Southernmost Illinois - A Journey into the Unbelievable

By Mark T. Cockson

In an effort to add some depth to the Gateway Journal and to add some promotion to this month’s winery tour fundraiser, Mark T. Cockson and Tim Almstedt traveled to Southernmost Illinois, June 3-5, 2007. We were guests of the Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau and spent four days/three nights in this beautiful region. Composed of Union, Johnson, Pope, Hardin, Alexander, Pulaski, and Massac Counties, Southern Illinois “Hill Country” is bordered by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, “triangulated” by Interstates 57 and 24, and bisected with State Highway 146 (the original Cherokee “Trail of Tears”). The Shawnee National Forest forms an arboreal border to the north and west with numerous lakes, like Lake of Egypt, and cypress swamps dotting the area. Tourism activities range from nature to nurture to cultural. A small sampling of nature activities includes hiking, biking, canoeing, fishing, bird-watching, and hunting clubs. Nurture activities include gardens/nurseries/vineyards; horseback riding; produce/orchards/markets; antiquing; restaurants and wineries; country bed & breakfasts/cottages/lodges/campgrounds. Cultural activities include museums, historic cemetaries and Civil War sites, ante-bellum mansions, and entertainment of all kinds, like the Kornbread Junction Gang. For more information, contact the Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau, P.O. Box 378, Anna, Illinois, 62906, 1-800-248-4373, 618-833-9928, www.southernmostillinois.com. Remember, “you have to see it to believe it.”

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Hiking, Biking, and Canoeing:
Back to Nature in Southernmost Illinois

By Mark T. Cockson

Many of us stay in hostels when we can; all of us enjoy experiential travel. In the early days of hostelling, hostellers traveled about 75-100 miles by bicycle to stay in hostels (still possible in the HI-Yankee Council and the HI-California Councils). Most hostels in Ireland and New Zealand are within a days’ hiking distance of each other. You can even paddle to a few hostels, like HI-Seaside in Oregon. A recent trip to Southernmost Illinois gave exquisite hiking, biking, and canoeing opportunities and the promise of a hostel (someday, according to Jonathan Voelz of Vienna, IL). 

Mark Cockson and Tim Almstedt maneuver the canoe with the rest of their group around the trees in the Cache River Wetlands (photo by Tim Almstedt).

Our group of two dozen tour operators and travel writers was split in half for our first jaunt into “The Great Outdoors”. Twelve of us with widely divergent canoe skills donned blue life vests, grabbed bottled waters, slathered on sunscreen lotion, and piled into canoes on the Cache River. (The other half of the group saw a video and toured the 7,000 square foot Cache Rivers Wetlands Center, 8885 State Route 37 South, Cypress, IL, 62923, 618-657-2064). Our guide was Rick Reichert, and his first goal was to co-ordinate the efforts of the paddlers. After a few “false starts”, close encounters with cypress “knobs”, and dead-ending in a brackish backwater, Tim and I synchronized our strokes and took up the rear position in the pack. The water was rimmed with green duckweed, a two-leafed floating plant, which created the illusion of a solid surface. “Button bushes” protruded from the water as we paddled 3.6 miles of Tupelo-Cypress Swamp, marked with international canoe trail signs. Fears of turning over in the decaying swamp were soon overcome by scenes of great beauty. Sitings of the promonatory warbler, a bald eagle, snowy egrets, and a Great Blue Heron were balanced by a black rat snake swimming in front of the canoe bow. Our second goal was a picture of the 1,000+ year old cypress, an Illinois State Champion Tree with a circumference of more than 40 feet. We paddled back without incident and changed places with 2nd group.

Back at the Cache River Wetlands Center we viewed the 12 minute video, “The Enduring Cache”, toured the natural history exhibits with their interactive audio buttons, viewed (through binoculars) and heard (through outdoor microphones) scores of birds frolicking outside the picture windows in the restored wetlands. During the last weekend in April each year, the Center hosts “BirdingFest of Southernmost Illinois”, with educational and interactive displays including “Birding and Biking”, a Cache River Canoe Tour by staff of Pedals and Paddles, www.pedalsandpaddles.org, an art exhibit, and a nature photography contest. A short distance away, in the Section 8 Woods, is the Illinois State Champion Tupelo Tree. Once our two groups united, we boarded our tour bus.

The Grand Chain Lodge overlooks the Ohio River and is part of the 967 mile Ohio River Scenic Byway, www.ohioriverscenicbyway.com. The volunteer explained the buffalo hide tannery and the role of the Civil War Ironclads and floating hospitals while we ate a delicious lunch; the highlight was desert, a selection of homemade pies. We took a group photo overlooking the river and proceeded to Part II of “The Great Outdoors”.

Waking from a brief nap found the bus parked at the trail to Heron Pond, an Illinois bayou which was declared a National Landmark in 1973. The trail crosses the Cache River and Dutchman Creek on a suspension bridge, passes through bottomland forest, and soon enters the swamp on a long zig-zagging and floating boardwalk. We did not see any skittish wood ducks, nor the American featherfoil (a rare carnivorous plant), but did observe cottonmouth snakes, a crayfish the size of a ¼ lb lobster meandering along the trail, and stands of Switchcane (often mistaken for Asian bamboo). Our turnaround point was the Illinois State Champion Cherrybark Oak Tree, site of another group photo wherein we joined hands to circle the 23’ girth of the tree.

Looking back on one of the several train trestles that are part of the Tunnel Hill State Trail (photo by Tim Almstedt).

Again we boarded the bus and had an overview of The Tunnel Hill Trail, a “rails to trails” bicycle crushed limestone path that connects Harrisburg, IL, 48 miles to the north of Karnak, IL, (and the Cache River Wetlands Center). The Tunnel Hill State Trail, 302 East Vine St, P.O. Box 671, Vienna, IL, 62995, 618-658-2168, is relatively flat and crosses the Cache River and numerous gulches and valleys with 23 picturesque trestles. The Tunnel Hill State Trail begins at the Cache River Wetlands Center spur in the cypress-tupelo swamp, continuing onto a lush wetland, then enters the shady canopy and limestone bluffs of The Shawnee National Forest, and terminates on flat farmland. Tim and I had a chance to bike it on June 6, 2007, thanks to Peddles & Paddles, Inc.; Rick Reichter dropped us off with our bikes and helmets north of the tunnel. The tunnel at 543 feet in length is dark and disorienting; the only way to get through it is to look far ahead at the light at the end of the tunnel and pedal as straight as possible. Once you are through it and into the light again, you want to try it over and over—-quite an adrenalin rush! The 9.3 mile section between Tunnel Hill and Vienna (which we traversed) crosses The River-to-River Hiking Trail; the unmarked Discovery Trail; the U.S. 76 Bicycle Route (part of the TransAmerica Route); and the Trail of Tears, the primary route the Cherokee Indian Tribe took during their forced march from the Great Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma during the winter of 1838-39. Vienna Community Park is home to a totem pole, carved from a 100 year old cedar by Archie Russ, which commemorates the Trail of Tears march. The faces on the pole represent the seven clans of the Cherokee and the flags surrounding it represent the eight states this tragic march crossed. 

For hiking, biking, and canoeing Southernmost Illinois offers a wealth of opportunities. Although there are no hostels here, there are cottages, lodges, motels, bed and breakfasts, and campgrounds. Close encounters with flora and fauna make this a nature trip worth taking. We stopped by Jonathan Voelz’ home on our last day of the tour. While we sipped Pepsi, Jonathan, lifelong HI-USA member, spun the dream of developing a hostel in Vienna, IL. Southernmost Illinois is an area you have to see to believe and a future hostel makes perfect sense in tying together all of the nature activities available there.