Castle Mischief: Two January Hikes and Tea

On January 3rd we revisited a hike from about the same time the previous year- the Big Tree in Sipsey Wilderness. This time we approached from the opposite direction, north of the tree. This route is a few miles shorter and completely lacking the rough uphill climb right at the start. I'd recommend this trail unless you're just looking for an extra challenge. You can see the whole map with tracklog here.

I'm like the G.I. Joe ninja of safety orange

Ben's creative placement of his safety orange bandana

So how big is that tree? Well... it's this many people's arms around. Which doesn't look like that many people until you stretch them out again.

We successfully brought a whole group of people with us this trip as well as some return trippers.

All the pictures from that hike are here.

***

On the 21st of the same month we took a group through to tour behind the scenes of Piper and Leaf, a local tea company that operates out of historic Lowe Mill in Huntsville. We got to see the Storage Room of Things and Stuff as well as where they mix quality teas with locally-sourced dried fruits and other ingredients. We also had a talk about entrepreneurism and the correct way to brew stronger tea (more tea, not more time).

Instagram post of the entire group:

Reposting for my non-twitter friends.

A photo posted by Matt (@castlemischief) on Jan 22, 2016 at 10:52am PST

After the tour we had lunch at Bandito Burrito Co, somewhat of an institution in Huntsville for as long as I can remember. Our mob kind of took over the place.

Bandito has some of the best bathroom graffiti

Snow started to come down as we were leaving the restaurant and by the time we started up our little mountain to get home it was starting to accumulate. There was a tree down that forced us to re-route and take the scenic way home, which worked out better with the snow anyway.