Dutchman Lake Reroute Construction Starts

On October 29, 2024, the Forest Service trail crew started construction of the River to River (R2R) Trail reroute in the Dutchman Lake area. This reroute is a continuation of the reroute that was started in February 2023 when a 1/2 mile section of the trail west of the lake was rerouted around the pine forest section. The Trail Society and Forest Service have been working on this reroute for several years now. The following image is a map of the area showing the work plan.

Work started at Dutchman Lake Road heading west. The future trail will cross Fishing Hole Lane and meander it way around the bluffs and waterfalls to slowly descend down the hill toward the dam. Most of the route follows many of the existing user made trails the area. This reroute will affect existing maps 15 & 16 in the R2R Trail bundle if your are using Avenza and chapter 10 of the Trail Guide. When complete, the reroute will add about 1.2 miles to the length of the R2R trail through the area.

The concerns that prompted this complete reroute include the following:

  • For the first 1/2 mile east of Twinz Lane on the west side of the area was reroute the pine forest because the pines started falling because they were getting too old. The problem started back in 2018/2019 when upwards of 70+ trees fell requiring a significant work days in November 2019 to clear the trail. More trees continued to fall in the following years and due to the lack of a tree canopy the trail became impassable due to overgrown weeds. In late 2022 the Forest Service agreed a reroute was necessary and that work was completed on a Society work day in February 2023. See black oval in map above.
  • For the first 3/4 mile east of fishing hole lane, the existing trail traveled through a 100′ wide clearing between pine forests on each side. In this clearing area the trail would get extremely overgrown with weeds in the summer and early fall to the point that the trail could not be followed. Also, in recent years there have been several pines that have started falling over that section of trail requiring numerous work days to clear them. See the red oval in the map above.
  • The last to problem areas are where the trail is too steep to meet FS standards. These steep sections of trail are subject to constant erosion problems which has been occurring for years. One of these areas is shown in the brown oval in the above map. The second area is where the trail goes back uphill after crossing the dam.

Trail maps 15 & 16 will be officially reissued once construction is complete and the blue “i” trail assurance markers are installed along the new route and markers removed from the existing route. Similarly, an update to the Trail Guide will be issued to include this reroute and the Cedar Lake Reroute completed during the summer of 2024.

Trail work started with the dozer working along the trail to clear the route and install drainages.

Following behind the dozer is a mini excavator that fine tunes the trail and drainages.

River to River Trail Guide updated December 16, 2018

The River to River Trail Society posted an update to the River to River Trail Guide on today.  This new version includes an update to the  supplemental information associated with Hogg’s Bluff in chapter 8 thanks to the great folks at Camp Ondessonk.  It also includes new information on the West Panther Den Arch in chapter 12 that I visited recently because it is only a quarter mile off the trail along a short but nice bluff line.  Finally, this update includes a new Ad for the great folks at  http://southernmostillinois.com  Please support them and we thank them for their support of the official Trail Guide. 

The updated version of the guide can be download from the same page as the original guide http://www.rivertorivertrail.net/home/trail-information/river-to-river-trail-guide-2018/

New River to River Trail Guide

The River-to-River Trail Society is pleased to announce the publication of its new official online guide to the entire River-to-River Trail.  The Trail Guide is now available to all without charge on the Society’s website at rivertorivertrail.net, simply by going to the site and then clicking on “Trail Information.” Users will have the option of downloading and printing either the entire guidebook, or only those pages covering a particular section of the trail in which they are interested. In addition, users may also download the guide to their smart devices, because the guide is fully hyper-linked for easy navigation. The Trail Guide is intended for both hikers and horsemen, and should prove essential reading to both alike.

The River-to-River Trail stretches 157 miles across Southern Illinois, from Elizabethtown on the Ohio River to Grand Tower on the Mississippi. Following a three year effort to generate updated and accurate maps, and a 2017 re-marking of the entire route, the River-to-River Trail has become one of the premier long distance hiking and equestrian trails in the Midwest, and will now provide an essential boost to outdoor recreation and tourism in Southern Illinois. The new guidebook is being issued by the Society as a part of the same project, and contains maps of up-to-the-minute accuracy.

This is the fifth edition of the Trail Guide, and is the first to be offered free online. It is also the first revision of the guidebook since 2011. The online format provides the Society with the means to keep the Trail Guide constantly up to date, as changes are made in the route of the Trail or new information becomes necessary or available. The 140 pages of the guidebook contain seventeen chapters detailing each section of the Trail, including the historic eastern section beginning at Battery Rock, as well as chapters on trail safety, equestrian use of the trail, and use of online hiking maps. The maps of all sections of the Trail have been brought up-to-date and checked for accuracy. The information on points of interest near the Trail has been greatly expanded. New to the guidebook are charts showing mileage and changes in elevation along the Trail The guidebook is copiously illustrated with maps and photographs throughout.

Society Vice President William Gilmour of Metropolis, Illinois is the author of the new edition, with assistance from several other members of the Society. Shawn Gossman, of hikingwithshawn.com, contributed a chapter on trail safety and Keith Kibler, of the Shawnee Trail Conservancy, contributed a separate chapter on riding the trail on horseback. The Society is grateful to the staff of the Shawnee National Forest for their assistance with the maps, and to our advertisers for permitting the Trail Guide to be offered in a format that makes it free to all.

[Submitted by:

Gillum Ferguson, Secretary

River-to-River Trail Society