On Saturday April 27th, 8 hikers met with Fred Scott at the Bell Smith Spring parking area. It was damp and cloudy, with a chance of some drizzles, which might have kept the numbers down for the hike. We had 1 new hiker and a dad & his 10 yr. old daughter. We then vehicle-pooled out to Gunnar lane.  I have driven  by the lane dozens of times, but had never ventured down the lane at all. Fred was taking us a different way into Bell Smith Springs. You just never can tell where you might go, and then end up.  We hiked just about 4 miles, depending on whose GPS system/phone was used. Fairly quickly we were walking down a sloped , rocky stream bed, then we could observe a sizeable stream down below us. We could hear water trickling over rocks. We ate lunch under the Great Arch of the Bell Smith springs, where we also took the group picture. Just as we got to the arch, a large family group was hiking through. We met up with several other pairs of hikers out for the day. Several were already wading the waters.  We hiked all along the main stream, then into the Hunting Branch area parking lot. We then climbed up along, working our way higher back to the parking area.

This next hike, meeting at the Goreville city park, is our last hike of the Spring 2024 hiking season. 

Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail”.