Trail Society Volunteer Efforts
The page captures the Trail Society volunteer hours associated with activities not related to the normal spring and fall hiking schedules. The volunteer hours captured in this table are related to specific activities where Society members specifically work on volunteer work. It does not include efforts to remark, clear debris or clean trash from trails during normal hiking activities.
To submit volunteer activities, please fill out the information on the form on this linked page.
2024 Society Volunteer Efforts
| Date | Description | R2R | ADT | Trail Stewards | Number of Volunteers | Total Hours | Comments | Submitter’s Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-19 | Invasive species removal GOG | No | No | No | 1 | 4 | Worked with Forest Service and other volunteers in cutting and spraying herbicide on the Autumn Olive plants at Garden of The Gods. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-11-12 | Invasive species removal GOG | No | No | No | 1 | 6 | Worked with the Forest Service and Friends of the Shawnee to remove Autumn Olive brush from entrance area to Garden of the Gods. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-11-10 | New trail markers at Garden of Gods | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 6 | I hung the new (more visible) trail markers in the Garden of the Gods Wilderness area from Gape Hollow Rd to the overlook at mile 24.1. | Clint Stevens |
| 2024-11-08 | New trail markers at Garden of Gods | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 8 | I hung the new (more visible) trail markers in the Garden of the Gods Wilderness Area. I hiked from Forest Rd. to the overlook at mile 24.1. | Clint Stevens |
| 2024-11-01 | Trash Blast FSR 1901 | No | No | No | 1 | 5 | Worked with 17 others in removing trash along FSR 1901. We removed over 2500 pounds of trash. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-10-30 | Wrote article on Dutchman Lake Reroute | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 3 | Bill Gilmour checked out Dutchman Lake reroute work on Oct 29th after a hike and wrote an article on the work on Oct 30th. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-23 | BCH Pack Day Indian Kitchen | No | No | No | 1 | 6 | Bill Gilmour helped the BCH-IL load horses with rock to fill the trail into Indian Kitchen. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-22 | Updated R2R Trail Markers | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 8 | Bill Gilmour & Bob Mulcahy hiked from Boot Ranch to Gum Springs installing approximately 20 new trail markers because of user made horse trails intersecting R2R causing confusion. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-18 | Double Bridges R2R Trail Scouting | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 3 | I hiked the R2R with Kyle Varel showing him the damage to the trail near Twin Bridges Cemetery east of Gum Springs Road. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-12 | Giant City Park Event | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 13 | We participated in this event to support our state park, Giant City. There were several other participants, and we had several people come by to allow us to tell them about the Society and the River-to-River trail. | Fred Scott |
| 2024-10-11 | New trail markers at Panther Den | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 6 | I added the new (more visible) trail markers in the Panther Den Wilderness area. | Clint Stevens |
| 2024-10-09 | Cut Trees along the R2R | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 14 | Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour cut trees along the R2R. Removed a dead tree over the picnic table near Hart Creek & Raum Road. Then cleared trees between Trigg Tower and Gum Springs Road. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-09 | Replaced Trail Sign at Dutchman Lake | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 2 | Fred Scott drove down to Dutchman Lake and installed a new R2R sign to replace the one that was stolen. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-10-04 | Trash Blast | No | No | No | 1 | 5 | Worked with forestry officials and Friends of the Shawnee in removing 348 pounds of trash from the Grantsburg swamp area. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-10-04 | Hiked the Planned R2R Reroute east of Dutchman Lake with Kyle Varel | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 4 | Bill Gilmour and Kyle Varel of the FS hiked and reviewed the Dutchman Lake East reroute that has been approved by the FS. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-09-22 | Ferne Clyffe 75 year celebration | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 22 | Sam Morales and I were at our information booth along with several others at this event. | Fred Scott |
| 2024-07-01 | Install blazes on R2R Trail | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 17 | Sam Morales and Chris Drone installed trail marking blazes along the rerouted R2R trail Cedar Lake. 4.5 miles of reroute. Sam worked 9 hours and Chris worked 8 hours. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-06-27 | Repair stone steps Rim Rock Rec. Area | No | No | No | 1 | 5 | Assisted Friends of the Shawnee with repairing stone steps at the Rim Rock Recreation area. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-06-17 | Trail repair Indian Kitchen | No | No | No | 2 | 15 | Sam Morales and Chris Drone assisted the Forestry Service and BCH with loading of rock onto pack animals which was used in the repair of trail 433 to Indian Kitchen. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-06-15 | Chainsaw Training | No | No | No | 1 | 8 | Sam Morales assisted BCH Cricket Simmons with training of some ladies from BCH to become sawyers. Training with both gas and battery-operated chain saws. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-05-10 | Leave No Trace Event | No | No | No | 2 | 17.5 | Bill Gilmour participated in the May 9 training for 4.5 hours. Fred Scott and Bill Gilmour represented the Society by manning a information booth on May 10 for a total of 13 hours. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-04-20 | Cleared trees along R2R near trail 32 | Yes | Yes | No | 3 | 4.5 | Chris Drone, Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour cleared 3 trees from the R2R | William Gilmour |
| 2024-03-09 | Trail Clearing Bay Creek Wilderness | No | No | No | 1 | 9 | Sam Morales worked with the BCH in clearing down trees and brush from the trails in the Bay Creek wilderness area. A total of twenty volunteers participated. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-03-01 | Dutchman Lake Trashblast | No | No | No | 3 | 11 | Sam & Nora Morales and Bill Gilmour participated in the Friends Trash Blast today. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-02-25 | Removing tires from Forest | No | No | No | 2 | 10 | Sam Morales and Melanie Kasson worked with the Friends of the Shawnee to remove trash and tires from the Shawnee Forest. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-02-24 | Herbicide Training Hidden Springs Office | No | No | No | 2 | 10 | Sam Morales and Melanie Kasson attended the Herbicide training conducted by the Shawnee National Forest service at the Hidden Springs Ranger Station in Vienna, IL. | Sam Morales |
| 2024-02-23 | Clearing fallen pines at the 9 Mile mark of the R2R. | Yes | No | No | 2 | 10 | Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour worked with NF Kyle Varel to cut pines and scout an alternative route around the pines, | William Gilmour |
| 2024-02-22 | Attended the Southern Illinois Outdoor Economy Summit | No | No | No | 2 | 8 | Sam Morales & Bill Gilmour attended the summit. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-02-20 | Repaired R2R trail between Crow Knob & Petti Coat with Back Country Horseman. | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 12 | Bill Gilmour & Sam Morales spread gravel w/ BCHM. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-02-07 | Clearing fallen trees between Little Cedar Lake and Alto Pass | Yes | Yes | No | 3 | 24 | On February 7, 2024 minimum of another 13 trees were cleared from the R2R Trail between Little Cedar Lake Spillway and Waterworks road near Alto Pass. Society members Sam Morales, Cathy Jennings and Bill Gilmour met and hiked 4.5 miles from Landreth Road to Waterworks road and cleared all of the trees along that section of the River to River Trail. | William Gilmour |
| 2024-02-01 | Clearing fallen trees from Max Creek Section of Trail | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 15 | Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour got together and cut approximately 35 trees that had fallen across the Max Creek section of the River to RIver Trail. Most trees were only 4-6 inches in diameter, however we did encounter 4-6 that were 14-12 inches in diameter plus one that was approximately 28 inches in diameter. The trail is now clean from Taylor Ridge Road to Hilltop Lane except for one large tree near Hilltop Lane that is easy to walk around. | William Gilmour |
| 2023-01-19 | Clearing trees from Miller Grove | No | No | No | 1 | 7 | Sam Morales assisted the Forest Service and the BCH with tree and brush removal from the Miller Grove cemetary. | Sam Morales |
| Totals -> | 51 | 298 |
2023 Society Volunteer Efforts
| Date | Description | R2R | ADT | Trail Stewards | Total Hours | Comments | Submitter’s Name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-12-26 | Updating Trail Guide | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 10 | Bill Gilmour spent the day updating the trail guide. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-12-14 | Installed 3 Picnic Tables | Yes | Yes | No | 6 | 46 | Bill Gilmour & Sam Morales worked 10 hrs each, Cricket Simons worked 8 hrs and Bob Mulcahy, Cathy Jennings and Steve Melville worked 6 hrs each installing tables at Max Creek, Cedar Creek and the Hippie Bus locations. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-12-08 | Clearing Miller Grove Cemetery | No | No | No | 1 | 5 | Bill Gilmour worked with the BCH clearing brush from Miller Grove Cemetery. | Bill Gilmou |
| 2023-11-28 | Invasive species removal GOG | No | No | No | 3 | 15 | Cathy Jennings, Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour removed Autumn Olive trees from Garden of the Gods. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-11-27 | Scouting Picnic Table Haul Routes | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 12 | Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour scouted routes to haul picnic tables into Max Creek and Gum Springs areas. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-11-25 | Assembled 3 Picnic Tables | Yes | Yes | No | 4 | 7.5 | Sam Morales, Fred Scott, Chris Drone and Bill Gilmour worked after the Society hike to assemble 3 picnic tables. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-11-11 | Clearing Miller Grove Cemetery | No | No | No | 1 | 7 | Worked with BCH in clearing of trees and brush from the Miller Grove Cemetary. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-11-07 | Invasive species removal GOG | No | No | No | 1 | 6 | Sam Morales worked in removing Autum Olive plants from the Garden of the Gods area. There were 5 different groups involved in this removal. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-11-02 | Removing fallen trees from R2R Trail | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 16 | Sam Morales & Bob Mulcahy removed fallen trees from the R2R Trail between Rocky Comfort Rd. and the west side of Panthers Den Wilderness area. Sam worked 9 hours; Bob worked 7 hours. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-10-25 | Setting picnic table Crow Knob | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 4 | With help from the BCH, we installed a picnic table at Crow Knob. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-10-17 | Invasive species removal Dutchman Lake | Yes | Yes | No | 3 | 16 | 3 Members of the River-to-River Trail Society assisted the Forest Service with removal of Chaff from along the planned re-route of the River-to-River Trail in the Dutchman Lake area. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-10-11 | Set picnic table at Petti Coat Junction | Yes | Yes | No | 4 | 24 | Sam Morales & Bill Gilmour of the Society along with Cricket Simons and Ken of BCH spent 6 hours each hauling the table into Petti Coat Junction | Bill Gilmou |
| 2023-10-08 | Scoping out R2R to remove trees. | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 6 | Sam scoped out R2R Trail between Rocky comfort road and Panthers Dern Wilderness, found 19 down trees. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-10-07 | Assisted FS in cutting trees along trail 032 | No | No | No | 1 | 3 | Sam (3) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-10-04 | Installed the picnic table at Hart Creek | Yes | Yes | No | 3 | 8 | Bill (3), Sam (3) & Fred (2) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-31 | Cut trees along R2R In GoG Wilderness and One Horse Gap area | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 8 | Bill (4) & Sam (4) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-26 | Installed 1 Picnic Table at Rocky Top and assembled 4 more | Yes | Yes | No | 4 | 23 | Bill (7), Sam (7), Cricket (6) and David (3) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-23 | National Public Lands Day at Garden of the Gods | No | No | No | 33 | 66 | 33 folks showed up for the Society and Friends and worked 4 hours picking up trash and cleaning Graffiti. The hours shown here represent 1/2 of the total hours. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-22 | Cut trees in One Horse Gap and Installed 1st picnic table at Trail 170 Overlook. We also scouted 2 more table locations in the One Horse Gap Section. | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 12 | Bill (6) and Sam (6) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-19 | Scott Drone Silvers picking up table materials | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 4 | Scott spent 4 hours trying to pick up parts at the Champagne Menards having to go back twice. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-16 | Bought material for 6 picnic tables and 2 | Yes | Yes | No | 4 | 26 | Bill (8), Sam (8), Chris (7) and David (3) | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-09-04 | Scoping to remove trees from R2R | Yes | Yes | No | 1 | 3 | Scoping out downed trees on R2R trail east of Benham Hill Trailhead and west of Bethesda Church | Sam Morales |
| 2023-08-31 | Removed downed trees from the R2R trail. | Yes | Yes | No | 2 | 9 | Sam Morales and Bill Gilmour hiked into the Hidatsa Lodge and cleared R2R-0016 along with several other downed trees over the trail from Rock Comfort Road to just past the Hidatsa Lodge. We also hiked into R2R-0015 at Dutchman Lake and assured it was cleared. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-07-24 | Removed downed trees from R2R trail. | Yes | No | Yes | 1 | 5 | Removed downed trees from R2R trail. 3 locations R2R-0001, R2R-0004, and R2R-0005. One person from the R2R Society and one person from BCH. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-06-02 | Trah Blast Bell Smith Springs | No | No | No | 2 | 4 | Two members of the R2R Society assisted the Friends of the Shawnee Forest with trash removal from Bell Smith Springs area. There were 17 volunteers and 2 forestry agents working on this trash blast. We worked from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and I only included the hours of the R2R folks in the above Total Volunteer Hours. We picked up three trash bags of trash. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-06-02 | Scoping to remove trees from R2R | Yes | No | No | 1 | 2 | Viewed these fallen tree sites designated along the River-2-River trail as R2R-0001, R2R-0002, R2R-0003, R2R-0004 and R2R-0005 to come up with a plan to remove these down trees. R2R-0003 has been cleared. | Sam Morales |
| 2023-05-24 | Hauled gravel for trails | No | No | No | 3 | 18 | 3 Society members worked 6 hours each assisting the Backcountry Horseman to haul gravel in Lusk Creek. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-05-20 | Cut Trees along R2R | Yes | No | Yes | 5 | 30 | 5 Society members worked 6 hours each to cut trees from the R2R trail between Iron Furnace and Bassett Road. | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-02-18 | Rerouted the trail west of Dutchman Lake | Yes | Yes | No | 25 | 100 | February 25 Volunteer Opportunity | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-01-26 | Planning Dutchman Reroute w/ BCH | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3 | 9 | Bill G planned trail reroute workday w/ 2 BCH folks for 3 hours | Bill Gilmour |
| 2023-01-13 | Dutchman Lake Reroute w/ FS | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 6 | Bill Gilmour scouted, marked and mapped the Dutchman Lake reroute from the dam to Tall Tree Lane with 2 FS employees. | Bill Gilmour |
| Totals -> | 125 | 510.5 |