Saturday, May 7, 2022 Hike Announcement

The River-to-River Trail Society announces its tenth and final guided hike of the spring, 2022 hiking season, on Saturday, May 7, in Lusk Creek Wilderness, in Pope County. The hike is free and open to the public.The hike will be a difficult hike of about five miles, in the Bear Branch and Indian Kitchen areas.  In order to comply with rules of the USDA Forest Service, the group will be divided into two groups not to exceed ten hikers in each. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are strongly recommended. Hikers should bring their own water and a snack. No dogs, please. Advance registration is required. For information and to register, call (618) 534-8139.

Mr. Logsdon Completes the R2R Trail

The River to River Trail Society wishes to congratulate Mr. Tom Logsdon on his completion of the River to River trail.  He hiked a total of 168 miles over 17 non-consecutive days; starting on January 14th and ending on April 24th, 2022.  While this is a great accomplishment for anyone, at 80+ years old, Tom is a true inspiration for us all.  A quote he shared states “Dance like no one’s watching and live like there’s no tomorrow.”  These are great words to live by and he does it every day.  If you run into Tom, be sure to congratulate him.

For more information, please check out Tom’s entry in the R2R Honor Role Table. http://www.rivertorivertrail.net/home/trail-information/honor-roll/

April 23, 2022 – Bulge Hole Hike Summary

Hike of Sat. April 23,2022. This IS a bit late, sorry folks, I kept forgetting. We gathered at the Vienna, IL. U.S. Forest Service office and then moved out to Bulge Hole Ecological Area, which is, “by the crow”, almost straight North of Vienna. Christopher David Benda (Illinois Botanizer) led 17 other hikers, with, again, 4 new hikers. Mr. Benda was leading us to look for, and “at” Flora & Fauna plants and blooms. He had a clipboard with him, and told us at the end that he saw over 125 different plant species today. He knew common names, official names, and Latin names. He uses mnemonic ‘devices’ to help remember things. One such device: “Sedges have edges, rushes are round and grasses have joints..(when the cops aren’t around)”. We also saw 3-4 water falls today, although their flow wasn’t really high. We went through a glade, which is an exposed area of sandstone rock, which had some water flowing, and pools and were treated to seeing several pairs of mating frogs with their accompanying egg streams. We covered a bit over 4 miles, on a very pleasant & informative hike.

Our next hike, this Saturday, at Giant City State Park, Sat. April 30th, will be led by Fred Scott. Meet at the Visitors Center parking lot, 10 am. Until then. “See ya on the trail”.

Saturday, April 30, 2022 Hike Announcement

The River-to-River Trail Society announces its ninth hike of the Spring, 2022 hiking season, on Saturday, April 30, 2022, over several trails at Giant City State Park, near Makanda, Illinois. The hike is free and open to the public. This will be a hike of about five miles, and will be of moderate difficulty. The hike is intended for people in good health who have done some walking. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are recommended.  Hikers should bring their own water and a snack. No dogs, please.

    Hikers should meet at 10:00 a.m. at the Giant City Visitors’ Center, 235 Giant City Road, Makanda, Illinois. For information or directions, call (618) 841-4838.   

Trash Blast Work Day

The Trail Society has scheduled a trash blast work day for Sunday May 1st, 2022 (May 15th is the rain out day). The plan is to clean along the first 2 miles of the River to River Trail between Watson Lane and Lake Tecumsah which is just north of Elizabethtown, IL. We are looking for 8-10 volunteers so we can have 2-3 crews with one starting at each end and meeting in the middle. Because of the extensive amount of trash we are also arranging an ORV to haul out full bags of trash. If we have sufficient volunteers, we may also have a small crew work on cutting and clearing a couple large trees that have fallen over the trail in the area.

To start the day, we will meet at the riverfront in Elizabethtown, IL at 10:00am. This section of the trail is very hilly so plan to bring appropriate footwear, gloves, a snack and water, sunscreen and appropriate bug spray. Gloves or a pickup tool is very important because much of the trash may be in poison ivy.

If you are willing to help, please email william.gilmour@frontier.com so we can get a count on how many will be showing up. Thank you.

Trail Society Annual Meeting

The River-to-River Trail Society will hold its annual General Meeting on Saturday, June 4, at a location to be announced. Our annual meeting always occurs on the National Trails Day which is the first Saturday in June. During this annual meeting the Society elects the officers and board members that will oversee the Society’s business for the years to come.

We have some officers and board members that are of the age where they may not want to continue in their current position.  As a result we are making a call to find others that may be willing and able to get more involved with the Society by volunteering to serve in a role on the Society’s board or as an officer.

The Society has two main goals:

  1. To support and improve the River to River Trail by whatever means are available. This has typically involved working with the Shawnee National Forest folks, the Friends of the Shawnee and other volunteer organizations in Southern Ill who maintain the trail.
  2. To give back to the general public by scheduling 8-10 public hikes in both the spring and fall every year. The majority of these hikes are in areas of the Shawnee National Forest.

Currently, the Society doesn’t have any regularly scheduled meetings and the majority of our business is done via email communication and our annual meeting.  Occasionally, an impromptu, in person board meeting is scheduled when Society business dictates a need.

If you are motivated and interested in taking a more active role in moving this organization into the future please send an email with your vision and desired role within the organization to william.gilmour@frontier.com before May 10, 2022.

April 16, 2022 – Sand Hill Hike Summary

Susan & Kerry Durfee led 22 other hikers into the North part of the Burden Falls Wilderness area today. It Was a perfect day to hike, with temps great for hiking and skies of blue. We again had several new hikers and quite a few returnees. On our way into the wilderness, we walked through the Sand hill area. The exposed ‘red sandstone” indicates some origin/chemical composition of Iron/hematite. Bill Gilmour led us to “Bear cave” which is about 50 ft. deep. (No bears, or signs thereof, were found). The interesting thing about this particular cave is that it is on the top of a ridge.  After the lunch stop at the iron bridge we did some bushwacking and found a nice waterfall. Many then climbed a steep ridge to observe a passage-way/ arch.  Bluebells, a Big patch, across the Little Saline at the Iron Bridge, were in full bloom today, along with Dutchmans’ breeches.

Next weeks’ hike, led by botanist Christopher David Benda, has been altered somewhat, due to the runners participating in the River to River relay race.  We are meeting at the Forest service office in Vienna,at 10 am,which is on U.S. Rt. 45, just North of the intersection in Vienna of IL. Rt. 146 & U.S. Rt. 45. We will then reduce the number of vehicles, going out to Bulge Hole Ecological Area, to look for wildflowers, and maybe some waterfalls.  Until then, See ya on the Trail.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Drone

Saturday, April 23, 2022 Hike Announcement

River-to-River Trail Society announces its eighth guided hike of the Spring, 2022 hiking season on Saturday, April 23. The hike will be a wildflower hike at Bulge Hole Ecological Area in Johnson County led by noted Illinois botanist Chris Benda.  The previously announced location of Panther Den was changed to avoid conflict and potential traffic problems with the River to River Relay Running Road Race.   The hike is free and open to the public. This will be a hike of moderate difficulty intended for people in good health who have done some walking. Hikers should bring their own water and a snack. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are strongly recommended. No dogs, please.

    Hikers should meet at 10:00 a.m. at Shawnee National Forest Office on HWY 45 in Vienna, Illinois. This is a change from the meeting place announced previously. For information or directions, call (217) 417-4145.

April 9, 2022 – Piney Creek Ravine Hike Summary

On Saturday, April 9th, Bob Mulcahy led 14 other hikers into the Piney Creek Ravine, which in 2001, was put on the National Register of Historic Places. We had 4 new hikers. I had not been to this area prior to today, and although the day started a bit on the chilly side, things, as usual, warmed up. The area is about 5 miles West, and a bit South of Ava, Illinois. It has several areas of petroglyphs, which are images carved into rock by ancient civilizations. Bob had a booklet and explained & showed us the images to be looking for. There are also cameras,set up by the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, to ‘keep an eye’ for possible defamations to the rock art. We stopped at several waterfalls, and Bill Gilmour found a small window/arch. Most of the bluffs that we saw were Sandstone bluffs, but, some of the underlying rocks in the streams must have had different sedimentary composition, because the water, over time, has carved some very interesting features. Also, some of the stream bed rock has exposed colorations that I have observed in very few places. There were a few spots along stream banks that showed either small areas of shale, some were ‘darker’ indicating possible carbon in the rock, and there was  a spot that looked like either shale or mudstone, very fine grained.  The area is a popular spot, because by the time we left, there were 4-5 other vehicles parked along the road. 

This weeks’ hike, 10 am, Saturday, April 16th, will be led by Susan Durfee, is South of Stonefort, Illinois, on the Northern side of the Burden Falls area. Until then, “See ya’ll on the Trail.

Respectfully submitted, 

Chris Drone