Shawnee National Forest
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This trip to the Shawnee National Forest would be my first backpacking trip. During this three day trip I would make so many mistakes and errors that are so common to novice backpackers. Mistakes of navigation, planning, food, and equipment would repeat, and yet at the end of it I was hooked. When is my next trip?
The plan was to start at Cave-In-The-Rock State Park, travel north to pick up the (new) River-To-River Trail and head west to Garden Of The Goods State Recreation Area. The River-To-River Trail is a long distance trail created in 1998 that has the Ohio River and Mississipppi River as its terminuses across Southern Illinois. We obtained a cab livery in Carbondale that would transport us from Garden Of The Gods to Cave-In-The-Rock. We arrived at Cave-In-The-Rock late morning. It was a gloomy, cold, and slightly damp day. Our packs were ridiculously loaded down, with my Coleman rectangular sleeping bag afixed to the outside of my pack. Most of the day was road hiking. This was partly due to the primitive photocopied maps from the forest service, our inadequate map reading skills, and unfamiliarity with posted trails. We hiked northeast along Fords Ferry Road to 1490E and proceeded west. Next we hiked northeast along Lambtown Rd to Tucker Hill Road west. Expecting wet, cold weather I chose rubber winter boots instead of hiking boots, so my feet were very quickly causing me trouble. Somewhere along this trek, unsecured, aggressive dogs accosted us. By mid-afternoon, we reached Mt. Zion church along Hwy 1. Very thirsty at this point, we filtered water at the culvert and replenished our water bottles. At this juncture, we headed west along County Rd 1005N. As it was getting dark, we stopped at a grassy, open patch at the juncture of County Rd 1005N and County Rd 845N. We cooked dinner that night and lit a small fire afterward.
The next morning we noticed a number of cars turn around this corner and later a pickup truck stopped. A man with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets approaches us and asks, “Do you know whose property this is?”. I said, “I’m guessing it’s yours.” He didn’t mind the camping or the small fire, as long as we weren’t hunting on his property. “You’re out here without a gun?”, he said to us. Later we would suspect he had a pistol in his sweatshirt pockets. We quickly loaded up and resumed our march. Since we were expecting a trail and not finding it, we took a turn off the road to ask a farmer about the trail. Very quickly, he mentioned a trail further up the road. Finally, we found it! It was a genuine trail through the forest with blue blazes on the trees. This was a lot more fun, but the pace was a lot slower. We stopped for meals and refilled water and made mileage throughout the day. By 3pm we reached Camp Cadiz Campground. By my plans, I was hoping to reach High Knob Campground. This was a massive miscalculation. There was a farmhouse nearby and we decided to approach the farmer about driving us to High Knob. Very deliberately and cautiously, we knocked on his shed. I don’t remember if we paid him $20 or $40 to drive us to High Knob. While driving us, he mentioned that the trip is a half-day trip on his horse, so I really messed up. He drove us up to High Knob and picked up a very sketchy, vagrant type along the way. After waiting for the vagrant person to depart, we quietly head down the cliff side to one of the most amazing overnight sites I’ve had in my entire camping experience. A large rock face projected off the high point with an amazing vantage to the lower landscape below. But it was very cold that night. I didn’t have a air mattress and closed the top of the sleeping bag to avoid escaping warm air. However, all the wet moisture of my breath ruined the insulation of the bag. It was a miserable night sleeping. Oh, and I was hailing a monstrous 4-person tent. Probably 13lbs.
The next morning, there was a little more sunshine. There were a few snow flurries, but nothing stuck to the ground. The trails were a little more cobble filled, ideal of ATV’s. We arrived at Garden Of The Gods around Noon or 1pm. Exhausted. I was glad the ordeal was over and not sure I’d do it again. However, a week later I was thinking, “where should I go next?”.