Indian Hill Forest Preserve 10-30-10

It's not a large FP, and the hike was probably no more than a mile and a quarter. No creek for the beagle.

We just followed the trail from the parking lot, taking the loop segment to the east first, and coming back on the west segment.

But, it was something a little different.

The trail is mostly a grass path through the forest, as shown here at the trail head.

This is where the trail forks. I guess the FPD does not do much trail maintenance on this trail, as it had a fair amount of large log type debris that I had to climb over. Or maybe they put it there deliberately to deter bikers or something.

Views fom the overlook area. I'd guess the bluff is about 50 feet above the flood plain floor in the foreground.

The bench promised by the trail map really is there. I am not sure why as there really is not much to see. The trail up to the bench is really a loop that goes out to the bench and back, and not a single trail as shown on the trail map. The two sides of the loop are never more then 50 feet apart I would guess.

I never found the section of the trail that is shown coming down off the bluff onto the flood plain. I suppose one could just try and walk down the side of the bluff. There are a few places you might be able to do it, but I was not going to try it.

More stuff across the trail. This is near the bench.

If you look closely, you can see Kishwaukee Road through the trees. This was taken coming back to the car just past the trail head. There is considerable traffic noise.

Some interesting fungus I noticed on my way out.

We also stopped by Trailside FP. It's basically just a driveway through a small wooded area that has a sign midway that says you can't go any farther because it is private property beyond the sign. Who knows what the heck that is about. Maybe the people that live past the sign did not want to maintain the driveway anymore so deeded it to the FPD or something.