September 26, 2020 National Public Lands Work Day

Hi all:

Today the River to River Trail Society volunteers did a great job in picking up well over 100 lbs of trash from above and below the observation trail area, backpackers parking lot and the Indian point trail. The crew worked this morning from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM. The work day was definitely needed because there was a lot of trash in most areas. This likely because of the large numbers of visitors that Garden of the Gods has been seeing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today was no exception as the recreation area was extremely crowded today but the clean up crews mainly avoided the crowds and social distanced because they were working mostly below the bluffs. The cleanup work day was appreciated by the Shawnee National Forest Service.

The following eleven volunteers participated on behalf of the Trail Society.

Bill Gilmour, Shawn Gossman, Michelle Cochran, Bob Mulcahy, Chris Drone, Jim Todd, Doreen Collins, Kathy Flenner, David Flenner, Fred Scott and Marcus Owens

If you see any of these folks, please thank them for their efforts. Here is a picture of the trash collected from the observation trail area alone.

River-to-River Trail Society Announces Fall, 2020 Hiking Schedule

The River-to-River Trail Society announces that this fall it will once again offer a schedule of guided hikes in and near the Shawnee National Forest. All hikes are free and open to the public. Although the hikes vary in level of difficulty, all are intended for people in good health who have done some hiking in the past. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are strongly recommended. All hikers should bring their own water and a snack. No dogs, please.

In order to protect the health of leaders and hikers, a number of new procedures will be in effect during the coronavirus emergency and are mandatory. All groups will be limited to no more than fifteen hikers, except in certain wilderness areas where the Forest Service has limited groups to no more than ten. In order to achieve that goal, all hikes will require advance registration with the hike leader. Starting times and meeting
places will be communicated to registrants over the telephone. All hikers must bring a face mask capable of covering nose, mouth, and chin. NO MASK, NO HIKE. While hikers need not wear face masks while hiking, they must wear them when standing near other hikers or when passing on the trail. Proper social distance must be maintained whenever possible. Because the route of all hikes will be either a loop or out-and-back, the Society will not provide any transportation. All hikers will be responsible for transporting themselves to the trailhead, and all will be expected to sign
a waiver of liability. Any other conditions required by executive order of the Governor or recommendations of the CDC must be complied with.

For those that are interested, you can download a PDF version of the schedule to print out by clicking on this link:

Press-Release-20200921Download

The Society’s first hike will be on Saturday, October 10, in Pyramid State Park, the largest state park in Illinois. This will be the Society’s first-ever scheduled hike in Perry County. The leader will be Steve Ryder. To register, call Steve at (217) 344-2610.

On Saturday, October 17, Bob Mulcahy will lead a hike at Ferne Clyffe State Park in Johnson County. Bob is an experienced leader for both the Society and the Sierra Club. To register, call Bob at (708) 471-7500.

For the Society’s third hike, on Saturday, October 24, Shawn Gossman will lead a hike on the Snake Road in Union County. Shawn is well-known through the online video series “Hiking With Shawn.” The fall snake migration should still be going on during this hike, and there will be plenty more to see. To register, call Shawn at (618) 694-7034.

On Saturday, October 31, the Society will once again offer its popular Halloween night hike to the mysterious “Vortex” at Max Creek in Johnson County. This hike has not been offered in several years, but as before will be led by Brian DeNeal, editor and publisher of Springhouse magazine. To register, call Brian at (618) 499-2055.

The Society’s fifth hike will be on Saturday, November 7, at Garden of the Gods Wilderness, in Saline County. In order to comply with rules of the Forest Service, hikers will be divided into two groups of no more than ten each, led by Fred Scott and David Cooper respectively. To register, call Fred at (618) 841-4838.

On Saturday, November 14, Society President Bill Gilmour will lead a hike over a new route at One Horse Gap in Pope County. If leaves have fallen, there should be great views from Benham Ridge. To register, call Bill at (270) 331-1553.

The Society’s seventh hike of the season, and its final scheduled hike of the year, will be in the Jackson Hole Area of Pope County, on Saturday, November 28. Join Cathy Jennings in a hike to walk off Thanksgiving calories and to bring a difficult year to an enjoyable close. To register, call Cathy at (618) 759-1924.

The River-to-River Trail is a hiking and equestrian trail which stretches 157 miles through Southern Illinois between Elizabethtown on the Ohio River and Grand Tower on the Mississippi. The River-to-River Trail Society is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, founded by John O’Dell in 1993. All its work is done by unpaid volunteers. Besides its program of free public hikes, the Society engages in trail maintenance and advocacy, and publishes an online guidebook to the entire River-to-River Trail, which can be
downloaded free of charge at the Society’s website: www.rivertorivertrail.net. Patches for the Society can be purchased for $5.00 during the Society’s public hikes.

September 26, 2020 National Public Lands Day

Hi all, we hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable summer considering everything going on. As everyone already knows, we cancelled all but one of our spring hikes and our annual meeting & picnic this past spring because of COVID-19. In light of these circumstances, the board met on July 28th in an outdoor environment and discussed how to proceed this fall.

The first topic of discussion was the fall hiking schedule. The board agreed to proceed forward with a hiking schedule and those details will be coming out in the very near future.

The Second & third topics of discussion were a work day and the rescheduling of our annual meeting & picnic. It was agreed to proceed forward with the idea of having our annual meeting on September 26, 2020, 1:30 PM at Glen-O-Jones Lake Recreation Area near the Tecumseh Statue. September 26, 2020 is designated as National Public Lands Day. With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, this annual meeting will be different from previous years in that there will be no picnic and everyone is encouraged to BYO everything. Bring your own lawn chairs, drinks, snacks, bug spray, umbrella and whatever else you may want or need. Following our brief annual meeting you will be able to listen to our guest speaker Kelly Pearson of the SNF. Kelly spent about 4 months earlier this year working over in Missouri at the Mark Twain NF. I am not sure what she was doing, but considering that her tour started about the time the pandemic shut downs started back in March, it should be interesting to hear about her experiences with the Mark Twain NF or just the pandemic travel challenges while working in Missouri. I wonder how the toilet paper shortage affected her? So please come to catch up with others in the society, participate in the annual meeting and listen to an interesting speaker.

In addition to the Annual meeting, the Board agreed to sponsor a work day in the form of a Trash Blast in the Garden of the Gods area. Originally this was going to be conducted in conjunction with the Friends of the Shawnee NF, however the Friends elected to hold a virtual event because of COVID-19. As a result, this event will be a Society only event where in we will meet at the GOG observation area on September 26 at 9:30 AM. This trash blast will involve bushwhacking around the base of the observation area to clean up all of the trash left by all of the visitors to the area. Because of the COVID-19 situation the Society is seeking between 10-12 volunteers to help in the effort and it is requested that volunteers call or email Bill Gilmour (270-331-1553 or william.gilmour@frontier.com) to register your participation. If you are planning on volunteering please plan on bring your own gloves, water, trash pickup tools and snacks needed for the event. The work day will end no later than 1:00 PM so participants can travel up to Glen-O-Jones to participate in the annual meeting.

The Society also looks forward to discussing with the membership our 2021 plans to honor our founder John O’Dell.

We hope to see you all there.