On February 18, 2023 the River to River Trail Society joined forces with the Illinois Branch of the Back Country Horseman to repair the River to River Trail between Dutchman Lake and Twinz Lane.  This section of trail was originally built through a pine forest back in the 1990s when the trail was completed in the Dutchman Lake area.  It was a beautiful hike through the pines up until 2018/2019 when a storm hit the area and toppled upwards of 60-70 pine trees rendering the trail impassable.  In November of 2019 the Trail Society worked with Forest Service and numerous volunteers to clear a trail through the fallen pines.  Over the last year or more, yet another 30 plus trees have fallen over the trail once again rendering in nearly impassable.  As a result, the Societies President organized and coordinated another work day to once again clear the trail, however after meeting with the Shawnee National Forest Service (FS) team a trail reroute was scouted and approved by the FS.  As a result, the work day changed from a trail clearing day to a trail building day.

Today approximately 25 volunteers and 1 FS employee worked to rebuild and mark the new section of trail skirting around the pine forest.  Work included identifying and marking the route, clearing the entire trail of all small trees, fallen debris, leaves, loose rocks, fallen trees and any overhead hazards.  Volunteers used chain saws, loopers, hand saws, leaf blowers, rakes and a variety of other tools to clear a safe trail.  With all of the volunteers, work on the 0.6 mile reroute took a less than 4 hours to complete.  As a result of this reroute, future R2R Trail hikers and equestrians using the trail west of Dutchman Lake will need to make sure to download the latest Avenza Map 16 which will be available in a few days.

Volunteers included Chris Drone, Jim Todd, Melanie Kasson, Jane Netzler, Jody Baumberger-Gehrig, Loretta Maldaner, Fred Scott,  Scott Graham, Sam Morales, Charlie Kahle, Allison Kallo, Shelley Deal, Nathan Heldenbrand, Sharon Buchanan, Loni Heidbred, Megan Anderson, Gloria Heggy, Marcus Owens, Jake Saunders, Dwight Pray, Angie Carter, Rick Yates, Ken Nampadano, Cricket Simons, Vicki Simons and Bill Gilmour.  If anybody was missed, we are sorry.  The work day was coordinated by Bill Gilmour and Cricket Simon.

The FS, Trail Society and Back Country Horseman would like to sincerely thank all of the volunteers that showed up to help today.

Hope to see all of you on the trail again in the future.