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

Saturday November 26, 2022 and Season Hike Summary

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

49 Trees Cut and Cleared

The River to River Trail Society would like to thank Megan and the Shawnee National Forest crew that cut and cleared another 49 trees off the R2R trail. The trees were cleared between FR1917 and Bassett Road on Thursday. This section of trail is along R2R Trail maps 02 and 03.

Thanks also go out to Trail Society member Fred Scott for taking a hike last week and verifying a report the Society received about that section of the trail.