Spring Fling at Red Bird

 

     My family and I arrived on Friday evening at Shakamak state park to camp.  We also found that the cicadas have moved in to camp too.  This was new since they didn’t make it to our part of Illinois, must be an Indiana thing.  On Saturday morning I unloaded the truck and headed out on the back roads to Red Bird by myself.  For some reason the 3 girls in my family and my daughters friend wanted to go shopping. I don’t understand why.  Not knowing what time it really was I arrived a half an hour early.  This gave me a chance to visited with Leonard and a few others from Monroe county who were working the gate until 9:30am.  Then myself and the others that had been there signed in and were given the option of a guided tour or off on our own.  So we took off on our own for the day.  There were 4 trails that they have worked to get marked, finishing the 4th the day before.  This made it much nicer to find your way around then it had been in the past. We took trail 2 and 3 but did not get to the big holes on trail 3.  These are the holes Rich will remember from the first year.  The ones he had to be pushed off into and then strapped out on the other side.  We never made it to 4, which was the extreme trail.  This was probably a good thing since it had already claimed damage on 2 scramblers.  They both rolled coming down a hill, luckily no one was hurt.  We had a smooth day of trail riding with no major problems.  For a change there was not a lot of mud and the trails were good. We were back at the gate at 4:00 for the raffle and 50/50 drawing.  I won the last prize for the day, a big “W” warn winch decal. This was another good day of trails and again I was the only Boonie rider.  Oh where oh where have the Boonies been … Oh where oh where can they be…..

 

Keith (Professor) Dryden

 

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       Another item that needs to be addressed soon is the adopt a highway program. I know this isn’t the most popular thing for the members to spend half a day doing, but it is something we committed ourselves to fulfill. To participate in the program, an organization must pick up trash on their stretch of highway 3 or more times a year. To date, we have done it once this year. I don’t want to die of heat stroke anymore than the rest of you, so during the summer’s hottest days, I feel that it is the last thing we should worry about. However, by the end of August, it should be cool enough if we start by 7:30 AM for our group to complete a clean up without too much discomfort. We did a great job the last time out, picking up something like 22 bags worth. I have been monitoring the area since then, and so far it doesn’t look nearly that bad now. Still, we need to get  better attendance for this, so the same 6– 10 people don’t keep knocking themselves out every time. I would like to do a late August cleanup, and maybe a mid November clean up this year. That will fulfill the minimum requirements of the program, and help improve the environment, even if it is on such a small level.

       In nearby Pike County, approximately 7000 acres were auctioned off recently. A large portion of this land was the abandoned strip mine ground on the north side of CR 1200S near Spurgeon. If you have ever ridden at Spurgeon, you have most likely been on this very piece of land. An effort was made by a local outdoorsman to raise enough money to purchase the entire chunk as a whole, but it was too little too late to get anything done. The land was auctioned off in several tracts ranging from just under 100 acres, to over 1000 acres. It is a sad day to see prime outdoor recreational land split up like this, but the owner was well within his rights to do just that. I have heard rumors about a group of people buying a large parcel of this ground to open an OHV park. The details I got were sketchy at best, so I don’t know whether it is their intention to charge a user fee, or merely to keep It for their own private use.

       I have been hearing reports that Redbird has not seen the volume of riders this year that they were expecting. It is crucial for the future of this riding area that an adequate number of people use it. Without an adequate amount of money generated from user fees, it will be difficult to justify (to the State) keeping it open. If the State were to pull the plug on Redbird, not only would we lose that OHV area, we would also stand a strong chance of losing any possibility of creating a State owned multi-use area at Interlake.

       I propose that our club make a trip to Redbird in the near future. Last year, we went to LBL in September, and had a great time. This year, let’s go to Redbird in September and have just as much fun. It is at least as close for most of us, and much closer for some. Camping is available at Shakamak State park, a few short miles away from the riding area.  Personally, I am thinking Labor Day weekend would be a great time to hit the trails.

 

Remember, the first scratch is the only one that hurts! Get out on the trails!

            

Rich Reisz– President and Environmental Affairs Advisor