Saturday May 4, 2024 Hike Summary

For our last hike of the Spring 2024 season, we had something new…a new hike leader, Cody Evans,  from Carterville.  We met at the Goreville City park, and  had a few new hikers, a father & son pair, and a dad with his young daughter, who wanted to just see what one of our hikes was like. We vehicle-pooled out to the parking area, southwest of Goreville.  We started out with 17 hikers, but the father & daughter pair soon turned back. We headed to Borks Falls, crossing several streams, but, since recent rains had been on the ‘light side’ we had no real trouble making those crossings..  We headed out on an old roadbed/trail. We were ‘on trail’ a decent portion of the day, but, at times we also bushwhacked along the base of small bluff lines, and streams.  We made it to Borks’ Falls for our lunch stop and the regular group picture.  At the falls,  several  friends of the hike leader joined up with us, to go back to the starting spot, which meant, that for the 2nd time this season, we “gained” hikers as we came back to  the conclusion of the hike. We did take a “straight-line’, bushwhack, shortcut over the last mile getting back to the parking lot. It was a pretty warm & humid day for early May.  We ended up, depending on whose GPS tracking system that was checked, hiking a bit over 6 miles for the day. 

We are Glad to have all the hikers this Spring 2024 season.  I have not yet totaled up the numbers for this spring. We want to say “Thank You” to All the leaders who take the time to plan and “advance scout” each hike. We hope You enjoy your hike time with us enough to tell and bring others to hikes. 

We Do have 1 more “event’ this spring, which is the annual meeting that is held on National Trails Day at the Vienna City park, on Saturday June 1st.  We will have a business meeting, at least 1 guest speaker and then a potluck meal afterwards. You can look for announcements or updates on our Facebook page (River to River Trail Society) or on the website. Some will probably bring bikes to take a ride North or South along the Tunnel Hill bike trail after the meeting. Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail” and have a safe, enjoyable summer. 

Carmen Williams 2024 Thru Hike Trail Story

Carmen submitted to us a Youtube video that he created for his 2024 R2R through hike at the age of 71.

Our review of this video found that a few video segments were out of sequence with the actual trail. Overall though, it still represents a through hike along the trail very well. The only exception is the section of the video where he shows his day hike through the Giant City State Park trails when he took a zero day from the R2R Trail.

Carmen Williams 2024 Thru Hike Trail Story

Enjoy.

Trail Society Releases Updated Trail Guide

River to River Trail Guide Version 5.5_202404 has been uploaded to the Societies website. Updates included in this release include:

This updated version of the guide to includes the following:
– Locations of all picnic tables along the trail in a table and shown on maps.
– Information on the John O’Dell Memorial installed along the trail in Herod.
– Added the trail mileage chart to the guide.
– All recent trail reroutes have been added to the guide including info on the upcoming Cedar Lake reroute. Reroutes included are:
* Dutchman Lake in 2022
* Giant City in 2021
* HWY 127 bridge removal in Alto Pass in 2021
* A sneak peak at the upcoming major Cedar Lake reroute which is under construction.

R2R_Trail_Guide_V5.5_202404Download

Trail Society Annual Meeting / Picnic

Hello All!!

The 2024 River To River Trail Society Annual meeting will be here soon. It is scheduled for Saturday, June 1st, 10 am, at the Vienna, IL. City Park, which coincides with National Trails Day The park is adjacent to the Tunnel Hill Trailhead along IL Route 146 midway between I24 (exit 16) and the US Route 45 intersection downtown. We have reserved the Rams Landing shelter which is located in the back of the park. (See photo below)  As a result, the Society will be providing grilled brats and hotdogs, buns, table service and bottled water. The rest of the picnic will be a potluck and everyone is asked to bring their favorite dish to pass such as a fruit, vegetable, side dish and/or dessert.  If you want something to drink besides water you will have to bring your own. Only picnic tables are included with the shelter so if you want something more comfortable it is suggested you bring your own lawn chair.

For the meeting, there will be reports from various board members about the accomplishments from the past year and possible future projects. During the business meeting, the Society will also be electing Society officers and board members for the next year.

Following the business meeting, the Society has arranged for Lindsey Godby Roberts to speak her passion with long distance running and her recent attempt for a third Fastest Known Time record on the R2R Trail. We have also invited the new Friends of the Shawnee National Forest Co-Chair John Wohlwend to speak on the Friends efforts around the Shawnee and how we can jointly support the Forest.

Please, come join us, learn what being an officer or board member might entail. No hikes are planned for the event. You are welcome to bring a friend interested in hiking, or a significant other.

As we did last year, several members brought bikes and enjoyed a ride on the Tunnel Hill state trail to work off the meal.

Saturday April 27, 2024 Hike Summary

On Saturday April 27th, 8 hikers met with Fred Scott at the Bell Smith Spring parking area. It was damp and cloudy, with a chance of some drizzles, which might have kept the numbers down for the hike. We had 1 new hiker and a dad & his 10 yr. old daughter. We then vehicle-pooled out to Gunnar lane.  I have driven  by the lane dozens of times, but had never ventured down the lane at all. Fred was taking us a different way into Bell Smith Springs. You just never can tell where you might go, and then end up.  We hiked just about 4 miles, depending on whose GPS system/phone was used. Fairly quickly we were walking down a sloped , rocky stream bed, then we could observe a sizeable stream down below us. We could hear water trickling over rocks. We ate lunch under the Great Arch of the Bell Smith springs, where we also took the group picture. Just as we got to the arch, a large family group was hiking through. We met up with several other pairs of hikers out for the day. Several were already wading the waters.  We hiked all along the main stream, then into the Hunting Branch area parking lot. We then climbed up along, working our way higher back to the parking area.

This next hike, meeting at the Goreville city park, is our last hike of the Spring 2024 hiking season. 

Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail”.