Seg #33 Tunnel Hill State Trail Illinosis Continued

Seg #10/33 Cont’d Tunnel Hill Trl Muddy-Karnak,Il: N Half 10/26/12; S half 10/28-29/2013

End	Karnak, IL	N37.29581 W88.708763	N-S miles 34.2
Start	Muddy, IL	N 37.78705 W88.500538	Trl lgth48.7mi Ride56.2mi

Ride hr 5:19

AVS 9.8

MXS  mph 14

DST 56.2

T 46-55

Kcal 4100

Linda (L) Connie's super friend they were
the first Med Tech graduates  of U of Iowa

Last year at this same time (late October), I ran out of ATP aka as physologic energy and wasn’t able to complete the Tunnel Hill Trail from Stonefort to Karnak. So this year, like last year, after dropping Connie off at her friend Linda’s house in Petersburg, Illinois, I headed south for an additional two hundred forty miles, to ride the southern half of one the nicer trails in the Midwest---the Tunnel Hill Trail. This trail is nearly in Kentucky so getting to tunnel adds quite a few miles on the car. I am guessing this season I have driven somewhere around eight thousand miles to ride trails in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Arkansas, and Kansas.

Since it was such a jaunt to get to the Tunnel Hill Trail, I decided I would start riding at the tunnel itself while the weather was clear and it was getting late in the afternoon. In addition, rain was forecast for the second riding day so pictures on the trail were best taken the first day. There is a little town named Tunnel Hill, IL with a nice trail head near the tunnel. This is where I first began my Tunnel Hill Trail travels for 2013. Trail literature and guide books advise bike riders to tote a flashlight when going through the tunnel. Although I had a headlight, it was not needed since the tunnel was only 543 feet long. I did however follow the advice of not peddling through the tunnel. One can become disorientated with the tunnel walls whizzing past and end-up in a skinned-up heap. At times I have become a little dizzy riding past trestle fencing on a long bridge but nothing as treacherous as driving at night through a construction site lined with reflectorized safety barrels. The strobe-effect of safety barrels causes me big time wooziness, especially with a huge truck aiming bright lights at my tail feathers.  

 

Maze brothers Chris(L) Geoff(R) before entering
the Silver Comet Trail tunnel  4_1_12.
 lights illuminate this longer tunnel

Tunnel Hill Tunnel approach looks similar to
to the 300 ft longer Brushy Mt. tunnel above

The entrance to the tunnel the trail is named after (Tunnel Hill State Trail) looks much like the Brushy Mountain Tunnel entrance on the Silver Comet Trail (segment #1), only the Silver Comet tunnel is longer (800 feet) and is lit day and night. I did ride too fast through the Brushy Mountain Tunnel and nearly lost control. So when riding into to the tunnel, I slowed down and eventually walked the bike.

After the tunnel I rode south for over two miles and then back through the tunnel and to the trail head. I had a couple more hours of light, so I rode north to Burnside and back. That amounted to nearly eighteen miles of riding and eight miles of latitude for the first day. Some Good Samaritan left me a million dollar bill on my car window while I was riding to Burnside. Too bad it wasn’t realL. Burnside was a Union Army officer who greatest claim to fame was having the facial growth, Side Burns, named after him. I then drove to Vienna (pronounced Vigh en a) and got a crash pad in the only motel in town. After a hearty Egg McMuffin breakfast, I rode to Vienna trail head and headed north to overlap my ride from the previous day and to eventually ride to the south end of the trail at Karnak, IL. I needed my rain gear three hours of the second day. It didn’t rain hard enough to soften the trail like it did when I rode the north half of the trail the previous year (see post Seg #10). It feels good to have nearly all the northern latitudes completed. Two more trails and I will have the upper half of the trails only traverse of America completed. J



Prince Charles :-) Actually there were six of
these goats in a pen next to the trail. I could
not resist the opportunity to snap a picture.
By the way Prince Charles is a goat!

Princess Diana's wedding dress
24 ft train

On the way back home, we became aware of Princess Diana dress exhibit at the Putman Museum in Davenport Iowa. Since it was on our the way home and I was tired from driving in the rain. Diana, A Celebration is an exhibition that includes 150 objects, ranging from Princess Diana's royal wedding gown and 28 of her designer dresses to family heirlooms, personal mementos, paintings and rare home movies and photographs. I was struck by the 24 foot wedding gown train, the lack of wear on the heal of her wedding shoes and the hundreds if not thousands of bound volumes convalescences. It was quite moving to hear Elton John singing in the background Candle in the Wind.