2 Trail Society Members Support BCH Trail Work

This past Monday, June 17th, over 2 dozen people gathered at Indian Kitchen Trailhead to assist with some trail maintenance work.  The rock was stockpiled and needed to be moved out to 3 spots that had been scouted, flagged and laid out the previous Friday. 4 groups were well represented: A good handful from the U.S. Forest Service, 6-7 Youth Conservation Corps, Jennifer from Touch of Nature, 2 (Sam Morales & Chris Drone) from River to River Trail Society and a Bunch led by Cricket Simons, along with their horses and mule, from the Illinois Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen.  The job was to load buckets with about 40 lbs. each of rock, then create a “lane” for the leader to bring the horse(s) through, then each side of the horse get loaded with simultaneously with 2 buckets per bag (1 ‘bag’ on each side of the horse), then led out to the ‘dumping” spot, to be simultaneously released by people at the particular site, then they spread out the rock, while each team was led back in to be loaded again. 

In all, about 14,000 lbs of rock was moved, pretty quickly.  The teams were not going far. We started early, there were no incidents or problems, and the job was completed by about 1130am. Many hands, And Horses, make quick, light work. Planning and preparation are Also essential. 

Three Picnic Tables Installed Along R2R Trail

Trail 170 Overlook Table

Thanks to the generous donations the Society has received from many different River to River Trail Through hikers, the Society has elected to improve the trail by putting those funds back into the trail. As a result, the Society elected to tackle a project of purchasing and installing picnic tables at the more popular and heavily used camp sites along the trail. The project started back on September 16, 2023 when Society members Bill Gilmour, Chris Drone and Sam Morales met in Marion, IL at Menards and purchased materials for the first six tables and delivered them to the farm of David Hilliard. The four then spent the afternoon assembling the first two tables.

The Society has partnered up with the Back Country Horseman of Illinois (BCH) specifically to help us get the tables in some of the remote campsites along the trail. On September 29, 2023 three of the Society members above were joined by Cricket Simons of the BCH when we installed the second table at Rocky Top in the One Horse Gap section of the trail and then assembled four more tables. That brings the total number of tables assembled to six with at least three more to go.

On October 4, 2023, the third table was installed along the R2R trail in the One Horse Gap section near the point where the trail crosses Hart Creek. The tables installed to date are:

Location NameDate InstalledGPS Coordinates
The Trail 170 Overlook TableSeptember 22, 2023N37.54733° W88.44585°
Rocky Top TableSeptember 29, 2023N37.52558° W88.45367°
Hart Creek TableOctober 4, 2023N37.56163° W88.45306°

The next three tables will be installed in the next couple of months and the current planned locations include the camping spot near Cedar Lake Spillway, Petty Coat Junction, Max Creek Vortex and Cedar Creek Wonders. Other future locations are still being planned.

Sam Morales and David Hilliard assembling a Picnic Table
The Trail 170 Overlook Picnic Table
Sam Morales testing out the Hart Creek Picnic Table
Bill Gilmour and Cricket Simons Testing the Rocky Top Table

Backcountry Horseman Pack Day

On Wed. May 24th, 3 members of the River to River Trail Society, along with 4 U.S. Forest Service personnel and over 10 people from the Southern Illinois Backcountry Horsemen, gathered at Franks’ tract to cooperate to do some trail maintenance and upgrade work. There needed to be rock moved from a stockpile out, about 1 mile, to fill in some mud areas. There were 3 groups….”dumpers/spreaders” who were out at the area to be filled in…they simultaneously dumped the bag on each side of the horse, and then spread the rock, there were horse riders, who, while riding 1 horse, led 1-3 other horses which had a “saddle bag” of about 80 lbs of rock on each side of the horse, and then “loaders” at the stockpile of rock, who loaded buckets, then loaded those buckets into the saddle bags. This is all done because the trails are in a Wilderness area. We gathered about 9 am, soon went down about 1/4th mile to the small stockpile and everyone “picked” their job. It was a decent day temperature-wise. The Backcountry Horsemen were led by Cricket Simons, the Forest Service personnel by Alyssa McCuiba, and Bill Gilmour, Sam Morales and Chris Drone were from the Trail Society. We got done with the ‘section’ about 3 pm. All working, together, with a plan, cooperatively. got a nice amount done. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Chris Drone

February 18, 2023 Work Day at Dutchman Lake

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.

Group photo of today’s trail crew
The trail as it existed prior to 2018
A view of the trail for the last 3-4 years