Pecatonica River Forest Preserve 3-24-12

We have been here before. We stayed on the east side of the park that time. This time we did mostly the west side. Nothing especially interesting. It is another beautiful setting they destroyed by clear cutting trees out of vast areas of the park. The hiking trail loop in the NW corner of the park has a lot of damage from the machines used in the clear cutting of the trees, and a lot of debris. It is close to unhikable at present. We did see two deer there and deer tracks.

I did not see a single numbered trail marker, and did not see any boundary markers along the gravel road that leads to the private cabin. At some point it changes ownership, but I never saw any boundary markers. All the other district facilities I have been in were pretty well marked at the boundaries.

This is what most of the trail loop in the NW corner of the park looks like now. There are also large segments of it covered in debris from the clear cutting.

[picture added 3-26-12]
An old trail marker the bull dozer managed to miss somehow.

Base Camp called it 3.8 miles.