Скачать или смотреть Tunnel Hill State Trail E-Bike Adventure: (Tunnel Hill to River-to-River Trail)

Chapters:
Trail Talk: (0:16)
Tunnel O' Luv: (2:04)
Sandburn Junction: (3:44)
Trail Talk & Speedometer: (5:10)
Breeden Trestle: (5:41)
Scenery: (7:39)
On the Trail Again: (8:09)
River-to-River Trail Crossing: (8:22)
The Lake: (9:00)
Off-Trail R2R Shady LunchBreak Area: (9:41)
Its a Boy!: (11:13)
Second Trestle: (11:17)
Continuing South: (12:41)
Turnaround Bright Eyes: (12:54)
Random Passerby (Ring a Ding Ding): (13:15)
Zoom: (13:35)
Heading on Back: (13:40)
Heading Back on the Breeden Trestle: (14:02)
A Light at the End of the Tunnel: (14:17)
Thanks: (14:36)
Slideshow: (14:46)


After a night of camping, I headed over to the Tunnel Hill State Trail to do some bike riding. I brought my Cannondale Treadwell Neo hybrid e-bike to see how it compared in terms of ride comfort to my normal mountain bike. I ventured from Tunnel Hill going south for about 3-4 miles past the mile marker 218 and River-to-River trail crossing.

About 0.2 miles in from the parking lot, you reach the tunnel. The tunnel is approximately 500 feet in length, and gets pretty dark inside. My Nitecore 1100 lumen bike light easily cut through the darkness. No vertigo riding in the dark for this kitty. After departing the tunnel, the next stop was Sandburn Junction, which is a rest stop for grabbing a Gatorade or an ice cream bar, with a camera monitored pay as you go “honor” system. The next destination is the old Breeden trestle. This 90 foot high train bridge spans across the canyon below. The views here are beautiful. Just watch out for splinters. Heading on down the trail, you’ll cross a set of power lines and eventually come up to part of a lake on the western side of the woods along the trail. I eventually approached the crossing of the River-to-River hiking trail, and went down it to the west a bit. There’s a lake that people fish on there, and the hiking trail crosses the south end of the lake and forms a levee style dam. In the summer months, there are wild blackberries along this trail, and plenty of tall grassy weeds. I explored a little bit in the woods and stopped off at a shady spot off-trail to eat my lunch. I explored the area a little bit, and you can see the 2nd trestle from this back spillway area. As I headed back on the bike trail, I headed down to the 2nd trestle and saw the creek below and the area where I ate lunch off in the distance. I headed down trail a little further before turning around for the day.

If you continue onwards to the south, you’ll cross several smaller, more quaint creeks and bridges, a couple of road crossings, and pass through a small concrete road culvert near one of the road crossings. There’s some farm fields, small bluffs, and a cute herd of cows along the trail. You may even see a few deer if you time it right. Eventually, you cross under the highway overpass and approach your next destination: the town of Vienna, Illinois. At Vienna, there’s a park with an old train station building, a big artsy wire bicycle sculpture, and some eateries across the highway from there. The trail continues on south of Vienna if you’re curious to see swampland.

After returning to my car, I headed over to Pounds Hollow Recreation Area, about an hour drive away, to do some kayaking on the lake. I ended my weekend adventure watching the sunset at the Garden of the Gods Observation trail. (Those videos are queued up in the coming weeks after this one goes live.).

If you’re in the area of Tunnel Hill, there’s a couple of destinations to see in the area. Ferne Clyffe state park offers great camping and hiking opportunities within about 15 minutes from the Tunnel Hill trailhead. There’s also Camp Ondessonk down the road towards the little town of Ozark, Illinois, which is a Christian summer youth camp. If you get hungry, there’s a Dollar General store a few miles south of here near Simpson, IL, and a BBQ place outside of Ozark, IL. Of course, if you’re near Goreville, there’s Whiffle Boy’s pizza, the Acees gas station which has sandwiches, pizza, and fried chicken. And there’s always Subway.

The Tunnel Hill bike trail runs 45 miles from Harrisburg down past Karnak, stopping through several small towns along the way. The area south of Tunnel Hill has the scenic tunnel, bridges, and swampland areas. The areas north of Tunnel Hill run along Route 45 and ends in the city of Harrisburg. Someday, I’ll trek the northern parts of the trail as time permits.

Links:
https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/P...
https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/P...

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As always, thanks for watching.