people who showed us other areas that were really nice, including some trails along the Sipsey River. The summer here has been really dry, so the river was more like a creek and most of the waterfalls were dry, but it was nice anyhow.

A little strange how the dedication looks like a tombstone...

"Tick Heaven"

A furry bug that wandered onto us

Eri examining the flora

We met Arthur and his son Carl after our initial mistep into Tick Heaven. They were extremely nice and knowledegable about the wilderness, and they offered to get us on the right track and show us around. We hiked with them for an hour or so before parting company, but we were very lucky to have met them. Our heartiest thanks to them.

After the 2nd night it rained, so there was actually water at the waterfall.
A great way to cool off from an Alabama summer.

Eri with a bird's nest she found on the ground.

A HUGE dragonfly we noticed while playing in the river.

There were these tiny frogs EVERYWHERE--very cute, but hard to avoid stepping on.