Tick Safety Education

The Trail Society would like to thank Janice and Mia for there very thoughtful suggestion that we are sharing here. The following bolded paragraphs are what we received:

I thought I’d share a quick note of thanks and appreciation. My name is Janice, and I’m currently teaching a k-12 program focused on environmental topics. While preparing materials for the program, I came across the River to River Trail Society links page and just wanted to say thank you for putting this together. I’ll be leading several outdoor field trips soon, and the trail and lnt information you provide is incredibly helpful in teaching the kids the importance of natural habitats and ways to enjoy nature responsibly all times of the year….and it led us to some great trip ideas!

As a thank you, one of my students who’s been helping research materials, Mia, suggested I pass along a tick safety article she found. I’ve included the link below. I always encourage students to take part in their learning and contribute their own discoveries to foster a sense of active environmental stewardship. The class was especially interested in learning how to spot ticks while hiking, and Mia thought it might be a helpful addition to your materials here (rivertorivertrail.net/home/links/). If you’re open to including it, would you mind letting us know? It would mean a lot to Mia to know she contributed something meaningful.

Have a great weekend,

Janice and Mia

Mia’s Suggestion: “Guide to Tick Safety for Backyards, Trails, and Campsites” grillio.com/blog/tick-safety/

As a reminder, this was the main topic of discussion at our Annual meeting and picnic back in June 2025 and Dr. Teresa Steckler, PHD, University of Illinois, provided excellent information. https://rivertorivertrail.net/2025/08/

Saturday, November 8, 2025 Hike Announcement

The River to River Trail Society announces its 5th public hike of the 2025 Fall hiking season on Nov. 8th.  Hiking: Giant City State Park (Jackson County). This hike is free and open to the public. This will be a moderate thru hike approximately 6 miles in length approximately 4 hours hiking time. The leader of this hike can be reached at 618-841-4838 for more information. Hikers should meet at 10:00 am at the Giant City Visitor Center. This hike is intended for people in very good health who have done some hiking. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are recommended. Hikers should bring their own water and snacks. No dogs please. This hike will require shuttling back to the visitor’s center. This hike may be tracked using the Avenza App. map R2R-21 or SNF Makanda map. For a map to the meeting location Giant City Visitors Center click this blue link Giant City Visitors Center and a map will open up, and then click the Directions button and a driving map will be created which will allow you to plan your driving directions to the meeting area. Prior to participating in any hikes, the River to River Trail Society requests that all hikers read the 2023 Trail Society Waiver which can be found on the River to River website at the following link https://rivertorivertrail.net/ and then sign off on this waiver prior to the beginning of the hike. A copy of the waiver will be at the Giant City Visitors Center meeting area for your signature.

Saturday October 25, 2025 Hike Summary

On a cloudy, overcast sky Saturday morning, 17 hikers gathered at the end of Rebman lane, to be led by Melanie Kasson on a hike involving several trails, including parts of the River to River trail, in the South part of Ferne Clyffe State park. We had  2 new hikers, 1 from Vienna, IL and 1 from Nashville TN. All the rest were returning hikers. Remembering that “what goes down, must come back up” we headed NE, down a wide trail. We crossed several “dry” streams today, since, again & still the area has had little rainfall. Trees are turning colors, but, the colors are quite muted. Lots of leaves have already fallen on trails. We wound around and found the Natural bridge/arch, and ate lunch under it. While we were there, one thru-hiker from Aurora came walking up to us.  We chatted with him, asked him if we could help in any way, and he said he needed bandages(probably for blisters). Several hikers found bandages in their backpacks and gave them to him. We included him, Lucas, on the left side in our group picture. Rain sprinkles threatened right at the start of the hike, but nothing materialized at all during or after the hike. We ended up covering 6.5 miles on todays’ hike. 

Next weeks’ hike will be in the Dutchman lake area. Park down by the boat launch. Megan H. will be our hike leader. Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail. 

Saturday, November 1, 2025 Hike Announcement

The River to River Trail Society announces its 4th public hike of the 2025 Fall hiking season on Nov. 1st.  Hiking: Dutchman Lake (Johnson County). This hike is free and open to the public. This will be a moderately difficult loop hike approximately 5 miles in length approximately 4 hours hiking time. The leader of this hike can be reached at 618-967-0019 for more information. Hikers should meet at 10:00 am at Dutchman Lake. This hike is intended for people in very good health who have done some hiking. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are recommended. Hikers should bring their own water and snacks. No dogs please. There are stream crossings which will require hikers to walk rocks in order to cross streams and the rocks may be slippery if the rocks are wet. Some steep grades are on this hike. Some slick rock on this hike which may be slippery if it has rained. This hike may be tracked using the Avenza App. map R2R 16 or SNF Vienna Quad. map. For a map to the meeting location at Dutchman Lake click this blue link Dutchman Lake and a map will open up, and then click the Directions button and a driving map will be created which will allow you to plan your driving directions to the meeting area. Prior to participating in any hikes, the River to River Trail Society requests that all hikers read the 2023 Trail Society Waiver which can be found on the River to River website at the following link River to River Trail Society Information and then sign off on this waiver prior to the beginning of the hike. A copy of the waiver will be at the Dutchman Lake meeting area for your signature.

Saturday October 18, 2025 Hike Summary

22 hikers gathered on a warm Saturday, October 18th, to be led down the Wild Turkey trail in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife refuge and other trails by Cathy Jennings, todays’ hike leader. We had 1 new hiker from the Carbondale area and the rest were returning hikers. Skies were cloudy, and there was a chance of rain, but, fortunately, no precipitation occurred at all. We crossed several bridges and streams, saw several “potential” waterfalls, but, with the continued dry weather, just no “moving” water. We stopped about noon, ate lunch, and then took the group picture against a background of a small rock outcrop. We encountered a few other hikers, told them about our group, and were back at the gathering point before 130pm. We hiked about 4.5 miles. 

Saturday, October 25, 2025 Hike Announcement

The River to River Trail Society announces its 3rd public hike of the 2025 Fall hiking season on Oct. 25th.  Hiking: Ferne Clyffe (Johnson County). This hike is free and open to the public. This will be a moderately difficult loop hike approximately 7 miles in length approximately 4 hours hiking time. The leader of this hike can be reached at 618-791-3086 for more information. Hikers should meet at 10:00 am at the Rebman Lane Trailhead. This hike is intended for people in very good health who have done some hiking. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are recommended. Hikers should bring their own water and snacks. No dogs please. There are two stream crossings which will require hikers to walk rocks in order to cross streams and the rocks may be slippery. Some steep grades on this hike. This hike may be tracked using the Avenza App. map R2R 17 or SNF Goreville Quad. map. For a map to the meeting location at Rebman Lane Trailhead click this blue link Rebman Lane Trailhead and a map will open up, and then click the Directions button and a driving map will be created which will allow you to plan your driving directions to the meeting area. Prior to participating in any hikes, the River to River Trail Society requests that all hikers read the 2023 Trail Society Waiver which can be found on the River to River website at the following link River to River Trail Society Information and then sign off on this waiver prior to the beginning of the hike. A copy of the waiver will be at the Rebman Lane Trailhead meeting area for your signature.

Saturday October 11, 2025 Hike Summary

On a sunny Saturday October 11th, we opened up the Fall 2025 hiking season. Sam Morales was our leader today, and he led 16 other hikers, including 2 new hikers, a husband/wife pair from Collinsville, Illinois. We met at Zion church, and were going to hike the Jackson Falls trail of 049. Sam had gone down early to check parking availability, and saw that the place was already packed, so, we “adjusted, and took 3 pickups full of people all the way down to the heliport area, We made sure not to block the gate. We walked on down the road, and, I happened to notice a somewhat familiar vehicle. Hmmm. We headed onto the trail. About 45 minutes into the hike, I heard a noise behind me and we stepped off the trail to let about 25 horses and their riders pass by us. There had been some rain in the area in the past week or so, and there was actually some moisture in spots. We either passed around several other equine groups or met with some during the rest of the hike. We heard 2 trains rumble through down the tracks, even saw the cars through the trees on 1 train. We got to the falls, where we ate lunch…and met up with the driver of the pickup, a fellow hiker from Shawneetown, out by himself. There was a trickle of water over the falls. There were dozens and dozens, maybe even over 100 rock climbers out also. Several groups from Purdue University. We distributed the new, Reusable trash bags at the meet up spot to begin the hike, but fortunately, I don’t think we picked up 1 full bag of trash, which Is a Good thing. We got up to the waterfall on top, and the group kind of split up on the way back…some hiking out to the road, some staying on the trail. We essentially did the hike “backwards” compared to most of the previous hikes we have done in this area. We got in about 5.5 miles. There were small camps and vehicles scattered almost every where along the road, with the 3 day weekend. 

Next weeks’ hike will be on the Turkey Trail of the Crab orchard area. Cathy Jennings will be our leader, and the hike will be around 5 miles. 

2025 Richard Hall Trail Story

A new trail story has been added to our website from Richard Hall. Richard interestingly enough weighed his entire pack and shared that content in this trail story to the gram. This may be useful to other trail users. Enjoy reading and thanks to Richard for sharing his story.

Trail_Story_Richard_Hall_2025Download

Saturday, October 18, 2025 Hike Announcement

The River to River Trail Society announces its 2nd public hike of the 2025 Fall hiking season on Oct. 18th.  Hiking: Wild Turkey Trail (Williamson County). This hike is free and open to the public. This will be a moderate in and out lollipop hike approximately 4.6 miles in length approximately 3-4 hours hiking time. The leader of this hike can be reached at 618-759-1924 for more information. Hikers should meet at 10:00 am at the Wild Turkey Trailhead. This hike is intended for people in very good health who have done some hiking. Hiking sticks and boots or sturdy shoes are recommended. Hikers should bring their own water and snacks. No dogs please. There are stream crossings which will require hikers to walk rocks and or slick rock in order to cross the streams and the rocks may be slippery. We have limited parking, park up the hill to the left, This hike may be tracked using the Avenza App. map to use, SNF Crab Orchard Lake Quad map. For a map to the meeting location at the Wild Turkey Trailhead click this blue link Wild Turkey Trailhead  and a map will open up, and then click the Directions button and a driving map will be created which will allow you to plan your driving directions to the meeting area. Prior to participating in any hikes, the River to River Trail Society requests that all hikers read the 2023 Trail Society Waiver which can be found on the River to River website at the following link River to River Trail Society Information and then sign off on this waiver prior to the beginning of the hike. A copy of the waiver will be at the Wild Turkey Trailhead meeting area for your signature. Parking passes are required for this hike. A Crab Orchard parking pass is required for this hike and can be purchased via the internet from Recreation.gov. An America The Beautiful Pass will also work as a parking pass.

Shawneetown Library Book Talk/Signing

On Monday, November 3rd, Dr. Jim Schroeder will be giving a presentation/discussion starting at 5:30 PM at the Shawneetown Library.  He will be selling his books and doing a signing after the book talk.  The talk will focus on his newest book entitled On the Trail With My Kids:  From the Ohio River to the Mighty Mississippi.  The book details the 4-year journey of segment hiking the River to River trail with his four oldest kids, and other friends and family that joined along the way.  Part comedic travelogue, part historical commentary, part personal reflection on life’s uncertainties, and part backpacking guide with kids, On the Trail With My Kids is a book for those who would like to experience the richness and rewards that a long walk and a night in the woods can have for mind, body, and soul. 

Jim Schroeder is a pediatric psychologist and married father of 8 children ranging in ages from 19 to 5.  He is the Vice President and Training Director of the Department of Psychology & Wellness at Easterseals Rehabilitation Center in Evansville, Indiana, where he and his family live.  He is the author of seven books, hundreds of articles, and a yearlong podcast, all of which can be found on his website:  www.james-schroeder.com.  He regularly bikes and runs to work and is always thinking about his next backpacking trip.

The event is open and free to the public.  All of his books will be sold at reduced cost from the Amazon list price.  Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from all the book sales will go to the River to River Trail Society.