Saturday morning, April 29th, 17 hikers, with Chris Drone as guide leader, gathered at the old Shawnee mart at Eddyville, Illinois.  We had new hikers from Livingston county Illinois, and, from Northwest Tennessee. In fact, we had as many New hikers with us today, as returning hikers.   We then ‘cara-vehicled’ out to the Sand Cave parking area.and headed towards Sand Cave, but then veered South, along several trails “03_” during the course of the hike. Using the switched-back trails, we made it ‘down’, crossed a creek, then veered left onto a trail. There was just enough water to make small streams flow a bit. We crossed the River to River trail, and an old roadbed, which eventually ended up at a stream. We had wondered if we might get some rain during the hike, but, we stayed completely dry. At 1 stream crossing, an observant hiker saw a crawfish, which, although looking dead, had a bunch of eggs on its underside. We ate lunch at Ruby (Holmquist, a well known equestrian) Falls. We then headed on down the trail, making our way along the upper part of Bay creek, which forms Millstone lake. We made our way to Maxwell Ford. Some hikers had been up the creek kayaking just a few weeks before, and remarked that the water level had dropped 6-8 ft. or more. We took the group picture at the big horseshoe bend in Bay creek against the backdrop of a small bluffline. We made our way back to the “split point, where, just prior to that, we took a look at some nice low shelter bluffs, including Fern cave, with 1 last trickling waterfall. Upon arriving back at the Sand Cave trail, many took the short trek to Sand cave, and then all headed out.  We totalled almost 7 miles today .

Next Week, Saturday May 6th, Fred Scott will lead our last hike of the Spring 2023 hiking season, meeting at Taylor church on U.S. Rt. 45, just South of the Ozark turn off. Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail”.