Another outing with the creek beagle White Pines Forest State Park

The creek beagle and I went with the wife to White Pines Forest State Park near Oregon, IL today to do some more hiking. The creek beagle got some more creek time.  Here is a park map.

These two pictures are of a ford that the park road crosses to get over the creek. There are two fords. I remember them with fondness from 40 years ago when we used to visit the park when we lived nearby in Mt. Morris.

It's important to make a pit stop first. In this case a pit toilet. :-)

The creek beagle takes a creek break before starting on Sleepy Hollow Trail, in the north central part of the park.

The actual start of Sleep Hollow Trail. The hardest part of the trail for me was the climbing up the rock stairs at the beginning of the trail while being pulled by the creek beagle. She was serious about getting up the hill. Glad I had my stick. Made getting up and down the many inclines on the trail a lot easier.

There are steps going up the hill at the start of the trail. They are at about a 45 degree angle and are high and full of roots. There is a log railing but it is almost too big around to be much good other than to keep one from falling off the edge. I'd guess there are at least 50 steps before the path levels out some. It's never really level though, with almost constant elevation changes. This is an example of a few of the steps. I thought I had taken another view but I guess not.

Scenery along the trail.

View from the scenic outlook.

We met a couple other beagles after the scenic outlook. Haley and Clyde were there names. They wanted to  roughhouse with Wilma, but she was well behaved and stayed very calm. One of their humans was carrying a pretty good sized pack with a sheathed knife on his belt. Looked like brand new stuff. Guess he is doing something like I am and just getting used to hiking again. I would have asked him about his gear if the dogs got along better but figured it was best to just keep moving.

We came to these steps. Maybe 50 steps altogether that go down the side of a very steep mountain side. I doubt you could go down it without a rope. This view is looking down from the very top.

We came to this place in the trail where I went across this creek instead of walking along it, at least I think that's what I did. The map shows 4 creek crossings and we only did two so somehow I took a short cut and went across here instead of where I was supposed to. The steep trail ahead is actually where the trail comes down from the hill on the other side of the creek, and if I had followed the trail markers I would have ended up coming down that 30 or 40 degree grade. The beagle and I have done that before, so I think it would have been OK. There are no steeping stones here so when I walked across I got wet feet because the water went over the tops of my Columbia boots. Should have been paying better attention but did not realize what I had done until I was across the creek. I should have continued along this part of the creek instead of crossing it here. No biggie - just some wet feet. Will give me a chance to see how fast the boots dry if nothing else. 

More creek time for Miss Wilma where we forded when we should not have..

This is the last ford shown on the trail map. Note the stepping stones.

Note that the creek beagle wants nothing to do with the stepping stones.

This is the creek beagle getting some wet belly time at the ford. I think she likes the coolness and the running water.

The trail ends back where it started just past this ford. We drove to another trail up by the lodge. I wanted to see what the handicapped trail looked like. I started on the Red Squirrel Trail because I wanted to see what the handicapped accessible trail looked like. You can see my hat in the shadow.

Handy tips.

This is their idea of handicapped accessible. I guess you could get a wheelchair up the packed stone trail. If you had arms of steel, or three people pushing you. The handicapped accessible part runs up the hill at about 15 degrees for maybe 100 yards and then there is another chunk that veers off from the main trial that is also packed stone, that conceivably could be used by a wheelchair.

The trail is listed as medium difficulty, probably because the steepest parts are not as long, and the trail is not as uneven. Still lots of ups and downs. 

I saw a turkey on the trail ahead but was not quick enough to get a picture. When we got to where the turkey had been Wilma got all excited and started sniffing and making beagle sounds. I guess she knew someone with an interesting smell had been there.

We came out at the start of the Gray Squirrel Trail.

The creek beagle never tired and was quite happily moving along and often pulling me. I have to chat with her about that. OTOH, the elevation changes made the maybe 2 miles total about as tiring on Bob as the 4 mile hike we had yesterday.

I brought a real camera instead of trying to use the cell phone.

On the way there we came down route 2 past the statute of Blackhawk across from Maxon Manor. I pointed it out to my wife but she was not paying attention at the time and missed it. On the way back she saw it, pointed to it, and exclaimed "A statue of St. Mary"! I guess thats what every good Catholic girl thinks when they see a statue on the side of a mountain.