Musings from Illinois: Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Park 4-22-12

Lake Le-Aqua-Na State Park is located north of Lena, IL, north and west of Freeport, IL. There is a nice creek fed lake there and a bunch of hiking trails. I have never been there before. As far as I know, neither has Wilma. It is still cool enough for Wilma to get some hiking in so I figured we would head out there.

It is 53 miles one way from my garage to the park office. It was pretty easy to find. I just headed out west on route 20 and went north on IL 73 at Lena. There is a sign there, and several more signs along the way to the park, so it would be hard to get lost.

We parked by the park office and went in and got a park trail map. They have a more detailed version of the trail map than what is posted on the ILDNR web site. The trail map we picked up at the park office is quite detailed and matches the trail path markers in every case I noticed. There are also trail maps out on the trails, usually at trail intersections.

ETA 4-29-12: I picked up a park brochure at the office too. I just noticed that the brochure listed George Ryan as governor, with the name blacked out with a black marker. He has been in jail for several years now and has not been governor since 2003. I guess I can't blame them for blacking out his name on the brochure. He certainly blackened the name of the state. His successor is also currently in a federal penn as well. He was maybe even worse.

[scan of trail map added 4-23-12]

This is the trail map I downloaded from the web site.

This is the GPS trek, 6.4 miles according to Base Camp. We basically just walked the perimeter of the park.

We did not catch the whole length of every trail, but we did hike on all of them. They all seemed to be horse trails. We saw lots of horses while we were walking - maybe as many as 30 or 40. It was a nice day and maybe it was the first chance the horse people have had to get out and ride. We also saw a few hikers, I think six in total, and two mushroom hunters.

The trail surfaces are a mixture of grass, dirt, gravel, and crushed stone. They are in good shape and well maintained. There was only one short section of grass trail that was muddy and wet that we encountered. I noticed a number of benches along the trails. I noticed a couple downed trees across one trail. And those might have been there on purpose as they were on a fairly steep trail section. Maybe erosion control.

ETA: 4-26-12 I emailed the park super and he replied the trees were there to discourage horse riders from using that trail. Did not work too well.

I was only in one of the pit toilets. It seemed about as clean as such things get. I noticed there was water in various places, but I did not check to see if they were turned on yet. The park seems in good shape other than the park road which could use some work. Probably a casuality of the state's financial mess. I noticed a sign by the entrance asking for campground hosts and another for a concessionaire.

We drove around the lake on the park road. The lake is down in a valley and the road is several hundred feet above it most of the way. A nice view.

This is typical of the trail maps posted out on the trails. Easy to read and up to date as best I noticed.