River to River Trail

[Shawn]

The River to River Trail is located in Southern Illinois.

It starts/end at Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. East terminus at Mississippi River in Elizabethtown, Illinois (historical terminus is at Battery Rock) and western terminus is at Devil's Backbone Park in Grand Tower, Illinois.

It's right under 160 miles in length.

It passed through several counties and towns, the Shawnee National Forest, state parks, and a National Wildlife Refuge. Some of it is on private land with permission for use. There is a lot road walking.

Have any of you thru-hiked this trail? How about section-hiking? Do you plan to thru or section hike it ever?

 

[AnnB]

Hi, I have a question about how well marked the trail is. A friend and I did a short out and back (about 5 miles) from the trailhead in Elizabethtown. We were surprised at the lack of signage leaving town. We then missed the turn on Watson Road just past Justin Long park. We found that All Trails was not accurate. (I have since learned that Avenza Maps are recommended.)

A gentleman stopped to let us know we missed the turn. Said people do it all the time and end up cutting through his in-laws' property. I showed him that's the route on All Trails. We backtracked to go down the road. (This is where the cows decided to check us out.) Coming back, we realized we had missed the blue blaze for that turn. In the little over 2 miles we went out, we only saw one more blaze.

So I am curious if overall the trail is well marked?

 

[Shawn]

It's not as bad as it used to be, but it isn't blazed (marked) very well. Folks especially get confused around trail junctions.

However, I highly recommend you use Avenza on your phone to hike this trail. Avenza is free and works on GPS, so you don't need phone signal.

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After you put Avenza on your smartphone, you'll need to go into the store and get the River to River Trail Bundle Map by the River to River Trail Society. The is also free and they update frequently when it needs to be updated (reroutes, closures, etc.)

River to River Trail Bundle

River to River Trail Map Bundle of 28 individual maps and 1 overview map These are maps of the River to River Trail in Southern Illinois. The trail extends from Elizabethtown, IL on the Ohio River to Grand Tower, IL on the Mississippi through 159 miles of the Shawnee National Forest. For...

store.avenza.com

Avenza and this bundle will keep you on the River to River Trail with no issues.

I hope that one day they work on better blazing though. It needs it, badly.

 

[krJoest]

The blazes are there, they are just easy to miss! The braided nature of some portions of the trail can be confusing, some of the work arounds have work arounds! Idk how blazes would help with that.

 

[AnnB]

Thanks for the suggestions. I also posted this on the River-to-River Trail Facebook page, and it generated quite a bit of discussion. I think I was especially surprised there was no signage in Elizabethtown to just point you in the right direction. It sounds as if the blazing is left up to volunteers. It seems that the Department of Conservation, the park system??? would be responsible. Some things are a good use of tax dollars.

 

[Shawn]

It seems that the Department of Conservation, the park system??? would be responsible. Some things are a good use of tax dollars.

The US Forest Service is mainly in charge of it.

There is no budget, sadly. The agency gets less and less. Your tax money gets allocated to other things. This is a federal agency, not a state one.

They actually rely on volunteer work and money raised by organizations such as Friends of the Shawnee National Forest and the River to River Trail Society. I think bringing it up to those two organizations would be better, personally. You're right. The trail needs to be marked better.