VR
Hike
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is FREE to download! Just click the "Get Quicktime"
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To
use the VR...
Simply move your mouse pointer
over the VR screen. Click your mouse button and hold it down
while moving left, right, up, or down. Use the controller located
at the bottom of the window to zoom in and out.
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River to River Trail : The
Hike through Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois...
a collection of piano solos.
Dedicated to the memory of my mother and grandmother
who gave me my love of music, nature, and all things beautiful.
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The River
to River Trail - From Battery Rock on
the Ohio River to Grand Tower on
the Mississippi:
The
River to River Trail spans 176 miles of the southernmost section
of Illinois from the Ohio River on the east to the Mississippi
on the west, which is predominantly the Shawnee National Forest.
The Trail wanders through the wilderness areas of Lusk Creek,
garden of the Gods, Panther’s Den, Crab Orchard, Clear
Springs, and Bald Knob, the state parks of Giant City and Ferne
Clyffe, and one city park called Devil’s Backbone.
Although Illinois is known for its heavily glaciated land yielding
some of the best (and flattest) farm land in the world, Southern
Illinois has not been glaciated and was shaped by faulting done
more than 250,000,000 years ago, before the Rockies or the Appalachians
were formed. Being centered so directly within the United States
and the various climate regions, Southern Illinois is a transition
zone for plants and animals, which results in there being representation
of both sides in one region. As a result, there are more plants
and animals represented in the Larue-Pine Hills national Natural
Landmark then there are in the entire Appalachian region. There
are wetlands with cypress trees, mountains (yes there are),
old growth forests with canopies and wonderful vistas, and the
history is amazing.
The region has passed through several colorful eras, but probably
the most amazing is the time of the westward expansion when
the pioneers from the east flooded into the new wilderness.
A family, escaping the Indian wars in the east landed near Devil’s
Backbone on the Mississippi. They were immediately set upon
by renegades, and the only one who was not killed was a twelve-year-old
boy who hid in a cave in the very top of the hill. In the years
that followed, he avenged his family by killing every member
of that reading party. That cave is right on the ADT.
Southern
Leg of the American Discovery Trail (ADT) In Illinois:
Following the American Discovery Trail in Illinois,
the entry into Illinois from Indiana is at New Haven, where
Daniel Boone’s brother had a mill. It travels down to the
River to River Trail near Battery Rock, featured in the film
How the West Was Won, then across the state to Devil’s
Backbone and up toward St. Louis via Fort De Chartes. They spent
$3,500,000 in 1750 to build a stone fort, while all others were
made of wood. This area was a breadbasket for New Orleans, for
it supplied food because France could not do so. The trail exits
Illinois at East Saint Louis into Missouri. Ironically, the
same stones used to build Fort De Chartes were stripped and
used to build the first bridge to span the Mississippi…Eads
Bridge.
Provided by: John O’Dell
Interested
in knowing more about the River to River Trail?
Take a look at their website: http://www.rivertorivertrail.com/home.html.
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