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?

Review: Great Railway Journeys of the World

Thirty years ago the BBC broadcast the series Great Railway Journeys of the World.  Each episode was presented by a different narrator and featured a unique itinerary.  The series has been reprised a few times over the last couple of decades, but I particularly like an episode that aired in 1980, hosted by Michael Palin, the starting point of Palin's involvement with future (and very popular) travel series endeavors.  I'll admit I'm slightly biased by my love for Monty Python, but I've read some of his memoirs and seen several of his other travel documentaries and I am very taken with his wonderfully descriptive narratives and insight.

You can judge for yourself, since all six parts of the episode "Confessions of a Trainspotter" are available on YouTube.

It begins in Euston Station in London and chronicles a journey that follows older, non-mainstream lines that take you all the way through eastern Scotland to Kyle of Lochalsh.  Along the way Palin fervently details a light historic account of rail transport in Britain.  I am a bit nutty for Scotland these days, and it's exciting for me to view footage of Edinburgh and Inverness that is thirty years old, and be unable to discriminate between documentary shots and those from my own vacation last September (except for those including adverts for Edinburgh Festival 1980).

For a television series the production value is quite impressive.  Pay particular attention to some of the grand, sweeping aerial footage during the end credits.

One of my favorite moments is the commentary on a small Highland games competition that Palin visits.

Of course, a documentary about trains in Britain would not be complete without taking a ride on one of its most famous, The Flying Scotsman steam engine.  When the show was produced you could still buy a ticket (an expensive one I imagine) to ride the Scotsman.  Since, the train has been in various stages of disrepair and subsequent restoration.  Currently, the locomotive is undergoing another restoration and is expected to be running a passenger service again by next year.

All of this only makes me wish for the next trip to Scotland, when I want to rent bicycles, take the train to Oban, ferry over to the Isle of South Uist, bike, ferry, and camp our way up to Stornoway on Lewis, and make our way back by ferry and rail (with perhaps a side stop to revisit Skye).  A great resource I found on this kind of activity is at Cycle Hebrides.

Buford Mountain and Elephant Rocks

This morning Hans and I drove northwest to Buford Mountain Conservation Area with a couple of friends from school, Ashish and Claudette.  Buford Mountain is a lesser-known recreation area that features a 10-mile loop trail that quickly ascends its namesake to reach a summit at 1740 feet, only 32 feet shy of the highest point in the state.  After that, the trail follows a mild rolling ridgeline.

It was a cool clear day when we began our hike.  Aside from the rough and rocky terrain for the first mile the trail was fairly mild and scattered with violets, sorrel, and phlox.  Occasionally we came across silken tent caterpilliar communities.

We opted for a shorter hike today and stopped for lunch at the exposed rocky glade of Bald Knob.  There was a geocache in the area, so Ashish did the honor by guiding us to the cache with our GPS.  After signing the log book and exploring the cache's contents we made our way back down the ridge and to the car, for a total of 7-miles worth of hike.

Since we were in the area, we stopped at Elephant Rocks State Park.  I had been told by countless locals to check it out.  After all the hype, however, we expected, as Claudette put it, "an epic fail".  We were pleasantly surprised.

The parking lot was packed and we could see why:  The Elephant Rocks themselves are giant boulders of pink granite perched atop a stone hill and resemble a line of circus elephants.  Producs of erosion, the rocks and hills are surrounded and composed of many narrow crevices and paths that offer a natural playground.  Hans and Ashish were the only ones brave enough to leap the four to six-foot gaps between crevices leading to the top.  After taking a couple of pictures we made our way back to the parking lot by squeezing through narrow alleys and sliding down the smooth rocks.

The drive back to Cape Girardeau was more scenic than the one out:  We avoided the interstate for a more direct route through small towns and farmland.  Some of the lakes and streams were positively gorgeous.  Sometimes we found ourselves following the remains of an old stone farm wall.  We passed many signs that pointed to other state parks and trails.  If Hans and I go hiking or camping any time in the near future we will definitely give the Arcadia Valley a second thought.

*Thanks, Claudette, for a couple of these pictures!