On a cloudy, cool Saturday, The River to River Trail Society met at Shelter #2 at Dixon Springs State Park, for the 2nd hike of the Spring 2023 season  We had, again, several new hikers, some from just a few miles to the East. We loaded into vehicles and moved over to Rock road, to the East and headed out. Bill Gilmour, our hike leader for the day, led 15 other hikers to the Glendale Bluff, which he had scouted and found a good place to go down, and we went generally North/NE along the lower end until we got to a property line, then turned around and headed back South. This bluff line had 2 layers, and we were following the lower layer.  We saw several small windows and a few places that would be waterfalls if there had been much more rain in the previous 24 hours. The bluff line continued going South for quite some time, very contiguous..  We ate lunch and took the group picture on the Sandstone glade of Dixon Springs State Park. We were probably only about 1/2 mile from where we met at shelter #2. We then followed the glade, getting to see the top of a slot canyon, then back to a trail. We observed several other trails,, and, even though we saw, at the meeting spot, vehicles that had mountain bikes, we saw no bikers during our hike. We then came back in, on the top of the bluff that we had hiked along on the lower part during the morning. We ended up hiking about 5.5 miles. We did have a few sprinkles, but,were lucky to avoid any rain. We did pick up some trash, a few cans & bottles, and 1 hiker brought out 2 small pieces of tin and the frame of an aluminum lawn chair.  

Next week’s hike will meet at the Goreville, IL. city park, meeting at 10 am, led by Bill Gilmour. We will caravan out again. 

Until then, See ya’ll On the Trail, 

Respectfully submitted, 

Chris Drone