Saturday, May 9, 2026 Hike Announcement

The River to River Trail Society announces its 10th public hike of the 2026 spring hiking season on May 3rd. Hiking: Horse Creek Trail (Alexander County). This hike is free and open to the public. This will be a very difficult loop hike for experienced hikers, very hilly, approximately 6 miles in length, 3.5 hours hiking time. The leader of this hike can be reached at 708-471-7500 for more information. Hikers should meet at 10:00 am at the Horse Creek 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. Horse Creek will need to be crossed numerous times and if it has rained hiker’s shoes or boots may become wet when crossing the creek. Rocks may have to be walked when crossing the creek. The McClure Quadrangle Topo map can be used for tracking this hike if using the Avenza App. For a map to the meeting location at the Horse Creek Trailhead click this blue link Horse Creek Trailhead TR 220  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/ under the Society Information tab. The waiver will be at the beginning of the hike.

Saturday April 25, 2026 Hike Summary

The skies were bright blue, with a few puffy white clouds and the forest greenery was showing as Carl Brannan led 23 hikers from our meeting spot on Stone Bottom road, down trail 481. We even had 3 new hikers. Most had “sprayed down” with some form of tick repellant” because the temps were “ripe” for ticks. We still, though, were in a dry spell of weather. The dry spell was fully evident with about any stream we crossed either dry or maybe a few dribbles of water. We headed to Upper and Lower Salt Peter cave and there we crossed Lusk Creek for the 1st time. It somehow, did have some flow, although a very few might have gotten a foot wet, slipping on the rocks as they crossed. We wound around, were “on top’ of the Natural Bridge, then ate lunch and took the group picture at the lower part of the Natural bridge as the backdrop. After lunch break, we headed out to Secret Canyon, and took a bit of a break there. We did see several small groups of equestrian riders during the day. We saw lots of older work done by horse groups along the trails..the “turnpikes”…logs laid along the trail, with gravel between the logs. All total, we hiked over 8 miles today. We saw very little trash, picked up what we did see and of course, took it out with us. 

Next weeks’ hike, on May 2nd, will be meeting at Bowman Bottoms road, with a good amount of the hike being “off trail”, with several stream crossings. 

Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail”