Thursday, April 2, 2009

Illlinois Bound: October 8-11, 2009

The River to River Trail hike will take place October 8th to the 11th and will be roughly 49 miles long, starting at Trigg Tower and ending at Pounds Hollow Lake. We’ll begin on a Thursday night, so everyone who works Mondays thru Fridays will have to take off that Friday (the 9th). Depending on how many people we have going we’ll either shuttle vehicles around or just save time and spend $25 on a shuttle service the River to River Trail Society offers. Hikers will fend for themselves for food (three full days worth). I’ll be offering a few menu selections from the Lipsmackin’ Backpacking book that Paul Caudell introduced on the last trip and was a big, delicious hit. To me this is a tastier, lighter weight, and cost effective solution to trail food. I’ll be dehydrating ingredients and if anyone else coming would like to volunteer their food dehydrators that’s cool. We’ll also coordinate so that not everyone has to carry first aid kits, water filter pumps, repair kits, etc. The Shawnee Forest is a lush wilderness with a variety of steep climbs, rock outcroppings, and open areas with lakes and creeks. The first night we can camp at Trigg Tower, a fire tower with an awesome view, or if we’re feeling ambitious we can hike for an hour to Millstone Lake and camp there, shaving a few miles off our journey. The first day would be fifteen to eighteen miles of hiking and we’ll see Ruby Falls, Petticoat Junction, Eddyville, a cool place called Indian Kitchen and then enter the Lusk Creek Wilderness to see Bowed Creek Crossing and Owl’s Bluff Lookout. We can camp the second night at a place called Secret Canyon. The second day of hiking will be a long mile day, covering about nineteen miles. We’ll pass thru a couple camps, we’ll see an old cemetery and church, and finally end the day camping somewhere around Herod. The third and final day will be the low mile day and the highlight of the trip as we pass the spectacular rock formations at the Garden of the Gods, then to the lookout tower at High Knob Campground, more cool rocks at Rim Rock, and ending at thebeautiful Pounds Hollow Lake where we’ll find our vehicles. I’m still working with the Topo mapping software I bought to make the maps, which will be very cool. In the mean time, here are some pictures! Later, Todd Whaley





The Ending at High Knob




Topo Maps Coming Soon!