River To River Trail- Failed Thru Hike. The Good, Bad and Ugly.- Day 1

The River to River Trail is a 160 mile trail that spans the southern width of Illinois. It runs from Elizabethtown on the Ohio River to Grand Tower and the Mississippi River on the West, Hence the trails name. I had decided to hike this trail because it was a relatively good length, not short but not too long either, it was close to my house (250 miles) and it would be a good way to see if long distance hiking was something I still wanted to do but most importantly if it was something I could still do (more on all this later) Vicky and I already had plans for October and November. It is much earlier in the year than I would normally be out in the woods in the Midwest. The temperatures this summer have been just brutal with highs well into the 90's for weeks and not much cooling off during the night. It has been more than 2 months since we had a soaking rain at home. I had mentioned on several occasions that if the weather did not break, I would postpone this hike until late in November or even December. 

The R2R has very nice terminus points and the whole organization seems to very supportive of the trail. They also have a very active Facebook page and a Trail Hikers Page  This is the start point in Elizabethtown. 

A nice view over the Ohio River looking Southeast toward Kentucky. The staring point and overlook are next to and behind the Old Rose Hotel (not a hotel any longer). 

The building has quite some history 

Internet photo 

This trip would not have been possible without my buddy John driving me down from St Louis and also agreeing to get me at Grand Tower when it is over. The drive is almost 3 hours from St Louis. - Thanks John! 

I started around 11:30 am and walked through the main intersection of town 😉😀

Heading out of town. 

The first few miles are on gravel farm roads 

Nice scenery

No sooner had I reached the end of the farm road and the beginning of the trees than I ran (or walked) across my first "Danger Noodle" This was  a pretty big Copperhead, about 3 1/2 feet fully stretched out on the trail. I did not see him until my foot was coming down and I would have stepped right on his back, insuring he certainly would have been able to bite me!. Fortunately,  I saw him just in time and did three or four quick steps backward. He never moved and I spent the next few minutes talking out loud to either myself or him. I tried a few small rocks tossed within close range but that only seemed to get his attention.

 

Once I got his attention you can see in the picture below, he lifted his head and looked directly at me. A bit unnerving!  This part of the path was narrow with field fencing and thick brush on both sides, there was nowhere for me to go around. Eventually I rolled a larger rock up to his nose, He didn't like it. He coiled for a brief moment and then decided moving off was the best course of action. I agreed!

The trail then started to be a normal woods walk. However I did take off my sunglasses and didn't even think about ear buds wanting to make sure I could see and hear everything that might be at my feet, at least for the rest of the afternoon 

After about an hour, it was normal lunch time and was really starting to be hot. The forecast was for around 90f today, so I stopped for lunch at Tecumseh Lake and that was a good choice as I found the remains of an old bench to sit and eat and get more water. 

Then it was back in the woods. The trail was a bit overgrown in spots, but nothing I would really call difficult. I had soaked all my trail clothes in permethrin a few weeks ago for this trip, so I didn't have any real worries about ticks, now it was mostly snakes! 😬😄

nice wildflowers in the easement of the electric lines 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I passed by Iron Furnace just after lunch, but decided not to walk down the road to see it and just continue on. The trail is a mix of normal single track, gravel road and two track forest road, in this section.

I made it to one of the Big Creek crossings with the Forest Roads 1970 by 4:30 pm. Big Creek had water in most of the places it crosses the trail but all the other smaller creeks noted on the map were dry. 

This is where I was going to camp tonight and there is a campsite here, but it was humid and buggy and generally kind of yucky! I grabbed three liters of water and walked up the hill to just short Bassett Rd at the high point of the trail. I found just enough of a flat spot for my tent and called it a day. 

I had dinner, a homemade Backcountry Foodie recipe of garlic parmesan noodles with a snickers for dessert. It stayed well above 80f till after midnight tonight, so I am glad I did at least climb up out of the hollow with the creek. 

Epilogue:

My Garmin watch lost its mind today. This is not the first time it has greatly exaggerated my mileage. According to the Avenza maps from the R2R society- It is a good map set- It is only 10.5 miles (even call it 11 miles if you count me walking up the hill from the creek, but my Garmin has me at 17!

This despite waiting for it to fully acquire the satellite signal. I can sit still and watch it add mileage to my day... In addition it did not capture a track of my day. Very frustrating when I can't rely on an accurate idea of how far I have walked.