Sunday, August 14th 2011

On this, my first morning on the road I was up at 6:00 with my whole wheat banana bread, coffee and laptop. After my usual stint of webwork I had a bowl of cereal, organized my stuff for the day and was out the door at 10:30. Not exactly and early start, but there is still plenty of daylight this time of year.

I then loaded up the van with cheap gas and was on my way north out of town.


View Havana to Manito to Havana in Google Maps

Click on the photos below for a larger image.

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Just north of Havana CR 20 there is a viaduct which cross 4 sets of train tracks. Adjacent to the tracks was a large trough carved out of the sand and gravel, obviously with this machine. It is hard to make it out but it has a big rotary cutting head and is mounted on a track. Any have any ideas about this machine?

JB sez: "It is a Bucket-wheel excavator".

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The terrain here in this part of Illinois is rolling and not quite flat. I saw many more square miles of corn and soybeans where once was prairie.

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This corn was getting mighty crispy and the irrigation rig behind it was rusty and disused. I did see quite few irrigation rigs running and they are set up all over.

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This is the kind of soil they are trying to keep corn growing in.

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I can't imagine the amount of water it must take to keep this sandy soil moist and the corn growing.

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This is what grows naturally along the edges of the roads and corn fields - cactus. It might be Opuntia humifusa the Eastern prickly pear cactus. As shown by the distribution map below this cactus is widespread throughout Illinois.

Eastern prickly pear cactus in Illinois

Fifteen thousand years ago the flood waters of the last glaciation period receded down the Illinois River valley leaving a vast deposit of sand near Pekin to down past Beardstown and as far west as San Jose. A subsequent period of extreme dryness and warmth invited plants and animals of the southwestern states to extend their range. Shifting winds sculpted 100 foot high sand dunes evident today as the now wooded ridges for which the forest is named.

Source: Illinois DNR

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The first small town I passed through was Forest City which is dominated by grain bins. Apparently they like to "rock them" - whatever that means. I think it has something to do with drinking, smoking and noisy motorcycles.

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Rock on!!

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Apparently these folks heard I was coming through town.

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Typical scenery on this look about. The weather was perfect - bright sun, low humidity and a steady breeze.

At this point I continued on north to Manito (home of the popcorn festival), got directions to the trail areas for Sand Ridge State Forest and then started looking for them. My plan was to go for a much needed hike through the woods and see what I could see. But, I found no foot trails only horse and ORV trails. And, in spite of following the sign for miles I missed the State Forest HQ, which, on a Sunday morning was probably closed anyway. At one point I did pull off into what looked like a trail head parking lot. There were pit toilets and a kiosk warning of ticks and such. I saw no sign of a foot path, only a horse trail across the road.

For those who think central Illinois is one big corn field, Sand Ridge State Forest will come as a very pleasant surprise. The forest is an island in a sea of agriculture. Just minutes southwest of Peoria, this 7,200-acre, the largest of Illinois' State Forests, boasts sweeping expanses of native oak-hickory, extensive plantations of pine, sprawling open fields, grasslands, and completely unique sand prairies. For a refreshing, invigorating taste of unspoiled nature and an opportunity to experience truly unique environment, Sand Ridge State Forest is ideal.

The area is the result of a prehistoric dry period when more desert-like conditions existed. Today it remains one of the few places in Illinois that supports an intriguing variety of plants and animals more associated with the southwest than the midwest. Those include badger, silvery bladderpod, pocket gopher and prickly pear cactus to name a few.

Source: Illinois DNR

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Scenes like this reminded me of past trips through Wisconsin and Michigan.

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Here we are in Goofy Ridge Illinois. I am sure just about anyone who saw the name of this place on a map might ask: "Where did they get a name like that?!" This may explain how:

The settlement was originally just called "the Ridge" until an infamous incident changed the name forever. Legend has it that a game warden and his buddies had been heavily imbibing the local brew when he bet his friend that he could shoot a walnut off the top of his friend's head with a .22 rifle.
The friend was drunk enough to allow him to place a walnut on his head and they both swayed back and forth as the game warden took aim with his rifle swaying in the process himself and fired splitting the walnut in two. A newspaper writer wrote about this story in the Peoria paper and said that this action was, "one damned goofy thing to do " and the name stuck and it has been called Goofy Ridge ever since.

Source: Bob Dennison- Associate Professor of Earth Science, Heartland Community College

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At the corner of "Main Street" and the county highway is what looks like motel. Apparently this was someone's attempt to capitalize on the equestrian tourism trade. It is now plastered with "No trespassing signs but the doors of the rooms say "for rent".

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I then took a drive down the Main street of Goofy Ridge. It was lined with all manner of ramshackle hovels. The photo above depicts one of the more lavish ones.
One thing I noticed which was out of character for this kind of place was the absence of pile of debris and trash which usually adorn such abodes.

When we first drove down the narrow streets of Goofy Ridge, my two native Nigerian students were amazed that a place like this existed in the United States. Another student observed that the area looked like a big garage sale with junk in everyone's yard. Sand Ridge State Forest Superintendent, Billy Lowe, had informed us that the previous year he had been inside a home in Goofy Ridge in which there were no panes of glass in the windows but they were covered with blankets and the house had a dirt floor.
He did not know how they kept warm in the cold winter months. One of the local sportsman's bar, The Mallard Club, also supposedly had only dirt floors in one back section of it. The area is an example of extreme rural poverty seen only in other places like Appalachia in the United States and in lesser developed countries in the world.
Some residents, however, are seasonal staying only there for as long as it is fit to fish. Retired Caterpillar Tractor employees also call Goofy Ridge home. Many of the residents of Goofy Ridge rely heavily on the fish they catch and the local wildlife such as deer or waterfowl for a major portion of their food. Fortunately for them there is an abundance of wildlife within a few miles of the settlement.

Source: Bob Dennison- Associate Professor of Earth Science, Heartland Community College

Unbeknownst to me the Main Street of Goofy Ridge serves as an access point to Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge.
I parked, grabbed my camera and headed over to the access road which dropped down off the ridge.

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This ball cap was stuck in the window of one of the cars parked in the Refuge parking lot.

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This was the view which opened up as I walked down the access road.

In the 1920s the (refuge) area was diked, drained, and converted for agricultural production. However, in only two years, the Illinois River reclaimed the land. As nearby agricultural development and barge traffic increased, river silt was deposited in tranquil backwater areas like Lake Chautauqua. Aquatic plants, which provide food for waterfowl and other wildlife, were smothered. With the purchase of the Chautauqua Drainage and Levee District in 1936, Lake Chautauqua became a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Today, Chautauqua Refuge provides refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds, fish, and other wildlife.

The refuge is comprised of 4,388 acres of land and water. Lake Chautauqua impounds 3,200 acres of water, while another 800 acres of water and timbered bottomland are located outside of the pooled area. The remaining acreage is composed of upland and forest. A variety of wildlife habitat types are found within the refuge boundary. The refuge is bounded on the west by the Illinois River and its associated mixed bottomland and hardwood forests, buttonbush-willow swamps, and sedge marshes. Adjacent on the north and south ends are shallow floodplain lakes, similar to Lake Chautauqua, but without water level control structures.

Source: Chautauqua NWR

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The blue skies, big puffy clouds and sweeping vistas were a feast for the eyes

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Waaaaay in the distance you an see a hint of white - that is thousands of White Pelicans.

American White Pelican

Photo source: WikiPedia

I wandered around for a bit chatted with some folks from Denmark and then headed back down the road. It was an interesting area, but the bird life was way off and a spotting scope would have been needed to see anything clearly.   Click for larger image

This is The Mallard Club, the local duck hunters hang-out. It is at the end of Main Street in Goofy Ridge.

I headed on down the road now going west toward the Illinois River. At one point I started noticing a smell. Soon, this turned to a stench. I followed my nose and ended up in another NWR parking area. I walked down the road to the water. Soon, the stench was nearly over whelming.

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And, this is why - 10s of thousands of dead and dying Asian carp.

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I had never seen, or smelled, anything quite like this.

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The reason for this die off? A management tool to try to control the carp and allow native fish to thrive. I was told by a fellow I met 90% of the fish in the refuge were now carp.

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The smell was gut wrenching and sickening and the stench was so overwhelming it took all the effort I could muster not blow my cookies.

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CORRECTION:
According to Sleeze, John and Rod, this is a Gar, not a Paddlefish.

This Paddlefish was a unfortunate victim of this kill off. They are not considered common and I had never seen one before.

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All the dead fish had made their way down the channel which led to the sump. This barricade was an attempt to keep the fish out of the sump and not clog it.

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Apparently, this did not work.

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Here you see the entire shoreline is dead fish. Out in the open water there were huge drifts of dead fish. This made the mile long walk back to the car a gut wrenching experience. Ugh...

It was a relief to get back into the van and let the fresh air fill my lungs! I drove on back to Havana. It was now 3:30 and it was quite toasty out. I retreated to the relative coolness of my hotel room where I cracked a beer and went through the day's photos. I selected the ones I wanted use, did the sorting and resizing and then uploaded the 127 megbytes worth on the the sloow connection here.

I then chilled for a while and watched the last half hour of "Legally Blonde".

Legally Blonde

Then, I packed a couple of burgers and some beers and headed down to the Illinois River where I sat on a bench in the evening sun and had my dinner.
Afterwards I drove around some of the nicely treed and brick streets of Havana accomanied by the sounds of Night Hawks as they dove and "boomed".

By now, it was 8:00pm and I was winding down. So it was back to the room and more TV - this time it was one of my all time favorite movies, Blade Runner.

Blade Runner

Good night, Pris...

 

FINIS