LOCATION: Southeastern Illinois, near Indiana and Kentucky
WEATHER: Rain again! All day long. Highs in 50s
It continued raining, all through the night. We awoke to what was supposed to be 50% chance of rain, but turned out to be 100%.
Not to be outdone, we donned our rain gear and hiked around the lake where we are camping. Easy, level 2-hour trek. We saw lots of interesting mushrooms. The leaves on the paths are red, orange, and yellow. So pretty!
After lunch, we drove to nearby Bell Smith Springs which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of the Shawnee Forest. There were 3 hikes from which to chose. We went with what we thought would be the easiest and fastest. We were undaunted by the trail's description of "moderate to difficult". (We would soon learn our mistake). There are 3 trails together; ours was marked by a yellow arrow.
We climbed down a tunnel of steep stone steps, and were suddenly at the bottom of a beautiful canyon with a river flowing through it. We walked a ways, then lost our yellow arrow. We retraced our steps, but could not find our trail. The signs were old, and several had been attached to trees that had fallen down. We went back to where we thought the trail had to go, and sure enough, saw the yellow arrow, on a fallen tree, pointing right into the river!
We found some stepping stones and crossed, only slipping into the water a few times. Once across, our trusty yellow arrow pointed us onwards. The path was steep in many places, next to cliffs that alarmingly dropped to the canyon floor. It was slippery due to the rain with many roots and rocks waiting to trip us up. The canyon rocks were covered with lichen and moss, creating beautiful velvety green carpets. We made it to the main attraction of the trail, a natural stone arch. After an hour, we were about halfway around the loop. We could either turn around or keep going. We chose to keep going. We saw a steel ladder embedded in the stone descending into the canyon. George wanted to go that way. I was terrified, and thought it was the wrong way. Sure enough, I saw a yellow arrow pointing another direction, so we continued on. Then, the yellow arrows ended and there was no path. We contined on, following the canyon wall, but no path. By this time, it is starting to get dark. Of course, we have no flashlight or water. After not finding the trail, we decided our only recourse was to turn around and go back the way we came.
We headed back, and with each step it got darker and darker. I started looking under cliffs, wondering if we could sleep there if we couldn't get out. We soldiered on. Suddenly, we saw a yellow arrow! Yeah! We were on our trail again. We tried to hurry. The arrows did not let us down. They guided us on along the loop. I got caught by some monster thorn bush, and took a while to de-tangle. We made it back to the river with the stepping stones. Almost there! We were back to safey. It started to drizzle again, but we were ok. The only thing between us and the car was that steep tunnel of 68 steps.
Back at the camper, George celebrated our survival....
We were bummed when we found the women's restroom locked up. I guess they are preparing for winter.
DINNER: I had planned on grilled chicken, but the wood was too soaked to light, and George didn't want stand in the rain trying to get a fire going. So, I went with Plan B. I had leftover pasta sauce to use up, so made a pasta dish with scallions, portabellos, sausage, and herbs. Pretty tasty and romantic.....we ate by candlelight as our camper battery is getting low!
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