I spent a day and a half backpacking the trails in the One Horse Gap area in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. I ended up hiking about 28 miles, which puts me at just over 550 for the year. Yes, I'm goal-oriented sometimes.
I mostly followed the loop suggested by the River to River Trail Society, but also made a few extra loops. Some of the trails are not much used and overgrown, but that's balanced out by a large number of user trails that don't show on the map at all.
Conditions were near ideal: highs around 80, lows about 50. Not much bug pressure, though the ticks are out in force. The whole area is overrun with poison ivy, so everything I was wearing went straight into the laundry when I got home.
We've had just enough rain in the area lately to soften the trails up, but not so much as to turn them into mudpits (well, except in a few areas - the whole area gets heavy horse traffic). Sadly this meant that waterfalls and cascades were mostly dry too.
I camped next to One Horse Gap Lake - a very nice spot, but there's an access road which means there is far too much trash strewn around. At least the motorcyclists who showed up late Monday night opted to ride back out again rather than partying. Not that I have anything against people partying, but I like my sleep.
I put a few more photos at Imgur in the interest of not hammering the Beehaw servers too hard.
Oh hey it's you again! (from the 'what have you done outdoors this weekend' thread) I actually wandered around Garden of the Gods and some of the River to River trail last year, and I've sometimes wondered about going back to the area. I found some pretty cool views on the section I did hike, and obviously Garden of the Gods is freaking amazing. Is there a lot more to see on the River to River trail? Your photos seem to say yes.
People other than ffmike are absolutely welcome to answer as well of course, I just think it's neat to recognize someone.
There are plenty of nice sections of the R2R. The area around Lusk Creek is nice, and there are enough trails there to spend a few days exploring if you're not just taking the thru hike. Fern Clyffe is also neat although there's no dispersed camping there.
My R2R Trail Story is online if you want a sense of what it was like for me.
Man, as someone who just does day hikes, that reads like a really rough trip. The things you take for granted are a bit mind-blowing. Thanks for the info, I'll have to look into the stuff around Lusk Creek!