River 2 River Trail

Section Hikes

A good friend of mind caught the backpacking bug - a compelling desire to put everything you need on your back and hike through the woods. After providing him my age old thoughts on gear (it has been a while since I've had to buy backpacking gear), he began to acquire the needed equipment, we started to kick around where to head on his first adventure. With a limited number of long trail options in the IL/MO region, we settled on the River to River Trail. R2R is a 160 mile footpath that spans Southern IL and travels between the Ohio River in Elizabethtown, IL to the Mississippi Rivers in Grand Tower, IL.

The Planning

Unlike planning to hike on a supremely well traveled footpath like the AT (Appalachian Trail) or PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) it took Andy and I a bit to track down specifics about the R2R. You can't buy detailed maps, the reviews for the trail books are lackluster an it is more than a little difficult to find distances between key locations, and when you do they don't match other sources you've found. We did however find ourseleves coming over and over again to the same few sites.

rivertorivertrailhike.com

MAPs Page

Rivertorivertrailhike.com is easily the single best source of information on the River to River Trail. It can be a little at times challenging to locate information quickly, but if you spend enough time you will find what you need. The best information around is their Maps Page which I've included a link to above. The maps we printed off of this site proved to be exceptionally reliable for the first leg of the hike. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page, Scott (the web host) has included each map in a PDF Format which is super convenient. Pre-trip I printed them off on 'Rite in the Rain' waterproof printer paper. I don't recommend using the maps from the site AllTrails.com as their maps were way off.

Impossible but Probable

We also found ourselves returning to another bloggers site: Improbable but Possible. This guy did a yo-yo trip (East to West and then West to East) on the R2R trail back in 2016. His site provides some really good insights on the trail as well as some of the resources that he pulled to make it happen. The Maps he references from Jeff "Goose" Gosnell are no longer being produced though ~ we reached out. In addition to insights on R2R, he certainly inspires me to get out on the trail a little more often.

Knowing that we were going to traverse West to East one of the last decisions we made was to skip the 10mile road walk from Grand Tower to McCann Springs. There is already quite a bit of road walking on R2R and I will be the first to admit that the thought of dodging traffic for the first few hours of the trip was less than appealing.

Section 1 - McCann Springs to Giant City Lodge - 29 miles

March 2-4, 2018

With our bags packed Andy and I met up to leave a car at Giant City Visitor's Center parking lot before taking off for our start on Pine Hills Rd. Along the drive from Giant City, we went through a few of the small towns on the route and got a sense of some of the scenery we would be hiking through. We parked a 2nd car right at the trail-head for McCann Springs, snapped a few photos and then trudged uphill on Pine Hills road on the R2R Trail to Godwin trailhead.

The stretch of R2R that coincides with Godwin Trail cuts through a beautiful old growth forest filled with large hardwoods Oaks, Sycamore, Sweet-gum and American Beech. While on Godwin Trail you end up hiking through Clear Springs and Bald Knob Wilderness areas. Spring had not yet sprung so we got long views through what would be a dense forest in a few more weeks. The trail itself is well worn, easy to follow and there were plenty of wooden blazes to keep us on track. Rain from the weekend before, made the trail a little sloppy at times especially at lower elevations and along the Hutchins Creek. The Creek crossing was the first real challenge, as we had to roll up our pant legs and wade across in the cold water. On the other side we realized we should have crossed further downstream and had to bushwhack our way through the woods to get back on track. After crossing another dry creek bed we burned through the miles and the afternoon. Around 3PM we had finally made it to the eastern end of Godwin Trail clocking a full 8.5 miles, and decided it was a bit to late to do the road walk through Alto Pass, IL and get back on the trail before dark. We set up camp just off the Ranbarger Trail, and got started on dinner. That evening a pack of coyotes, and several owls were really active due to the full moon which made for an interesting evening out in the wild.

After tossing and turning, we were up early trying to shake the cold out of our limbs. After packing up camp quickly we were off on a decent road walk towards Alto Pass. As we got closer to town we realized that we were not the only ones getting some activity that morning. A 60+ mile bike race was about to get underway, and loads of participants were airing up their tires and getting warmed up for the race. In town, we were able to refill our water bottles and chat with a few of the riders and organizers before getting back to the road walk. The hike out of town was a little more eventful as we spooked and continued to push 7 deer through a huge meadow as we walked along the road. They finally wised up and crossed the road into some dense trees where they could hide a little bit easier. When the trail turned from roadway into dirt, our feet were happy again. Picking up this next section of R2R however, we learned that the trail blazes became more scarce. In our gut we knew we were on the right path, but our heads kept telling us that we surely missed a turn off. The detailed maps saved our sanity. Soon enough we were leaping from rock to rock across Cedar Creek Spillway and started heading east. The portion of the trail in between Cedar Creek and Makanda was rough. Equestrian use of the trail, as well as the recent rains turned much of it into a muddy mess. Andy let me run point so he could avoid the sinking mud that I kept finding. Although the footpath was in rough shape, there were a couple of dense pine forest that we were able to walk, which were very reminiscent of trails I had hiked down south. As we neared Lirley trailhead we had a decision to make similar to the day before - push on through Makanda and try to make it to Giant City State Park or hold up and camp there for the evening. We decided to push on, knowing that we would be covering more than twice the mileage of the day before.

The road walk through from Lirley trailhead to Giant City, was not the most pleasant part of the trip. Somewhat exhausted from a full day of hiking, it seemed like drivers would speed up a the site of us walking on the narrow shoulder, but we kept our feet moving. There were two brief interludes on a wooded trail, one of which popped us out on somebody's drive way, but I am not sure it was enough of a break from the pavement for our aching feet. After filling up our water bottles and grabbing a Ski Soda at a small store we walked the last half mile of road of our trip before entering Giant City State Park . . . of course the trail went straight up a hill. Now that we had made it to the park, we began searching out a place to set up camp for the night, and settled for a spot at the edge a clump of cedar trees, about 50yrds or so off the trail. 18 miles for our 2nd day out and we were beat. We threw together the camp, warmed up some food and got it in our bellies just as the sun and the temperature dropped.

The next morning we were anxious to get off the trail, and thanks to our valiant effort the day before we only had about 2.5 miles to go! We took down the camp, repacked our gear and slowly got our sore knees and feet back on the path. By the time we were warmed up, we could see the lodge. From the lodge, we had to hike back to the visitor center to get back to the car. After cleaning up at the visitor center and picking up my car from McCann Springs we actually made our way back to Giant City State Park to take full advantage of their Sunday AYCE (All-You-Can-Eat) Chicken Dinner. Winner-Winner!!

Over the 3 days, we hiked 29miles in just under 12 hours - about 2.5mph. Not too bad for Andy who had never been on a backpacking trip, nor I who haven't been on a trip in years. We are hoping to get in some more of the trail this fall.

- HAPPY TRAILS!!