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.