It was a rainy Saturday morning, but, 11 hardy hikers braved the showers to meet at a shelter at Dixon Springs State Park.  We had all looked at the radar maps on our phones, and felt like the rain would soon pass. We took the group picture first, and then Fred Scott, our leader for the day, led us out east along some wide pine-needle covered trails. We soon turned North and crossed a few streams. The rain showers  quit and the temps dropped slightly. We had just enough rain to make a few waterfalls trickle. We did have 2 new hikers with us, 1 of which was a journalism student at SIU-C that worked for the Daily Egyptian. We saw a bit of everything on todays’ hike…a few stream crossings, some rock formations with a dribbling waterfall or 2,  a “walk in the woods’ and several large areas of sandstone glades…exposed areas of rock. Fred did an interesting “mix” of areas and trails. We stopped to eat lunch at 1 glade area, then headed back towards the parking area. This was a good, longer “loop” hike. We ended up covering about 5.5 miles. 

  The hike this coming week will be in the Lusk Creek area, led by Carl Brannan. 

Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail”