Makanda to Goreville; Distance = 22 Miles; People Met = 23+
As a person who used to make maps I found myself in the ironic position of being overwhelmed by too many maps and guides for our route. The ADT Society provides a guide which lists GPS points and descriptions from east to west. I take these points and plot them on mapping software provide by National Geographic Maps to make it easier to travel west to east. In this section we are following the River to River Trail which has a guidebook with maps. The trail is mostly located in the Shawnee National Forest, and is shown on the National Forest map given to us by Cho in Carbondale.
These maps don’t agree with each other. Nor do the blazes we follow always agree with the maps. The solution might be to just follow the blazes and not worry about the maps but we’ve encountered two additional problems here. Sometimes the blazes are unclear or even disappear; I’ve seen signs of some being removed. Also, the River to River Trail now is actually closed for the winter. To the extent that it is closed for our sake we raise our eyebrows and think “Well, we’ll be the judge of that.” Yet I know trails are often closed for the winter for the trail’s sake, and should we be ignoring that? One final consideration was a hard rain fell on us overnight, exacerbating any trail condition problems that might have existed on the second day.
The result of all this confusion was a “fly by the seat of your pants” approach to this two day stretch. Basically, we sometimes followed the blazes, even when off-road if the trail conditions looked appropriate; we sometimes followed the Forest Service map. Two fortunate things happened as a result of following the Forest Service map.
We stopped for a chat with the Long family on the first day out. Mike Long, a forestry consultant, was doing some maintenance on his ATV when he spotted us and hailed us. Mike has a passion for backpacking; the common ground does not stop there. He canoed the Mississippi River for a cause, environmental awareness, in 2001. He knows all about the kindness you see from people along the way. He and his fellow traveler also played guitars as one means of spreading this awareness.
Amelia, Mike and Julia Long
He invited us into his home where we met wife Julia and daughters Amelia and new born Clara. Amelia is a precocious 3 year old who delights in watching food channels and has contributed to the family meal on occasion. Glancing at their library I noticed two more things in common, a preference for Dr. Seuss and Oz books to read to our children. Julia fixed us some soup and sandwiches, but the real pleasure was just getting to sit down together with them in their living room.
We followed the RtR Trail down to Goreville Waterfall on the second day, which was in full voice after the hard rain that occurred the night before. Streams were rushing down the sides of roads, let alone in natural stream banks. While stopping to enjoy the waterfall, we made a decision to turn right around and follow a direct route into Goreville, as the off road trail conditions we were likely to face beyond the waterfall were not promising.
That led us by Carroll’s Food Market, a family run operation. We stopped at the market with two questions in mind. We wanted to know why Goreville won a governor’s home town award in 2001, and we wanted to know where the post office is located. Alison was at check-out and instructed us to go to the back for coffee and to find out from her boss why Goreville might have received such an award.
We met Steve Carroll, who did not know the cause of the award, aside from the fact that Goreville was a nice community that took care of their own. I asked for an example of that and he mentioned how his food market at times helped out people in need. We followed Steve to a back room where his Mom, Barb Carroll was eating lunch with employees Kathy and Joe. Danny’s not an employee, but often drops by at lunch time, on break from his own work, just to cook for everybody in the back. We were invited to join them all for lunch.
Steve and Barbara Carroll
After that it was on to the post office where we met Ky to bring us into Marion. That’s another blog entry in itself.
Other Photos
Let's just wave hello instead
Be afraid. Be very afraid of, um .... what?
Mixed message
Best not to take the left fork here
