Illinois & Kentucky - STR-2021-40
Monday, 27 September
Our day started with golf at the nearby Golfmohr Golf Club in East Moline, IL. We had ridden by late yesterday afternoon to check it out and make a tee time. When we pulled into the parking lot, there were a lot of parked cars - we knew right away it was going to be a normal day of golf. We stayed close on the front nine as we both struggled with putting. On the back nine, Darrell struggled while Kris remained consistent to take honors on the day.
After golf, we spent a few minutes deciding where to go next. We had several options, but had not yet made a decision. One of our ideas, a cruise on the Spirit of Peoria paddle wheel riverboat, was not going to work out as they did not have a cruise that fit with our schedule. So we decided to go to Starved Rock State Park, a park we stayed at in August 2018 when we did the Roadtrek caravan exploring the Illinois and Michigan Canal. We were so busy with the caravan and canal history, we only used the campground as a place to stay for the two nights so we did not have time to explore the canyons and waterfalls. Enroute was a Starbucks for a Kris to pay up.
Starved Rock State Park (https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/Interpret/Documents/Starved%20Rock%20History%20booklet.pdf) is located in Utica, IL along the Illinois River and was designated as Illinois' second state park in 1911. Three different lists of the best state park in each state each named Starved Rock SP as the best state park in Illinois. The large parking areas, including large overflow parking, and signs at the ready to temporarily close the park for overcrowding offered clues to the popularity of Staved Rock.
The park has 18 canyons that feature vertical walls of moss-covered St.Peter Sandstone. A catastrophic flood known as the Kankakee Torrent, which took place somewhere between 14,000 and 17,000 years ago, before humans occupied the area, helped create the park's signature geology and features, which are very unusual for the central plains.
Starved Rock is known for its outcrops of St. Peter Sandstone. The sandstone, typically buried, is exposed in this area due to an anticline, a convex fold in underlying strata. This creates canyons and cliffs when streams cut across the anticline.
Starved Rock SP is also known for stunning waterfalls - just not at this time of year as the waterfalls in each of the canyons we hiked were dry.
Arriving at Starved Rock State Park, we first stopped at the Visitor Center to get staff tips on which hikes to do. Starved Rocks SP has over 13 miles of trails - we wanted to focus on the best ones.
After getting a campsite for the night (again, winging it) at the state park, we headed back out to do several short hikes to Council Overhang, Ottawa Canyon, Kaskaskia Canyon and Illinois Canyon.
Photo Council Overhang x2
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| Council Overhang |
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| Council Overhang |
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| Ottawa Canyon |
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| Kaskaskia Canyon |
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| Illinois Canyon |
Despite being pretty close together, we logged almost 3 miles of hiking.
Tuesday, 28 September
We woke to a blue flashing light in our faces. Not the cops, but Sprinty's battery monitor which is located by the head of the bed. The breaker on the pedestal was defective and had unknowingly tripped. Sprinty was oblivious and ran the inverter all night, drawing down the batteries. When the batteries got to 50% State of Charge, the battery alarm caused the flashing blue light. Fortunately with a couple hours driving planned and a sunny day, we expected the batteries to get charged by dinner time.
We started off early to enjoy some more hiking in the cool morning temperatures. First up was to hike to the top of Starved Rock. Starved Rock State Park derives its name from a Native American legend of injustice and retribution. Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe was slain by a Peoria brave (the Peoria were a sub-tribe of the Illinois Confederation) while attending a tribal council in southern Illinois. According to the legend, during one of the battles that subsequently occurred to avenge his killing, a band of Illinois, under attack by a band of Potawatomi (allies of the Ottawa), sought refuge atop a 125-foot sandstone butte (today's Starved Rock). The Ottawa and Potawatomi surrounded the butte and held their ground until the hapless Illinois died of starvation - giving rise to the name "Starved Rock."
From the top of Starved Rock, we had a great view of the Starved Rock Lock and Dam on the Illinois River
We continued the suggested hike in the suggested counterclockwise direction. First feature was French Canyon
We stopped at Eagle Cliff Overlook to admire the view, look for eagles, and had a good view of the Starved Rock Lock and Dam.
In the distance, we saw a barge approaching the lock from the east and hoped we would get to see it pass through the lock.
The trail sign at the park Visitor Center said the trail was 2 miles long - our Apple watches recorded a total of 3 miles. And as the staff told us, lots and lots of stairs.
After the hike, we headed for the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center across the river in Ottawa, IL, adjacent to the Starved Rock Lock and Dam (https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/Illinois-Waterway/). When we arrived, the barge we saw earlier was in the lock.
It was fascinating to watch the operation from the second story viewing platform at the Waterway Visitor Center.
We then drove through more cornfields to Dunlap, IL to ride a section of the 38-mile Rock Island Bike Trail, the first Rails-to-Trails project of the Illinois Department of Conservation. The trail runs from Toulon, IL to Peoria - we selected the 10-mile section from Dunlap to Peoria in part because of a good parking location for Sprinty.
The bike trail was very well done - and in excellent condition. We enjoyed a mostly shaded ride to the outskirts of Peoria and back.
We continued heading south through more cornfields. And a few wind farms. Mostly cornfields.
Our campground for the night is Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site Campground in Petersburg, IL - $20/night with electric, $10/night for non-electric.
Wednesday, 29 September
Our first activity was to visit Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site(http://lincolnsnewsalem.com). Arriving just before 9am, we skipped the Visitor Center as we had watched the video (https://youtu.be/D2Zs1z_YFqQ) the night before and a tour bus had just arrived filling the Visitor Center.
Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is a reconstruction of the former village of New Salem in Menard County, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln lived from 1831 to 1837. New Salem was founded in 1829, when James Rutledge and John Camron built a gristmill on the Sangamon River.
They surveyed and sold village lots for commercial business and homes on the ridge stretching to the west above the mill. Over the first few years of its existence, the town grew rapidly, but after the county seat was located in nearby Petersburg, the village began to shrink and by 1840, it was abandoned. The fact that the Sangamon River was not well-suited for steamboat travel was also a reason for the town's decline.
In 1921, a state park opened on the village site to commemorate Lincoln and Illinois' frontier history. The Civilian Conservation Corps built a historic recreation of New Salem based on its original foundations in the 1930s.
We toured most of the 23 buildings - a couple of buildings were not open and the walkway to the grist mill was closed. Most of the building were log cabins, and a few had guides wearing period costumes.
After touring the reconstructed buildings and the Visitor Center exhibits, we headed for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum (https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov) in downtown Springfield, IL. The museum was exceptional - and we have sure visited a lot of museums this summer. The exhibits that stood out the most were:
- Ghosts of the Library - a short presentation in the Holavision® theater, which addressed question, "Why save all this old stuff?". Just the combination of an actual character and holavision was amazing.
- Union Theater - showing "Lincoln's Eyes", an extremely well done presentation on President Lincoln's life and legacy.
- Journey 1 - explored Abraham Lincoln's early life from his boyhood in a Kentucky cabin through his 1860 campaign for President of the United States.
- Journey 2 - Explored Abraham Lincoln's time as President. Some of the exhibits had artifacts showing the animosity he faced, even from the Union.
We both agreed that this was the best Presidential Museum of all that we have visited. It was so good, we see a repeat visit one day.
Our last thing to visit in Springfield was the Dana-Thomas House (https://dana-thomas.org/tours/).
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1902 for Susan Lawrence Dana, a forward-thinking socialite living in Springfield, Illinois. The home, the 72nd building designed by Wright, contains the largest collection of site-specific, original Wright art glass and furniture. It was Wright's first "blank check" commission. The home has 35 rooms in the 12,000 square feet of living space which includes 3 main levels and 16 varying levels in all. The house costs $66,000 at a time when homes were being built for $1,000-$2,000, and fancy homes cost $7,000-$8000.
Susan Lawrence Dana lived in the home until 1943. The house was sold to Charles C.Thomas who used it as administrative and editorial offices for his publishing company. It is largely due to Charles C Thomas's diligent efforts to maintain the integrity of Frank Lloyd Wright's design and furnishings that the house survives today as the most complete example of Wright's early Prairie period. The hundreds of pieces of art glass and original furniture that are part of the house have been retained through a conscious effort by the Thomas family and later the State of Illinois, so they can be enjoyed by thousands of tourists and architecture aficionados each year.
The Thomas medical publishing firm occupied the house from August 1944 until it was sold to the State of Illinois in 1981. The house has been completely restored to the period that it was occupied by Susan Lawrence Dana. In short, the house had about 40 years as a Dana house, almost 40 years as a Thomas business, and about 40 years as museum.
Our campground for the night is Hickory Point Campground at Sangchris Lake State Park in Rochester, IL. We arrived confident in getting a place as the online reservation system showed plenty of walk-in site available - Illinois' online reservation system does not permit reservations within 3 days of checkin.
Thursday, 30 September
An early start as we had an early tee time at Lakeshore Golf Course in Taylorville, IL. We were the second golfer off, and played "dew sweeper" as the grass was very moist from the morning dew. The two golfers in front of us were speed golfers - maybe they had an appointment later in the morning. We both hit mostly good tee shots. Kris' putting was better, but she struggled with having her approach shots get hung up in the wet grass. Darrell managed to have honors just barely.
After golf, we headed south to Rend Lake to the Corps of Engineers South Marcum campground. Enroute, we made a stop at Starbucks in Mount Vernon, IL, for Darrell to pay up.
Sprinty likes Corps of Engineers campgrounds - usually decent campgrounds, easy online reservation system and 50% off with the Senior Pass. For tonight, we paid $9 for an electric site.
After getting Sprinty all settled, we broke out the eBikes and rode most of the 10-mile Rend Lake Bike Trail West. We started by riding around the campground - it is a large campground, and one of four Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Rend Lake. Most of the bike trail is wide concrete pavement - very nice. We wound up riding a total of 18 miles. And learned that Rend Lake is a man-made lake on the Big Muddy River, which we crossed on the bike ride.
Friday, 1 October
This morning, we headed southwest to visit the Little Grand Canyon located along the valley of the Big Muddy River. Just the name sounded interesting - after all, Sprinty has visited:
- Grand Canyon National Park (near Page, AZ);
- Grand Canyon of Yellowstone;
- Providence Canyon (Georgia's "Little Grand Canyon" near Lumpkin, GA);
- Ausable Chasm ("Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks");
- Letchworth State Park, known at the "Grand Canyon of the East." (New York); and
- Palo Dura State Park, Grand Canyon of Texas (Amarillo).
And maybe others he isn't remembering just now. Hmm, we wonder what might qualify as the Grand Canyon of Florida?
The Little Grand Canyon in Illinois has a huge area of sandstone that has gradually worn into the canyons that exist today. We arrived at the small trailhead with the expectation we might experience some light drizzle during our 3.4 mile hike.
AllTrails rated the hike as "moderate", while the trailhead information said
"Hiking the entire trail (3 miles) is for the more adventurous hiker. The trail down into the canyon is difficult and requires climbing up and down rocky, steep terrain it may be wet and slippery."
In all fairness, the AllTrails description did say:
"There are a couple of places where you have to climb down into the canyon through the creek bed. It can be slippery and difficult when the creek is flowing. Must have good footwear for this trail. Beautiful trail, but the technical aspects are why it is rated as difficult. Follow the white blazes and hike when it is drier outside and you should have a more 'moderate' hike experience."
So if you start the hike and it is relatively dry, but threatening to drizzle, is that a wet hike? Or a drier hike? We decided find out. And off we went, Darrell confidently, Kris reluctantly. The first mile of the trail was a slight descent to the canyon overlook. As is often the case in the east (compared to the west), vegetation growth often obstructs the views at designated overlooks. This photo was taken by climbing up on a 3 foot post.
Once down to the bottom, the trail ran along the face of the sandstone wall about 185 feet high.
About the time we got to the bottom, it started raining. As it was just a light rain, the tree canopy did a good job keeping us pretty dry.
Of course, what goes down, must go up. And the initial climb out was up another rocky, mostly dry creek bed/waterfall. Mostly dry in that the rain had just started - the hike would have been near impossible after any recent rains.
As we continued up the trail, the rain got heavier - which did not matter too much as we were pretty damp from hiking in the humidity. An awesome hike, certainly worthy of the trailhead warning that it was a difficult trail - we could see how someone could wind up over their head in scrambling ability and either not get back up, or get into a situation where they could not go up or down.
We were proud that at our age, we still have the fitness and mobility to not only complete the hike, but to enjoy it as well. And as Debbie of YouTube channel "From She to Me" said in a recent video, "A good scramble is one were you don't get hurt."
We had thought to do the Burden Falls trail in the Shawnee National Forest as well. Until further research found that the trailhead was located many miles down gravel roads, which the recent trail reviews said were in pretty bad shape. And with rain threatening, we passed.
Instead, we headed southeast to Cave-In-Rock State Park (https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/Pages/CaveInRock.aspx), located in Cave-In-Rock, IL on the Ohio River. While it's thought to have been used by Native Americans for centuries, Cave-in-Rock -- which sits on the bank of the Ohio River in Cave-in-Rock State Park -- was first discovered by French explorers in 1739. In the late 1700s -- right around the time the town of Cave-In-Rock earned the nickname "Ancient Colony of Horse-Thieves, Counterfeiters and Robbers" -- the cave itself was put into use by everyone from river pirates to the notoriously cold-blooded Harpe brothers, and even Jesse James himself. By the mid-1800s, vigilantes had raided the cave, and for a short time, it was even used as a church.
Or so the legends go (https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/About/Pages/CaveInRock.aspx). The wild stories apparently lack verifiable, historical documentation. In fact, piracy and other crimes attributed to Cave-In-Rock outlaws were, indeed, known to occur on both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But there is no historical evidence Cave-In-Rock ever actually sheltered criminals beyond what might be considered brief stopovers. However, the cave's reputation led to a Hollywood movie being filmed at the site. The cave served as a backdrop for a scene in the1962 movie "How The West Was Won." In the scene, ruthless bandits used the cave to lure unsuspecting travelers to an untimely end.
As we approached the town of Cave-In-Rock, we saw that the road ended at the Ohio River, and required a ferry to cross. As our campground for the night was in Kentucky (across the river), we researched whether Sprinty could ride the ferry. We found that Sprinty was ferry-able based on weight, length, and height. However, the bike rack Sprinty uses to carry the eBikes reduces the departure angle of Sprinty enough, we were pretty sure we would scrape the bike rack going down the ramp onto the ferry, and going up the ramp exiting the ferry. We nixed the idea to remove the bikes and rack and just drive around - it only added just over an hour to the route.
Our campground for the night is another Corps of Engineers campground located on the eastern shore of Lake Barkley, formed by a dam on the Cumberland River. The western shore of Lake Barkley is the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.
We were grateful to have a Friday campsite, however, the booking policy required a two-night minimum for weekend nights. So we had to book both Friday and Saturday nights, even though we only intended to spend one night. Good thing the Senior Pass gets us 50% off Corps of Engineers campground fees.
Saturday, 2 October
As we headed home, none of us (Darrell, Kris or Sprinty) seemed in a hurry to get home. At least that was how the trip from Mitchell, SD started. As we adventured through Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, we thought it might be fun to see if we could join Matt and Lori on their RV/golf adventure in Alabama. Unfortunately (and surprisingly) we could not get weekday reservations at the same campground they were staying near Birmingham.
On to plan B. We had the Adventure Van Expo in Chattanooga being held Oct. 2-3, 2021 on our radar. So we snagged a campsite at Tim's Ford State Park for Saturday night (only site available - must have been a cancellation), planned to bike ride today, and attend the Adventure Van Expo tomorrow.
Rechecking the weather forecast for the weekend in Chattanooga, we saw a high probability of rain on Sunday. As we left the campground headed for Clarksville, TN, for the bike ride, we were considering heading straight to Chattanooga for the Adventure Van Expo, which being outdoors, would be more enjoyable if it was not raining.
Then Sprinty weighed in. He suddenly displayed a Check Engine light along with a dash message to check the Diesel Exhaust System (DEF), a different message than we usually get when it is time to refill the DEF tank. As Sprinty normally gets about 4,400 miles on a 2.5-gallon tank of DEF, this warning was a surprise as we filled the DEF only about 3,000 miles ago. Hmm, maybe Sprinty was thinking it was time to get home and go to the Mercedes service place for some overdue pampering?
About 20 minutes later, a second dash message appeared saying Sprinty had 10 starts left. The countdown had begun. The EPA requires that whenever the diesel emissions systems are not functioning properly, the engine has to be made non-functioning. It starts with a limited number of starts remaining to give you an opportunity to get it serviced. Once you exceed the number of starts, it goes into Limp Home mode, limiting power such that it will only drive around 10mph. Not a welcome thought when you are still over 250 miles from home.
Scratch the bike ride - we decided to go to the Adventure Van Expo, allocating one of our 10 remaining starts to breaking up the trip. Stopping for diesel enroute, we did not turn off the engine to save a start.
The Adventure Van Expo was held at Camp Jordon in Chattanooga. The vans on display and the vendors were targeting the folks who want to get out there - most of the vans were short-wheelbase, 4x4 vans up fitted somewhat minimally to support active adventures like mountain rain biking. Most lacked the plushness of a van upfitted as an RV - several had no shower or only an outside shower, porta-potty for a toilet, small refrigerators or plug-in coolers, and small beds. Fabric covered wall panels were replaced with wall panels designed to stand up to shifting toys along with tie down points.
A side motivation was that our virtual friends, Cait and Joe Russo of YouTube and blog channel "WeretheRussos", would be attending. We started following them about 4 years ago when they were living full time in a Hymer Activ van, a smaller version than Sprinty. They are currently living full time in a pop-up truck camper on a 4x4 beast of a truck. Many of Sprinty's adventure ideas have come from the Russo's adventures - such as Bearizona. They are sponsored (and thereby spokesman) by Storyteller Overland, an adventure van upfitter located in Alabama.
While the vans on display did not make our "maybe one day" list, it was interesting to see how different outfitters were constructing their vans. A highlight was to meet Cait and Joe Russo in person.
After our break at the Adventure Van Expo, we headed home and got Sprinty ready to take to the Mercedes dealer. With the stop in Chattanooga, the dash messages disappeared, although the Check Engine light remained. Sprinty already had an appointment next week for some routine service items and two recall items. He just has another issue to get taken care of.
While the Check Engine light issue is disappointing, we are grateful the matter appeared on the way home (and somewhat close to home) where Sprinty has a trusted mechanic to deal with the issue. And a minimal impact to the summer's adventures.
So ends our Summer to Remember which actually started on 13 May with a warmup trip to Alabama to visit Jean and her two boys (Chasing Waterfalls in Georgia and Alabama). Sprinty's Summer to Remember 2021 included over 125 nights of camping, covered 14,944 miles, adventuring in 19 states, making amazing memories, seeing old friends, and making new friends. All chronicled in 41 blog posts and hundreds of photos.
What has happened since Oct 2?
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