Sipsey River "Turn around" trip

4/23/05 Me, Erika, Brian and Jeannie went to the Sipsey Saturday morning to paddle either from the rec area or from hwy 33. Either trip would require that we take out at 33/Mims. I had talked to a ranger prior to this trip and had inquired about a possible take out about five miles down river from hwy 33. The ranger said it was a good place but that it may require a 4wd to get in and out. He said they hardly ever work that area due to the terrain.The USGS internet site Saturday morning showed the river to be at 85 cfs prior to us leaving home for the drive to Sipsey. Erika and I checked the water level at the Sipsey Rec area when we got there and it showed the level to be below 1 ft at the bridge. I estimated it to be about 10 inches.When checking the level at the Sipsey Rec area we counted about 30 canoes both in the water and preparing to enter the water for an over night trip. Spoke to a woman that mentioned that they were all a church youth group. She said that they planned to do both sections all the way to 278 but that they had SeaDoos scheduled to meet them to pull them out on the "flat" water.This helped in our decision to put-in at Mims and do a turn around trip that would require us to paddle upstream to Mims.We ended up camping right past the first house on the left side of the river in a small slue with a great water falls. Our camp was under the over-hang of the bluff from which the water fell from. This was a great place to camp and included a great fire ring. The seclusion of the place was really nice.We tried fishing a little while but wasn't very successful. Brian M. caught one brim while the rest of us caught nothing. I then decided to do some firewood hunting due to our location not haveing any or access to any. We found a bunch and loaded it into the canoe and paddled back to our camp.Since camp had already been put up we started puting the fire together and getting it going. It was an easy fire due to the good firewood we located. We sat around the fire and had a wonderfull time talking and cutting up. While Brian and Jeannie shared thier "olive medley", Erika shared her Funyuns. I prepared the stove and grill to cook our food. We prepared our shish kabobs for the grill while the corned boiled. Since the grill was so small we had to cook only 6 kabobs at a time. The food was great and we were stuffed.After we stuffed ourselves we continued to talk around the fire and didn't end the evening until around 11:00 pm. The forecast said the low would be in the mid 30's that night and the next morning. I was concerned at how Erika and I would sleep since it was her first time to camp in those conditions. About 5 minutes later (I think) we were both out like lights. It did get chilly but was not at all a problem. When we awoke at about 9:30 am, Brian and Jeannie had already taken thier camp down and packed up for the trip back. I put on some water for hot chocolate and as it was attempting to boil I took the tent down and started packing everything up to catch up with the McClendons. Erika and I had our hot choc and we finished chatting and packing up and begin our trip/marathon trek back.It was definetly a TREK! The current was slack but the wind was stiff at times and a couple of shallow shoals made it semi-difficult to paddle back. The farther we went upstream the more narrow the the river was and that cause the speed of the river to increase. One shoal I had to get out and wade in the water to pull both canoes through. Although we only paddled for about 2 hours it was strenuous at times. During the trek back we ran into the youth group dispersed into various groups. Some of which were being towed by SeaDoos and a Bayliner. For a moment it ruined the peacfulness and serinity of the place. I spoke to a couple of different people from the youth group about the water conditions. The adult I spoke to said that they didnt drag very much and only had to get out one time. This was valuable information for me because of all of the conflicting information about water levels at Sipsey River.Overall I chalked this trip up as another wonderful experience and learning opportunity.