River to River Trail Stewards Program
Pursuant to recent discussions in Facebook groups on the River to River Trail, the River to River Trail Society is looking to restart a program that existed during the first 20 years of the trails existence. Back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s the Society maintained a list of individuals responsible for different sections of the trail. This list gradually fell apart after about 2010 for a variety of reasons including trail changes and the aging of the participants. As a result, the Society is looking restart this Trail Stewards program.
The duties of Trail Stewards would include but not be limited to the following:
- Hike the section a minimum of once or twice a year to clear minor tree fall, pickup trash and basically monitor and maintain the section.
- Trail Stewards are not authorized to reroute the trail around problems.
- Trail Stewards are not authorized to utilize power equipment unless approved to do so by the Forest Service. The society does not carry insurance cover the activities of the Stewards since this if a volunteer program.
- Check the condition of trail reassurance markers whether hiking either direction.
- Install/Replace trail reassurance markers as necessary to maintain the trail up to the standards created when the trail was 100% remarked back in 2017. The trail reassurance standards listed at the bottom of this page will be followed.
- Trail Steward shall agree to utilize the Avenza App with the latest River to River Trail Bundle to assure they are on the correct version of the trail.
- The trail Steward shall also remove improper or miss leading assurance markers along abandoned sections of the trail or those installed by random users that may not be needed or accurate. This created lots of problems from 2010 until 2017 because a lot of users were installing signage even though they couldn’t be assured they were on the real trail.
- Allow your name and email address to be included on this page and serve as a POC for trail users to report problems / concerns to.
- If problems / concerns are reported, the trail Steward will investigate and determine if further action is necessary.
- The trail Stewards shall also monitor the road sections of the trail on either side of their section because they are not included in the list below.
- Each and every time a Trail Steward hikes or otherwise maintains their section of trail it is requested that they provide a brief email report of what was done and the conditions of that section of trail. This information will be posted to this page so it is available for every bodies use in determining trail conditions. Reports should be submitted to william.gilmour@frontier.com. These reports can be found on the Trail Stewards Reports page.
- Each and every time a Trail Steward hikes or maintains their section of trail, it will be required that they submit a report of volunteer hours and work accomplished on the Volunteer Efforts web page. This is required because the information is submitted to the Forest Service annually when they need the information to be submitted to higher headquarters to justify their existence and possibly justify additional staff locally.
- Trail Stewards may volunteer for one or more of the following sections by submitting there name, email, sections they want to volunteer for and why. The why will be taken into consideration if more than one volunteers for the same section. This information shall be submitted to the Trail Society President at william.gilmour@frontier.com
| Section No. | Section Name | Trail Steward Volunteer | Volunteer Email | Section End Points * | Length | Section Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elizabethtown Section | Todd Carr | tacarr2@yahoo.com | Mile 0 to 4.8 | 4.8 | This section starts at the river in Elizabethtown and ends at the road crossing near Iron Furnace. |
| 2 | Basset Road Section | Mile 5.1 to 10.9 | 5.8 | This sections starts where the trail enters the woods off N. Iron Furnace Road and ends at the Bassett Road intersection. | ||
| 3 | Lee Mine Section | Janine Parker | Mile 10.9 to 14.4 | 3.5 | This section starts at Bassett Road and ends at Karbers Ridge Road intersection. | |
| 4 | High Knob Section | Sam Morales | samnora99@gmail.com | Mile 14.4 to 18.3 | 3.9 | This section goes from Karbers Ridge Road to High Knob Road |
| 5 | Buzzards Roost Section | Jaime Dziesinski | jaimedziesinski@gmail.com | Mile 18.3 to 21.6 | 3.3 | This section goes from High Knob Road to Backpackers parking lot in Garden of the Gods. |
| 6 | GoG Section | Kenneth Johnson | goldcreek1269@gmail.com | Mile 21.6 to 27.1 | 5.5 | This section goes from Backpackers parking lot to Eagle Creek / Gape Hollow Road intersectiom. |
| 7 | One Horse Gap Section | Mike and Pam Hoehn | pj.hoehn@gmail.com | Mile 29.7 to 39.1 | 9.4 | This section starts where the trail enters the woods along Raum Road and ends where it comes out at Concord Cemetery. |
| 8 | Lusk Creek East Section | Back Country Horseman | Mile 40.2 to 48 | 7.8 | This section starts at Bethesda Church and ends at Owl Bluff | |
| 9 | Lusk Creek West Section | Back Country Horseman | Mile 48 to 52.4 | 4.4 | This section starts at Owl Bluff and ends where the trail reaches New Home Road the second time to road walk to Eddyville. | |
| 10 | Petticoat Section | Mile 54.8 to 60.1 | 5.3 | This section starts in Eddyville and ends where the trail crosses Cedar Grove Church Road | ||
| 11 | Millstone Lake Section | Mile 60.1 to 70 | 9.9 | This section goes from Cedar Grove Church Road to Gum Springs Road | ||
| 12 | Cedar Creek Section | Steve Ryder | scrfab4@gmail.com | Mile 70 to 73.5 | 3.5 | This section goes from Gum Springs Road to the Boot Ranch on Garfield Lane. |
| 13 | Max Creek Section | Mile 75.2 to 77.4 | 2.2 | This section goes from Hilltop Lane over to where the trail starts down Taylor Ridge Road. | ||
| 14 | Tunnel Hill Section | Mile 80.1 to 84 | 3.9 | This section starts at the trail mid-point on US45 and ends when the trail comes out on Bowmans Bottom Road near Odum Track entrance. | ||
| 15 | Dutchman Section | Marcus Owens | mowensins@nwcable.net | Mile 84.5 to 87.5 | 3 | This sections starts where the trail enters the woods on Dutchman Lake road and ends when it reaches Twinz Lane. |
| 16 | Ferne Clyffe East Section | Lindsey Godby Roberts | Mile 92.6 to 98.7 | 6.1 | This section starts at the trailhead at the end of Rebman Land and ends when it reaches Crawford Ave in Goreville. | |
| 17 | Ferne Clyffe West Section | Lindsey Godby Roberts | Mile 101 to 103.1 | 2.1 | This section starts at Happy Hollow Trailhead and ends when the trail reaches Regent Lane. | |
| 18 | Panther Den Section | Clint Stevens | drmclintoc@gmail.com | Mile 109.1 to 115.3 | 6.2 | This section starts where the trail leaves Wayside Lane and ends when it comes out on Rocky Comfort Road. |
| 19 | Antioch Cemetery Section | Mile 115.3 to 120.8 | 5.5 | This section starts on Rockyy Comfort Road and ends at the Giant City Lodge. | ||
| 20 | Giant City Section | Andrew Vaz | andrew.vaz89@gmail.com | Mile 120.8 to 126.6 | 5.8 | This section starts at the Giant City Lodge and travels through Makanda to US51. |
| 21 | Cedar Lake Section | Andrew Vaz | andrew.vaz89@gmail.com | Mile 128.9 to 135.9 | 7 | This section starts at the Lirley Trailhead and ends when the trail reaches Alto Pass Waterworks Road. |
| 22 | Godwin Section | Mile 140.2 to 147.8 | 7.6 | This section starts where the trail enters the woods along Bald Knob Cross Road and ends at the McCann Srings Parking Lot. | ||
| The Historic Battery Rock Leg of the Trail | ||||||
| 23 | Battery Rock Section | Vicky Patton/Charlene Davis | vpatton100@gmail.com | Mile 0 to 5 | 5 | This section starts at the Ohio River and ends when the trail reaches Tuckerhill Road. |
| 24 | Rock Creek Section | Vicky Patton/Charlene Davis | vpatton100@gmail.com | Mile 11.2 to 18 | 6.8 | This section starts when trail enters woods of FS road 1749 and ends when at Camp Cadiz |
| 25 | Camp Cadiz Section | Sam Morales | samnora@nwcable.net | Mile 18 to 22.8 | 4.8 | This section starts at Camp Cadiz and ends when the main R2R trail is reached. |
* Mileages in the above table are based on traveling east to west.
Trail Reassurance Markers installation Guidelines:
- Trail Assurances markers are primarily required wherever their are intersections along the trail with other trails. This could include official Forest Service trails or user made trails because either can cause confusion to a trail hiker.
- Assurance markers will be installed at an approximate height of six feet and the installer shall try to assure they will not become hidden by weeds and leaves.
- When an intersection is along the trail, the trail markers shall clearly indicate the proper direction for hikers going both directions on the trail.
- Due to Forest Service requirements, the Blue and White plastic markers will be used everywhere along the trail except in the wilderness areas. Within wilderness areas, the markers to be used are the natural cedar wood diamonds with the “i” carved into it.
- The dot on the “i” will always point in the direction the trail goes. Therefore if there is a 90 degree turn in the trail the “i” will be sideways with the dot pointed in the direction the trail turns. If there is not an intersection and the turn is obvious, then there is not need for additional assurance markers.