Tunnel Hill State Bicycle Trail in Southern Illinois

[Greeneagle5]

Has anyone taken the "Rails to Trails" Tunnel Hill Trail in southern Illinois w/ a Scout group lately ? We're camping at Camp Ondessonk(near Vienna) for a weekend and it appears the trail passes within a few 100 yards. Sounds like a good older scout activity with possibilities of a few requirements towards a cycling MB. The tunnel and Breeden Trestle sound exciting.

How about you hops_scout, any recommendations ?

Thanks,

G5(This message has been edited by Greeneagle5)

[hops_scout]

Hmmm. Never heard of it. Sorry.

[Greeneagle5]

 

Here is a link: www.bikelib.org/trails/tunnelhill.htm

 

G5

 

 

 

[ManyIrons]

We did the Tunnel Hill to Vienna portion of the trail last year and had a great time. We started at Tunnel Hill -- near the entrance to the tunnel and traveled to Vienna. The tunnel itself is awesome (over 500 feet long) and really dark (make sure you have some lights and tail reflectors -- it can be a bit disorienting in there). That portion of the trail is very scenic -- several railroad bridges/trestles, even some 19th century graffiticarved into a few of the rocks, presumably by RR workers. You really have to look for it to spot it.

 

We took a break at Vienna. Theres a small RR museum there and you can purchase trail patches at a visitors center across the parking lot (not the same building as the museum). Theres a water fountain in the museum, but theres no food available -- pack some sandwiches or some trail meals. After that we traveled back to Tunnel Hill.

 

Our boys had a great time. We took our sweet ol time (we had a wide variety of ability -- our boys ranged in age from 12 - 17) and actually spent most of the day on the trail - about 5 hrs. We could have gone faster, but we just didnt see any reason to.

 

Here are a few other websites, but they have essentially the same info

 

http://illinois.sierraclub.org/Shawnee/sites/s-tunnel_hill_bike_trail.htm

 

http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/planning/th_info.htm

 

[Greeneagle5]

Did a quick 12 mile recon of the trail today with my 10 year old daughter. It was great riding with lots of rocky ravines, creeks,bridges,lakes and of course, the dark, narrow tunnel (be sure to remove your sunglasses before entering, or lose them forever to the bike tire "crunch"). 2 Troops were on the trail yesterday working at 50 milers (more recon), one Troop from Scott AFB,Ill., another from Missouri.

We'll do this in May w/ the Scouts....extra incentive for us old bikers: a good geocache is near the tunnel.

G5