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- Mar 11, 2011
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The wife and I went to the Shawnee National Forest this past weekend, to do some hiking for our anniversary. Weather wasn't too bad, but very windy pretty much the entire time. Friday evening we just hung out at the cabin. Got a little later start than planned on Saturday. Was driving to Bell Smith Springs, and saw the turn off for Stoneface. Decided to do that hike first. Took a gazillion photos, narrowed it down to these.
Reached the destination. Pretty easy to tell when you get there, that you'll be walking uphill a lot, and we were right:
Nearing the cliff face:
Walking around the cliff face. This part wasn't too bad:
Opening along the trail you had to walk through:
Looking back:
From inside:
Icicles everywhere:
Small cave:
Reached the top, and walked a ways to Stoneface:
Looking out:
Juniper berries:
Stopped at Burden Falls, the highest waterfalls in Illinois. The falls are seasonal. This is the second time I've been there, and the water wasn't flowing much either time:
A few small falls:
Looking toward the falls. You can see it's mostly dry:
Falls to the left:
Not worth the walk down there, since they're not flowing too much. Wasn't sure how to get down there anywhos:
Made it to Bell Smith Springs. We were supposed to have PM showers Saturday evening. The sky was really getting dark to the north, so we just did a small hike there.
Couldn't get over how blue the water was:
These weren't too fun to walk down, but pretty cool:
A big hunk broke out some time ago:
Did I say the water was really blue?
Saturday evening we weren't able to stop to do a meal, because of the weather. This is always a big deal for us. Sunday morning, we decided to do a hike behind the cabin, and do a meal. Was wanting to try out some stoves and mess kits. About 15-20 yards from the cabin trail, is the River To River Trail. We walked on that a small ways.
Property line:
Hot diggety damn, who the hell wouldn't wanna be out in the woods? Nothing but the smell of the woods, and the sound of the wind through the trees. Love this stuff man:
Walking the trail. Not sure what the yellow ribbon is for, but the red dots mark the River To River Trail:
Walked up to this stone ridge:
Kelty MAP 3500:
Pretty easy to make a fire with all of these trees and brush around:
Unloaded some of my pack:
Those zipper bags from Wally work great for my wind screen, and Emberlit stove. You can see the length is about perfect. The stoutness of the windscreen will help keep my Emberlit from easily getting bent. Not sure if it would easily bend anyways, but precautions never hurt:
Virgin Ti Emberlit assembled:
I know it's not a Becker, but my son bought this ESEE 3 for me 2 Christmas' ago, and I always felt bad because I never used it. Scraped some cedar bark shavings with it:
Just a few tries with the firesteel, and it lit right up:
Threw the bundle in the stove, and a hand full of dried weeds I had ready on top of it:
Then some small twigs on top of that:
Meanwhile, poured some water into my SnowPeak Kettle No.1 my wife got me for Christmas:
(to be continued)
Reached the destination. Pretty easy to tell when you get there, that you'll be walking uphill a lot, and we were right:
Nearing the cliff face:
Walking around the cliff face. This part wasn't too bad:
Opening along the trail you had to walk through:
Looking back:
From inside:
Icicles everywhere:
Small cave:
Reached the top, and walked a ways to Stoneface:
Looking out:
Juniper berries:
Stopped at Burden Falls, the highest waterfalls in Illinois. The falls are seasonal. This is the second time I've been there, and the water wasn't flowing much either time:
A few small falls:
Looking toward the falls. You can see it's mostly dry:
Falls to the left:
Not worth the walk down there, since they're not flowing too much. Wasn't sure how to get down there anywhos:
Made it to Bell Smith Springs. We were supposed to have PM showers Saturday evening. The sky was really getting dark to the north, so we just did a small hike there.
Couldn't get over how blue the water was:
These weren't too fun to walk down, but pretty cool:
A big hunk broke out some time ago:
Did I say the water was really blue?
Saturday evening we weren't able to stop to do a meal, because of the weather. This is always a big deal for us. Sunday morning, we decided to do a hike behind the cabin, and do a meal. Was wanting to try out some stoves and mess kits. About 15-20 yards from the cabin trail, is the River To River Trail. We walked on that a small ways.
Property line:
Hot diggety damn, who the hell wouldn't wanna be out in the woods? Nothing but the smell of the woods, and the sound of the wind through the trees. Love this stuff man:
Walking the trail. Not sure what the yellow ribbon is for, but the red dots mark the River To River Trail:
Walked up to this stone ridge:
Kelty MAP 3500:
Pretty easy to make a fire with all of these trees and brush around:
Unloaded some of my pack:
Those zipper bags from Wally work great for my wind screen, and Emberlit stove. You can see the length is about perfect. The stoutness of the windscreen will help keep my Emberlit from easily getting bent. Not sure if it would easily bend anyways, but precautions never hurt:
Virgin Ti Emberlit assembled:
I know it's not a Becker, but my son bought this ESEE 3 for me 2 Christmas' ago, and I always felt bad because I never used it. Scraped some cedar bark shavings with it:
Just a few tries with the firesteel, and it lit right up:
Threw the bundle in the stove, and a hand full of dried weeds I had ready on top of it:
Then some small twigs on top of that:
Meanwhile, poured some water into my SnowPeak Kettle No.1 my wife got me for Christmas:
(to be continued)
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