A Southern Illinois Excursion

This week the weather was balmy and sunny.  Hans and I planned to go hiking and camping on Saturday when the temperatures were predicted to be a bit cooler.  Our friend Ashish hadn't been camping before, so we invited him along.

We set up our tents in the morning at the Pine Hills campground, on the edge of Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.  Next, we drove to the first of two hikes that were recommended to me by a coworker: Little Grand Canyon, also in the national forest.  The canyon lies within high bluffs that trace the edge of the Mississippi River floodplains, and the forest extends south along this natural land divide.  We began at the top of the canyon and followed the 3.6-mile loop trail that slowly descended 300 feet to the bottom.  As we made our way down the air became cool and damp.  In some places we had to carefully scramble up or down drizzling and slippery stream falls.  Soon, we were enveloped in a green world of mossy walls rising steeply on either side of us.  There was also some amphibious life to be seen:  I caught a small frog that squirmed glumly in my hands while Hans took a photo.  At one point Hans nearly stepped on a turtle!  During the climb back up out of the canyon Hans spotted a small bird nest with at least three babies, screeching to be fed.

I wonder if he's one of these amazing little guys...

Near the town of Pomona there is a Natural Bridge of rock caused by erosion that sits at a height of about 30 feet in another small gully in the forest.  Its trail was less than half a mile, so we spent a little time taking pictures and wandering around the bridge.  Afterward we went to the town of Anna for some firewood, stopping to take a few pictures of the local novelties.

Back at the camp site, we played a round of Munchkin and set about cooking dinner.  We quickly realized that chicken kebabs are difficult to cook on an open flame without foil especially when your skewers are made of wood.  It seemed to work out anyway even if they did get very blackened.  Ashish had brought strawberry marshmallows (that's right, strawberry!  You know you're jealous) and I brought a jar of Nutella at the recommendation of a friend for smores-makings.  Yums.  The rest of the evening was spent talking around the fire.  I played around with a little trick photography.  When we went to bed we were serenaded at first by a couple of barred owls, and then later by a couple of trashcan-raiding racoons. 

This last photo was accomplished with a 30 second exposure 

and me running around with a flaming stick.  

New hobby discovered?