Since it's spring break and I have a bit more evening daylight now that we've sprung our clocks forward, I decided to drive a bit farther and visit the McCully Heritage Project, which was supposed to have quite a lot of trail miles on old logging roads.
When I pulled into the site, two friendly dogs approached and were quickly vying for attention and/or my lunch. Bob, the black one, also promptly peed on the car tire, so I made a mental note to wash the car before returning it to the garage at home.
Nope! You can't have my musubi!
I got my pack on and went to talk to the site caretakers and check out their maple syrup cooking process before hitting the trails.
Tapping a Black Maple to make maple syrup.
I started with a 2-mile loop on the northern part of the site to warm up and quickly stripped off my long sleeved shirt. Bob and Amelia, the dogs, stuck with me on this loop, dashing off after interesting smells every once in a while, but mostly sticking to the trail, which I'm sure was familiar to them. I don't think many people had been on the trail since a recent windstorm, so I pulled some decent sized branches off the trail while I walked.
Neat older signage.
Then it was off to the southern part of the property, which showed a much more complex set of trails/old roads and some serious hills. As I headed out, both dogs again followed along, but Bob didn't make it far and headed back home before crossing the creek and heading up the first big hill. Little Amelia stuck with me, though, running ahead and wondering why I was taking so long to climb the hill. Soon, though, we were both at the top, and she rushed ahead, seemingly oblivious to this possum just off the trail.
Hissing 'possum was unhappy with my proximity.
As I headed for the part of the property farthest from the entrance, I worried that I might end up carrying Amelia part of the way if she kept following me, but she seemed to have boundless energy and happily chased after a small group of deer and a number of squirrels.
The spring had a picnic table where Amelia and I both took a break.
Thankfully, I wasn't in a hurry because the hills were slowing me down. None of them were particularly long, but they went straight up and straight down from the ridges. Ridgewalking between the hills was really nice, and I needed the uphills for training, but some of the downhills were a bit tedious because of poor footing and deep mud. However, just being outside on a decent day made the trip a worthwhile one. I didn't see anyone else on the trails all day.
Southern Overlook above the Illinois River.
The best part about this post is that it's in the sun! Each intersection along the trail was marked by a number, making it fairly easy to navigate with the property map.
The mud is still following me...Just a few bad sections, though.
By the last mile or so, Amelia was getting tuckered out, but this cold creek revived her for the last bit of trail. I stayed in the water for a while, too, getting the mud off my shoes, but ice was still visible just upstream of the crossing, so I couldn't keep my feet in it too long.
When I got back, the sap from the syrup-making was bubbling like crazy, had cooked down quite a bit, changing from clear to amber, and smelled like breakfast!
I'd done about 7 miles, making for a total of 26 miles in 3 days, but Amelia probably did an extra mile or two with all her chasing and running about. When we got back to the parking area, she promptly flopped down in a flower bed and looked like she was going to stay there until dinner time.
Overall, even though this place is a bit of a drive, I'm glad I went and will probably go back and do more miles next time. Despite the mud, it has the best hills I've found so far, and I definitely could use more hilly training.
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