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” 

On a warm, sunny Saturday morning, 21 hikers gathered at the swimming pool parking lot of Dixon Springs State park. Shawn Gossman was our leader for the hike. We crossed the small wooden bridge and then under the highway bridge and followed the stream and rocks of Ghost Dance Canyon. There had been enough rain earlier in the week to create a nice amount of stream flow and small waterfalls among the various boulders. We did not hike all the way to the end of the boulders. Shawn led us up and out of the canyon to an area that most of us had never explored. Some old remains of buildings and foundations of the old resort-style area. It was ‘hidden’ in brush and undergrowth. Some of the foundation was quite large. One “structure must have been a fountain of sorts. We then made our way back to the trail, where we took the group picture with a backdrop against some rocks of the canyon. We hiked about 2 miles, and were back to the parking area about 12 pm but, it was into an area most had never explored.. 

Next weeks’ hike will be led by Bill Gilmour, meeting at the area on the East end of IL. Rt. 147, at 10 am, Sat. April 20th. We will be vehicle-pooling from the parking area. 

Until then, “See ya’ll On the Trail,