On Saturday’s hike from Giant City SP to the ghost town of Progress on Rocky Comfort Road we had 23 hikers.  At least 3-4 of the hikers to were new to the R2R Trail Society hikes.   Hike leader Steve Gariepy did an excellent job of explaining all aspects of the trails.  At the Giant City campground Steve talked about his planned hike and the efforts of the SIU Touch of Nature to build trails on the west side of forest around SIU’s property.  Steve talked about their proposed reroute of the R2R trail in the area by taking it off some old roads and placing more of the trail on SIU’s property.   He also explained that one reroute may be a challenged because he is proposing moving it to Crab Orchard’s wilderness area.  Once on trial, we hiked the Red Cedar to the R2R which Steve planned to take to his proposed reroute, however a missed turn on the R2R trail ended up being an extra 1.25 mile unplanned detour.  As a result Steve had to alter his hike and stick mainly to the R2R trail for the remainder of the hike.  He did lead one bushwhack up a hill on Crab Orchard wilderness to avoid a terrible section of the R2R trail.  After that we had brief stops at 3 Old Home sites and Antioch Cemetery.  He also pointed out the Sugarbush Maple trees planted in a row at one of the home sites along the trail. We finally arrived at the old Hidatsa Lodge where we stopped for a late lunch at 1:00.  During lunch Steve explained a lot of the history of the lodge, the R2R trail and SIU’s involvement in it.  I do know the Shawn of “Hiking with Shawn on Youtube” recorded it all so it may be a great video to check out when he releases it.  After a group picture, we headed to a nearby old home that Steve described as that of the Postman of Progress.  We ended up at the foundation and fireplace remains of the old administration site.  After which we finished the last .25 miles to the cars and got loaded up just before the rain started falling.  My final mileage ended up being 7.5 miles.

 

Great hike Steve.