1. Steps: Battery Rock to Rock Creek
The beginning of the River to River Trail. My steps are quick and light in anticipation of what lies ahead. I fill a small bottle of water from the Ohio River to empty into the Mississippi River, a trail tradition. The trail takes me from a Civil War battle site over-looking the Ohio River to Rock Creek, home of Anna Bixby, who, with the help of a Shawnee woman, known as Auntie Shawnee, found the cause of the dreaded milk sickness that took many lives, including that of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln.

2. Heartbeat at High Knob
here, through difficult terrain, the trail had led me to this breaking spot in the wilderness. My heart races from the grade of the trail and simply from the view. A good spot to rest and enjoy the vista high above the forest. A friend was here once when migrating Monarch butterflies landed on their way to Mexico. I feel like I am on top of the world.

3. Angels' Dance at Garden of the Gods
Such wondrous beauty that I am in awe and muse how such a place could exist. This is the glorious spot we in Southern Illinois visit again and again, especially in fall. I remember here as a child with my mother and grandmother. While I longingly reflect on those memories, surrounded in beauty, the angels dance in this glorious garden.

4. Broken Wing at Lusk Creek
Perhaps the most beautiful area in Southern Illinois, seen only by hiking or riding a horse, the Lusk Creek Wilderness has been named a National Scenic Landmark. At Indian Kitchen overlook, nothing man-made is visible. Nature exists here largely undisturbed by man. Today, I sadly find a swallowtail butterfly with a broken wing. She will rest here; perhaps she’ll fly again.

5. Flight of the Thunderbird at Mill Stone Bluff
The remains of an ancient Indian village is off the trail but worth the hike and the ascent of the bluff where white men later quarried stones to grind their grain. I wonder, as I look down and out at the beautiful view, what happened to the people who lived here so long ago. In my dreaming, the giant Thunderbird in the petroglyph here takes flight before me. He soars effortlessly before me as I stand breathless in his presence.

6. Rain at Ghost Dance Canyon Trail: Dixon Springs
An incredible jumble of giant boulders piled upon each other as if thrown down by some giant playful hand. The water winds its way through in little rills, pools, and waterfalls to the bottom of the canyon. The Indians, from whose ritual dance it name derives, made weapons here. Today, the stone creek whispers of life long ago and the native people who lived here as the rain dances around me, dotting the leaves and the wildflowers.

7. Walk by Here: Ferne Clyffe
Here, the Trail passes briefly through the most well-known part of the park, but winds through areas most visitors never see. There are wondrous contrasts: the delicate ferns, the swift creek, and the wildflowers touched by the breeze among the grand cliffs. I stop for a while and then walk on.

8. Barred Owl at Panthers' Den
Deep solitude and in the dense forest we walk toward a barred owl resting in a pine tree. He examines us with a calm repose with as much interest and intensity as we examine him. After he has seen enough of us, he turns his head and flies off into the forest, swooping low, silently threading his way through the tangled branches.

9. Trail Magic at Rocky Comfort
Long distance hikers carry with them their favorite tales of “trail magic”, fortuitous things that have happened to them, often in times of need or despair, when they were tempted to give up. It might be as simple as someone to talk to or an offer of a meal. “Magic” comes in many different degrees to those who believe in it. The piece is for those who have experienced it and for those who may take the “steps” to place themselves in its way.

10. Shooting Stars on Trillium Trail: Giant City
A place protected, adored and explored by many. There were two sisters, Gladys and Ruth Dudley, who painted the wildflowers of Southern and Central Illinois from early life into old age. It was their dedicated dream that they would publish a book on wildflowers and publish and show that, “they are beautiful just where they grow.” While their works were never published in book form, the state of Illinois purchased their collection, and pieces of their works are on display at the Giant City Visitors Center. Another such person was a biologist at SIU, George Hazen French, who on may 6, in 1870 bicycled to Giant City and discovered a new and rare wildflower now known as French’s Shooting Star. Today they bed delicately in the wind surrounded by the bluffs on the Shawnee Forest. Ironically, the great chief of the Shawnee, Tecumseh, was also known as Shooting Star.

11. Mighty River: Tower Rock
Anticipation is keen for the first sighting of the Mississippi River. Conflicting emotions swirl through me, as the water swirls though the sand along the shore: relief that my journey is over but also sadness for it and joy at my accomplishment. I empty my Ohio River water into the Mississippi completing the journey, symbolizing my sense of personal triumph. I did it! I reflect on the grandeur of this father of rivers, the lives it has touched and the stories its churning currents carry with it.

12. Trails Never End: Devil's Backbone*
Here my hike comes ato an end, but the trail goes on as it becomes part of the American Discovery Trail. There will be another trail; another journey for one trail leads to another. Trails go on and on; they never really end.
*Richard McNeill - vocalist