June's Time For Myself - Mega Hike at Starved Rock State Park

Well looky here - its only June 3 and I already have done and am posting about June's time for myself! 

This past weekend I completed the Mega Hike at Starved Rock State Park.   It was a great hiking experience - challenging and enjoyable.  It was certainly a tough physical day.  There were lots of ups and downs, and many miles of the trails were 2 to 6+ inches of muddy muck and of course the water crossings!!  The water crossings bothered me - first I really think the Illinois park system should (and easily can) add rocks or boards to make those crossings less wet.   It was inefficient, and if your a reader on my blog you know I hate inefficiency!! Plus they had us hike those water crossing canyons first of the day and also first after lunch (when some of the group had just changed to dry shoes)

My iphone died before lunch so there are limited photos. 

This first picture is from Illinois Canyon - the 'waterfall' as less than 18 inches tall and about 2 to 3 feet wide.   And to get there we needed to cross the stream 3 times (and 3 more times to exit the canyon).   Some of the crossing had the water up to just below the knees.  My hiking boots are waterproof but not when the water goes up and over the top!  Honestly this waterfall was so small and such an uncomfortable trip to get there that they should rethink this as the first canyon.  It makes for long day of hiking in wet socks and shoes - not a good start.  Because the next two canyons were still flooded (Ottawa Canyon and Kaskaskia Canyon), they had the trolly pick us up and drive us to the parking lot across from Hennepin Canyon.  While on the trolly I changed to dry socks - it helped but since the hiking boots were submerged and drenched the feet were still wet - better with dry socks but still not the best.   If I do this again next year - may want to wear keen sandals or other water shoes and change to boats after exiting Illinois Canyon - from what I understand this always requires 3 stream crossings and it will always have water in it.  Again the best approach is if Starved Rock added some larger stepping stones or some wood planks to keep you from needing to submerge your boots.

Nice water flow near on the
connecting trail to Hennepin Canyon

A few more thoughts.... this was a nice break with a mid size drive (3.5 hours each way) which gave some good self thinking time and an evening alone in the hotel.  I thought I would get more self reflection and planning done - but it was still a good rejuvenation evening.

Orange mushroom fungus

This was an unusual Mega Hike for them - it was rescheduled from the April date because the Illinois River  had flooded the park.  They have never had to skip canyons before - they skipped 2 canyons because of the flood damage and we had to backtrack in and back out of a couple of connecting canyons because of flood damage. In April the park was filled with wildflowers, which had all finished blooming by our June Mega Hike.  So going during their regular time would change the expirence - also normally there is much less mud than we encountered - maybe as much muddy area, but not the deep shoe stealing mud we fought through.  Less of the deep mud means you can hike through it - we spend time bushwhacking our own path along side the supper muddy sections - and therefore cover the distance faster.

Another point was this is a challenge to go by myself to these things and make friends/interact with the group.  Overall I did well and felt like I fit in.   But the flip side of that is that I'm glad I went alone because not many of my friends could keep up with the group's pace and would be able to deal with the mud and water.  I'd rather be by myself than have a friend along that is slowing down the group or complaining about the conditions - as that would stress me and reduce my enjoyment.

I'm not sure I feel the need to go back here on my own again for a Spring/Summer hike.  But I am interested in either coming back in the fall to see the trees in full color, and its peaked my interest to see this in winter - apparently even some of the waterfalls that only run part of the summer will always have ice waterfalls.  Out guides said you must wear Yaktrax on your winter boots.  

And I would do their Mega Hike again - I probably can't do their Fall Mega Hike this year since it is the same weekend as the Wisconsin - Ohio State football game and I expect to be Columbus that weekend.  But I'll watch for it on their calendar and try again in 2014 - either their Spring Waterfall one, or their Fall Colors one - or both.  This was a good physical challenge.  I'm tired today, but happy about the experience.