The shake-down trip for Tagalong-2 went quite well. I left on - TopicsExpress

The shake-down trip for Tagalong-2 went quite well. I left on Wednesday morning and returned this afternoon (Sat). There were a few things, but that’s why you do a shake-down trip so that you’re not two days or more away from home when you find something that wasn’t fixed or done right. Water was my nemesis. For the first day there was water on the floor every time I turned around. The ice-box leaked. I couldn’t get the drain working right. I need to get a new ice-box. Don’t think I can fix the drain on the current one. I used a cooler that sat right in the space for the ice-box, so I might just stay with that. 40# of ice got me through four days and is still going. The sink fixture leaks. It’s an internal thing and I think a new fixture is the easiest way to handle that. I just put a plastic container under the fixture and it was fine. Some of the AC water found its way back into the trailer, but that’s no biggy. I think I’m going to have the AC serviced before I go any distance. It held its own but might need charged. My new curtains worked great. All-in-all the shake-down was a great success. I wish that I could say as much for the running. Shawnee National Forest is lovely and you should visit it. The US Forest Service people are friendly, courteous and helpful, and I really liked all of the local people I met. I stopped by the Eddyville, IL post office to try to find a road. The postmistress and three local people were all friendly and helpful. One even lead me to where I could get a new forest service map. The campground was really nice. I stayed at Lake Glendale just south of Eddyville. Large spaces and nice distance between neighbors. The running was the disappointment. Horses have taken over the River-to-River and surrounding trails and, as much as I love horses, I have to admit that they have destroyed the trails. You can’t get your stride because you’re always having to slow down to get around an area of mud and manure. (see pic-1) After 10 hours of running I finally got tired of the hassle and took a trail that led down to the state highway and ran roads for almost 8 miles back to my van. The US Forest Service workers bristle at the mention of horses and many locals agree that they’ve destroyed the trails for runners and hikers. I met a couple of men coming out of the forest who said “I felt like I needed barn boots!” The riders also make unauthorized trails through wilderness areas. The US Forest Service workers say they’re fighting a constant battle over trails but the USFS administration in this area refuses to mark trails in the wilderness. I pointed out that if they want us to use ‘authorized’ trails, we really need to know which trails are authorized, and the only way you can do that is by marking them. It can be done without a negative ecological impact and there are lots of us who would volunteer to do the marking for them. I had good topographic maps and a lot of experience, but I helped two groups of people who were absolutely lost because they got off on an unauthorized horse trails and nothing is marked. I spent most of Thursday morning trying to find a trail head that doesn’t exist. On Friday afternoon when I decided to get off the River-to-River I took a trail that, according to the map led down to a small road. I could do about a mile on that road and take a trail that would lead me to the trailhead where my van was parked. Unfortunately it did show that the road didn’t actually go through and a local man told me that the reason I couldn’t find the trail was that it didn’t exist. That cost me 4 miles running along a state highway. The terrain and forest were beautiful but I did get discouraged by the fact that I couldn’t fall into a pace and just run. In the end I did cover about 32-35 miles of the 163 mile trail. Ashleigh, this run gave me an idea of a great exercise for your clients. The horses have turned much of the trails into u-shaped valleys. To keep out of the manure you have to run with your feet on the sides of the valley. Put two boards about 18-24 inches apart then angle them out to no more than a 45 degree angle. Put one foot on each board and bounce back and forth picking one foot up off the board as the other impacts. I can’t tell you how many miles I ran like that. I tried to figure out how many muscles it works but finally quite counting. (Everything from ankles to core!) Picture 1 – One of the many mud and manure “pits”. By the time I got across and picked up my pace there’d be another. Picture 2 – one of the several beautiful streams we forded. There were three deep fords. Picture 3 – one of the beautiful rock formations. The forest is lovely. Worth going to see. Picture 4 – My pack and trail poles. Don’t know why I took this. Since this was true wilderness I ran with a full pack - >25# of water & energy drink, food, survival gear, maps, ResQLink, etc. Picture 5 – see the trailhead? No? It’s right in front of you! Just an example of poor marking. This should have been done before the economy went to hell. My van is actually parked behind the trees to the left. Oh, P.S. There was no AT&T in southern Illinois. One man said if you stand on one leg on the highest hill and hold your tongue right you might have a 1% chance of getting an AT&T signal. I bought a Verizon “burn” phone. Right now my Verizon number is 812-459-1394, but that could change if I don’t use it for an extended period.