On Saturday, November 26th, Bob Mulcahy led the last hike of the Fall 2022 hiking season, with 11 other hikers attending.  Much Thanks to Michelle Bloom and Jill Fairbanks who met Bob early to park their vehicles at the North end of the hike to help ‘ferry’ people back to the starting spot. Today was a bit unusual for the Trail Society. We had more female hikers than male (8 vs. 4), then, we “gained” 2 hikers about mid-morning. They had arrived late, went to the North end, and hiked in to meet us. They had not been with us all fall, but were able to make the very last hike. We also had 1 new hiker from the Metropolis area. We parked at the intersection of trails 383 & 385, along a ‘wide spot’ on Boat dock Rd.  and proceeded North. We were able to find several windows today, and several places between rocks that many, if not all of us crawled/walked through. Cedar lake was on our “right” most of the day, and we were able to get some good views of small coves, thus the name of the hike…”Cove Hollow” The sun Tried, but was never fully able to ‘break through”.  We did not get into “Wolf Den hollow”, thus we did not happen upon/encounter any wolves, nor did we have a local canine accompany us, as we did a few years ago on a similar hike. We , ended up hiking just over 4 miles.Oh, I Almost forgot, we learned today that for 1 hiking couple, this particular hike, 8 years ago (with another hiking group), was their 1st date. Congrats!!

I would like to say a Huge “Thanks Much” to ALL the hike leaders this fall: Sam Morales, Steve Melville, Bob Mulcahy, Gillum & Vicki Ferguson, Bill Gilmour, Marcus Owens and Shawn Gossman for volunteering to lead a hike,  taking time to ‘pre-scout” their hikes, planning, and hike leadership. We appreciate all our hike leaders, and encourage and ask for possible new hikes and/or new hike leaders.  We had 129  hikers this fall attend hikes, with new hikers almost every hike. We are  Very Glad you came, and welcome you to return this Spring of 2023.  Tell your friends what group, and ‘how’ to see the wonders of the woods in Southern Illinois.  We will start planning for Spring 2023 hikes right after January 1st .   If you would like to lead a hike, please reach out to us via our phones if you have our contact, or through the facebook page of the River to River Trail Society, or to individual board member facebook pages. I would encourage you to learn to use the Avenza app and the available free maps, when out hiking on your own. 

Until then, 

“See Ya On the Trail” and Merry Christmas & Happy 2023!!

Respectfully submitted, 

Chris Drone