Rockford Rotary Forest Preserve 12-11-11

This was a relatively short, but nice hike. I forgot to turn on the GPS until I was on the trail a while, so the very beginning of the path was not recorded. We started at the same place we ended. About 1.8 miles. We had a nice chat by the river with Bert (a very friendly boxer) and his human Mike. Lots of grade change.

The forest is pretty open here, so there is a lot of opportunity for off trail exploration. We stayed on the trail this time. It might be neat to see how far one can get along the river heading west. Mike said you could only go a short distance from where we met by the river before it got hard to traverse. A glance down river seemed to confirm this.

The FP extends across the river but there is no obvious way to get to the FP property across the river, except by crossing the river somehow.

This is the trail map posted by the entrance. The gate was locked and a sign was up saying closed by the gate, but I am pretty sure it only applied to the horse trails being closed to horses. This map shows a trail along the river not shown on the map I downloaded. I wonder if the trail is actually there. Perhaps they want to discourage use of it for some reason. Maybe it is steeper than they think is safe.

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This structure is along the river. The remains of something. The pack and other stuff sitting on it was Mike's.

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This brickwork is near the entrance gate. I think it is maybe a foundation for a sign that has been removed.

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The GPS track.

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The park map from their web site.

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I thought the preserve map showed the trail in the wrong spot. I think what it is that the map actually shows the open area that is the youth camping area farther north than it really is.


ETA 12-12-11:
It appears it would be possible to walk along the river east from this preserve into Kishwaukee River FP, however it is posted as private on the ground. The maps of both preserves show it as outside the preserves, but the county wide map show they are connected by a triangular sliver of FPD property. I sent them an email to ask about it.

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I got this response back to my email. "The county wide map is wrong. At present there is no connection between Rotary and Kishwaukee River Preserve."