Jim Edgar Panther Creek F&W Area

On May 18-20, 2012, I was lucky to enjoy some time with the folks from bwca.com with whom I share thoughts, ideas, and other graffiti on that bulletin board. AndySG set up a "Wing Night" camp out at Jim Edgar State Fish & Wildlife Area just northwest of Springfield IL. About 25 folks showed up to eat, talk, and enjoy a family style weekend campout. The park is on 16,500 acres of land that Commonwealth Edison bought in the 1960’s with the plan of building a coal fired power plant. A dam was built on Panther Creek and plans were made, but the locally available soft coal was outlawed in the early 70’s and so the land became a state park. There are two fairly large lakes and several different trails for hiking, biking, horses, ATVs, etc. There are a bunch of campgrounds with camp sites for all sorts of campers, from RVs all the way to primitive camping. I think JEPC is one of the bigger state parks in Illinois. On Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast, I found the Governors Trail and went for a hike. At first, I walked the wrong way and found myself on a treeless trail in the hot mid-day sun. After about ¾ miles, I turned around and went back down into the Panther Creek valley. I did about 4 miles. My pack weight was about 24-26 pounds which included 2 liters of water, 8 ounces of white gas, and two days’ worth of food. I had to use my Canon Power Shot A530 because I forgot to turn off the Bloggie HD camera on Friday night. So the resolution is not quite as good as other posts on the blog. Also, the camera is a battery hog, so I did not shoot as much video. I hope you enjoy watching as much as I enjoyed walking.