Another May weekend, another rainy weather forecast.  Oh well, things had worked out reasonably well for the Swinging Bridges and H&H rides the previous couple of weekends despite lousy forecasts.   Might as well give this one a chance too.  After all, Brian Hirshberg had worked hard to plan an exciting dual-sport ride through Southern Illinois, and we certainly didn't want to miss it.  As it worked out, the only rain we encountered was the result of some not-too-severe thunderstorms on Friday evening after we had turned in for the night.  It was a little more interesting since we were all camping, but it was nothing to lose any sleep over, right Dave?

The riders gather at the meeting point at Huck's in Mt. Vernon.

Checking the GPS routing on the trip over.  Okay, who's ready to sample some gravel?

Checking out an Illinois campground.

After some warm-up roads, Saturday lunch was at the Mexican restaurant in Anna.

Next we headed to the Bald Knob Cross near Alto Pass, where Linda enjoyed the view from the knob.

Obviously the cross had suffered some severe damage from windstorms since our visit to Alto Pass in March.

<== A short break and a visit to the Rootbeer Saloon in Alto Pass.




Beemer wanna-be. ==>

From there, we hit the road toward the Illinois Little Grand Canyon.

Nature Dave was dissapointed to learn there would be no hiking into the canyon due to more extensive wind damage.

Undeterred, the group gears up to continue the ride.

Some of the excellent backroads Brian found in Southern Illinois.

More evidence of the extensive storm damage in the area.

The next stop was the infamous Snake Road.  Unfortunately, it too was closed as a result of wind damage.  But it didn't prevent an excellent view of the nearby rock cliffs.

Before heading back to the camp for the night, several of us headed up to the road that traverses the cliffs where we had a great view of the river road and the Mississipi River in the distance.

Nature Dave proves he's not a rule follower.

Sunday morning meant packing up the camping gear and heading back toward Indiana.  Along the way, Brian regaled us with tales of the mythical Bushwack Road he'd heard about.

Bushwack Road turned out to be a severe misnomer.

Bushwack Swamp would be more accurate.

A couple of the water crossings.

After lunch at Harbison's, Nature Dave provided a history of how furnaces like the one shown at right were employed in iron production in the area in the 1800's.  After that, it was a trip across the Cave-in-Rock ferry and an uneventful ride home.