Saturday, April 2nd, 2022 Bill Gilmour led 18 other hikers into the Jackson Hollow Ecological Area, which is East of Trigg Tower road.  His original hike had been planned for the West Side of Trigg Tower road, into the Finke Sandstone area (which is just East of the hike of last Saturday, March 26th, follow that??), but, there had been a Forest Service “prescribed burn” about 3 weeks prior, in the Finke Sandstone area, which had destroyed a lot of possible wildflower sightings & would have revealed possibly a Lot of trash. Bill was flexible in his hike plan. We moved North, about a mile from the Trailhead, and went into the woods, East of Trigg tower Rd., then down into the valley. We stayed Below the bluff line most all morning, seeing several shelter bluff areas,did hear a train go South,eventually briefly viewing the railroad tracks and after lunch and the group picture, we climbed up on top of the bluffs, viewing where we were all morning, and worked our way back to the road, just a few hundred feet North of our vehicle parking spot. We, again, had 3-4 “new” to the River to River Trail Society hikers. A few spots were dribbling water. We hiked about 5 miles, mainly off-trail all day long.

Next weeks’ hike will be led by Bob Mulcahy, at the Piney Bluff Ravine, meeting at 10 am, in Ava, Illinois, at the intersection of IL. Rt. 4 & 151.  I have never been there prior to this hike.

Tell ’em who ya hiked with…The River to River Trail Society!!  See ya’ll on the trail.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Drone