Even more camping!

Yep, even more camping. A few more relatively uneventful days in the woods. I stopped at the Trail of Tears State Park in MO for a night, then spent two nights in a shutdown campground at Lake of Egypt, Illinois.

Trail of Tears park sits at a site used as a crossing for the Cherokee's forced march to Oklahoma. There is a small memorial site here which people seem to come and place tribute items on. I saw a dreamcatcher and a staff with several items tied to it placed there.

The campsite is not as good as it looks on the map. Yes, it's next to the river, but at a boat landing, and with railroad tracks in-between. I got one sort of neat picture of a train at night as it blew by. There is a pretty regular flow of barges (you thought a coal train looked like a lot of stuff - a coal barge is really impressive!), and nearby dredging operation keeps the air filled with the hum of distant diesel engines. The surrounding woods are realy nice though - lots of bluffs, gullies and hillsides make for a pleasant walk in the woods. I biked all around the park and took a couple short hikes to the tops of some bluffs. That's a really big river!

The next day I was undecided where I wanted to stay and eventually settled on a "decomissioned" campground at Lake of Egypt in southern Illinois (savage Silukie territory!) The highlight for me here was finding a small downed cedar tree that was just right for making a smashing walking staff from. Tried fishing again in the nearby lake, but all I caught was a nap. At least this time I could see the bobber moving when the fish took my worms.

It is positively spooky out here in these woods by myself. Last night I got here just before sundown, so was pretty much totally unfamilar with what's outside a 20 yard radius of my camp. A distant tunderstorm was generating flashes of light, the wind rustling through the trees, and my mind was racing with all kinds of crazy scary stuff. I did note that most of it was learned stuff though - vampires, ghosts, Jason - I didn't make that stuff up on my own. Even the houselights I could see through the trees and across the lake did not help ease my nerves. I think it's this sort of experience that has generated all the ghost and monster stories over the ages. I think maybe it is just part of human nature to get spooked sometimes. It made me think of the forest animals like deer - where there really IS a monster out there waiting to get them. The stories they must tell! I don't blame them for running like crazy when they see us...