REI St. Louis Presentation on the River To River Trail Scheduled for February

REI St. Louis has invited me again this year to give a presentation on the Southern Illinois River To River Trail. Last year about 50 people attended, showed alot of interest and had alot of great questions. I hope you can make it.

Thursday February 25th 6:30 PM at REI St.Louis

For more details click here...

Return to Clear Springs / Bald Knob Wilderness

I had been wanting to get back into the Clear Springs / Bald Knob Wilderness areas again since Todd and I had so much trouble navigating there in September. I had four purposes:

1. I wanted to understand where I went wrong with my navigating

2. I wanted to get to know that part of the R2R trail better

3. I wanted to get more pictures of the awesome destruction caused by the 100 mph sideways winds that hit there early in the year - we were so focused on trying to get unlost that I took very few pictures in September

4. I wanted to make a contribution to the effort to clear the trail

Riley and I arrived near the Clear Springs Wilderness trailhead early Friday morning November 6 to find that about a mile from the trailhead the road was flooded.



I started preparing some hot breakfast and while my water was heating explored the land between the cliff face and the flood and found that there was a trail that would get me through. So after breakfast I got my pack ready to hike. I packed along an axe and two hand saws. I also took about a gallon and a half of water. I didn't know whether I would get to Hutchins Creek on this hike which is the only source of water in this area that I would count on.



Much to my surprise a little way into the woods I discovered that the trail had been cleared since Todd and I were there. The first few hundred yards took us about an hour in September. Here is how this looks today.





A little further down the trail I was able to identify the turn where I had led us astray in September. What exactly happened is a long story and much too embarrassing to share here in front of the whole world. Let's say I need to take more time when transferring GPS data into my machine and check it carefully against the trail guide before I head into the woods in the future.

About an hour into the hike we came upon this blow down and I went to work on clearing it. Riley supervised.

Before



After



This took me about two and a half hours to clear using the axe and saws. Strangely this would be the only place I would find still needing to be cleared. I guess they left it for me. My blistered hands were grateful.

We stayed overnight about a half mile west of Hutchins Creek. It's tough to find level ground for a campsite anywhere in this area and this spot wasn't especially level but it worked out. I discovered I had forgotten my headlamp so it was a very early dinner about 5:00 PM and into the bag at 6:00 PM as it was getting dark. I was tired and slept long and well.



Saturday morning, about 45 minutes down the trail we got to Hutchins Creek. This is easily the most water I have seen here in my probably five or more crossings. Hutchins Creek is the border separating the Clear Springs Wilderness to the west from the Bald Knob Wilderness to the east and is situated just about in the middle of the combined area.






The weather was awesome. The tree colors were spectacular. I was thoroughly enjoying being in the woods. I had plenty of time and wanted a good workout, so I decided to cross and just keep going East with the goal of hiking to Bald Knob Road, where there is a trailhead for those entering the Bald Knob Wilderness going westbound.

Then I would simply turn around and hike back through both Wilderness areas. This may be the very first out and back hike I have taken on the R2R. Every other time I can think of we've shuttled vehicles and hiked only one direction. Had I known I would find such a clear trail, I might have planned a different hike.

Nevertheless, this was alot of fun. And Riley was having a great time. He was full of energy this morning and would race past me periodically speeding along the trail and then go off to the side into the woods and explore until I caught up.

Here are some more shots of the destruction Riley and I passed.




It's a little hard to make out in the photo below, but the three blobs in the background are three large uprooted trees in a row on their sides.




Just as I arrived back at the place I had cleared the day before, a group of backpackers hiking east into the Clear Springs Wilderness met me. A young girl proudly informed me that there were 16 altogether in the group comprised of three families. Their ages appeared to range from seven or eight years to early teens. One young tadpole was carrying a pack almost as big as him. There were three dads, but strangely no mothers. Hmmm. What could that be about? If you are reading this and it sounds like the hike you were on this weekend, please send me your story and photos and I will post it to the blog.

I asked the lead teenager to take a picture of me proudly sporting my axe next to the work it had done. I would eventually pack the axe about seventeen miles altogether. Mission accomplished.
For more photos of this hike, click here.

Fall 2009 Trigg Tower to High Knob Hike

Thursday October 8

Seven hikers from St. Louis arrived at Trigg Tower about 9 PM where I was waiting for them in a steady rain. We shuttled two vehicles to High Knob to be there when we would arrive on Sunday getting back to Trigg Tower about midnight.

Friday October 9

We departed Trigg Tower about 9 AM in a steady rain. Rain was to continue all day as we hiked east. Here we are stopping in the Tin Whistle Tunnel for a short break.




We couldn't find anyplace out of the rain for lunch so here we stood and ate while it continued to rain on us.



About 5 PM we made Circle B Ranch where we decided to stay for the night. Denny and Connie Maxon, the proprietors, were great to us, letting us stay inside their community building and run the wood stove where we dried out.


Saturday October 10

We got away from Circle B about 8 AM after enlisting one of the campers to take a group shot of us.



From Circle B Ranch we headed into the Lusk Creek Wilderness. Crossing Lusk Creek at Old Guest Farm crossing required us to remove our boots and carry them.



After visiting Salt Peter Cave briefly we took a lunch break at Secret Canyon.



We continued on to Herod and then stopped for the night on a high bluff with a nice view toward Garden of the Gods.





Sunday October 11

The sign said Garden of the Gods one way. The River to River Trail went another direction. We had little choice other than to use a round of bear, ninja, cowboy to determine which way to go. (ie. a variation on rock paper scissors - bear kills ninja, ninja kills cowboy and cowboy kills bear). Here Jeff slays Todd's bear choice with his six- shooters.



Sunday morning we spent quite a while at Garden of the Gods.







Check back for more details about this hike.

For more of my photos of this hike click here.

For some of Josh Heater's photos of this hike click here

I received this message via email Tuesday, July 28, 2009. It represented the first, and to date, still the only feedback I have received from someone who has actually taken the Southern Illinois River To River Trail Pocket Guide onto the trail and used it as it was intended.

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Our group of four hiked the western 40 miles of the RTRT last week and found your guide indispensable. The trail is in very poor condition from Godwin trail head (Pine Hill) to Hutchins Creek due to storm damage. We met a trail crew in the wilderness area and their efforts to clear the area are greatly limited as they can only use hand tools. I would guess this section will not be cleared for months.

The trail entrance into the woods east of Alto Pass would have been very difficult to find without the GPS coordinates.

The short stretch from Highway 51 to Makanda would be impossible to follow without your guide as this section is almost unused and very poorly marked.

Again many thanks for the excellent guide...

James Carey

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So I wrote Mr. Carey and quizzed him some more about exactly how they used the guide and asked for any ideas on improving it.

Here was his response:


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Dear John,

I am happy to try to be of help. Of course you may feel free to quote me is you desire. Your guide was indispensable in accurately and safely following the River to River Trail.

Our party consisted of my wife and I and my brother and his son. I am 56 and a retired surgeon. My brother (43) is a Major in the infantry. We have been backpacking together since our teens. My wife and I have hiked extensively for our twenty years together. Photos included so you can know us better.

We are big believers in John Wooden’s maxim: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

We knew nothing of the trail except an article we had saved from a 1994 issue of Backpacking magazine.

I am not a techie but do have a Garmin e-trex Legend GPS. I had no experience with UTM coordinates but found it simple to change the settings on the unit solely using the instructions in your guide. My wife and I then entered the Waypoints on a National geographic topo map set on the PC and downloaded them to the GPS unit before leaving home. In addition, we made topo mapsets with the waypoints printed on them and carried them with the relevant pages of your guide on opposite sides of a British style plastic map case. Of course we also carried compasses as well. An interesting aside is that my brother’s primary compass had become reverse magnetized and pointed south. He kept disputing the readings of the GPS on the first day until he pulled out his backup compass and figured out the problem.

Here are some suggestions towards improving the guide:

Number the waypoints. This way they can be entered and plotted on mapsets and easily compared to your guide. We often had to count through the guide to match a point on the maps. We could have done this at home but it would be easier to have them in the guide. The East vs West format is good but the actual columns design could be clearer. You might consider splitting the second column into two placing the waypoint in between. The GPS column could be compressed by listing the two coordinates vertically instead of side by side. Then keep the mileage columns on the outer sides of the associated eastbound and westbound column. You could add the total mileage in parentheses to the point to point numbers already listed which would help quickly figuring distances between any two points. Your distances are far more accurate than those posted on the trail signs.

Add way points for all significant water crossings as this would aid campsite planning and resupply. The ones you did list were excellent.

Show waypoints on the map in your guide. Of course the map in the guide is not a substitute for a good topo but I think this would be helpful.

The ideal guide would also have sectional topo maps organized in order showing the trial, trail waypoints, towns, water, etc but this may be beyond the scope of what you intend.

The section on using the GPS could be referenced to a helpful site such as this one: http://www.maptools.com/tutorials.html

As a selling point, I would point out in your website that trails are always changing, signs disappear, weeds grow etc and that with GPS coordinates you can always find the given location.

Lastly, many thanks for your hard work which I am sure is motivated more by love than money. You saved our butts several times and I hope these few comments are helpful improving an already very useful guide.

Happy trails,

James Carey




Many thanks to Mr. Carey for this very helpful advice.

Clear Springs / Bald Knob Wilderness Hike

Friday September 4

Todd and I arrived at the West trail head to the Clear Springs / Bald Knob Wilderness area thanks to shuttle driver Janette and her husband Bill. We left a vehicle just east of Panther's Den and planned to hike those roughly 45 miles by Sunday afternoon. Standing at the trailhead and looking into the woods it was already clear that the going was to be tough. The woods were thick with fallen trees from the 100 mph sideways winds of the previous Spring that I had been told had been termed an inland hurricane.

We decided to forge ahead with our plan and in we went. After only a few hundred yards we could no longer discern the trail. For the first time in my hiking career I had forgotten to bring topo maps and soon we were bushwacking very difficult and steep ravines and thick brush. I started having difficulty keeping up the pace under these conditions. Todd swapped his 17 lb. pack for my 36 lb. one for quite a while. Kudos to Todd. Up and down we went with the hope that we would at least get to Hutchins Creek before night to stock up on water. Well that was not to be. Night was coming and we had not found the creek. Todd had been more conservative with his water, so he was in pretty good shape. I was down to 10 or 20 ounces. I think we both opted for a dry dinner.

Saturday September 5

Todd and I both slept well and were soon back on the bushwack. We found Hutchins Creek after about an hour and followed it to where there were some nice pools of clear water, no doubt spring fed. This was my first hike since publishing my Southern Illinois River To River Trail Pocket Guide. I was still in the process of renaming my GPS waypoints in such a way that they could be more easily identified in relation to the page they were located on in the guide. Long story short, I was confused about how to find some of the waypoints and continued to be unsure about which way to go. It was pretty lame on my part and embarrassing to admit, but there it was.

So on we bushwacked. About noon we topped a ridge and I looked down and saw the very unfamiliar sight of a nice clear trail. An hour or so later Todd and I were being delivered to Rocky Comfort Road (again by very prompt and efficient Janette). Janette shared with us that the trail had been cleared from the east trailhead to Hutchins Creek so had we found the R2R trail where it crossed Hutchins Creek, we would have had smooth sailing from that point on.

From Rocky Comfort Road we hiked about 2 hours to Panther's Den, where we set up camp and did some exploring. Panther's Den is just a beautiful place. If you haven't been there I suggest you check it out. That evening we had a superb campfire, hot meal and great conversation.


Sunday September 6

Sometime around midnight the rain came and continued until we got up about 7 AM. There was a rock overhang with a little patch of dry ground where ever efficient and resourceful Todd had figured out a way attach the ends of his tent pieces and sleeping bag directly to the rock where it was hanging and drying. Todd is my personal hero among backpackers. :-)


This was all going on long before I even had started to take my soaking wet shelter down and had wrung out my sleeping bag. I have a 10 oz sil-nylon water-proof bivy that I had forgotten along with my topo maps. This trip was not my best showing.


Soon we were back on the trail. 40 minutes later we were at the van, made some lunch and headed for home. All things considered, I felt it was a very rewarding hike. I had gotten a great workout trudging up and down the ridges. The massive forest destruction we witnessed was truly awe- inspiring. Our difficulties had upped the ante on our need to be resourceful compared to most other hikes I've been on. We undoubtedly learned some useful lessons from that. And Panther's Den is a great place to spend time under almost any circumstances.

You are invited to contribute your knowledge to this blog

I welcome trip reports, any news item about backpacking in Southern Illinois, reports on trail conditions, photos, etc.

What you know may help someone else to have a safer, more enjoyable time on the trail in southern Illinois. Thanks.

Please send to

voigtsbooks@hotmail.com

I reserve the right to edit the material.

John