On Sat April 15th, 18 hikers met Leader Bob Mulcahy on Cedar Grove Rd, where the River to River Trail crosses. We had hikers from Chicago to Metropolis and 1 from Missouri. We were ‘on trail ‘ most all day long. We headed East on the River to River trail towards Crow Knob, which was our 1st ‘pause’. We all clambered to the top, then worked our way Northward to the Ecological area boundary. On down the trail we explored an old homesite, as evidenced by 3 things.. a large area of daffodils, a well and a very Large, old tree.We ate lunch a bit early, due to the possibility of incoming rain, but, we were done way early. We did walk thru 1 horse camp on the way out, covering just under 5 miles for the day, and the “Eagle-eyed” hikers picked up about 20+ lbs. of trash for the day. On Sat. April 22, we meet at Dutchman lake. Our Co-leaders will be Cathy Jennings and Melanie Kasson. We should see a ‘hanging’ boulder and several waterfalls. Until then, “See ya’ll on the trail”.!!
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 crewThe trail as it existed prior to 2018A view of the trail for the last 3-4 years
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.
