Back in May of 2019 I ventured out to the Tunnel Hill Trail in Southern Illinois, riding from the town of Vienna (say "Vy-Enna") to the Egyptologivally named town of Karnak. This was a beautiful ride, including woodlands, wetlands, and a couple of tiny little settlements across a 21-mile round trip. There were also a couple of side-trips that I didn’t take - Heron Pond, a little Winery, and a Wetland Center - and are on my list for when the opportunity presents again.
Still, the thing the trip to Karnak and back lacks, as lovely as it was, is the tunnel that the trail is named for. I still wanted to see that, and I had another opportunity to be down that way towards the end of last October.
Both trips to the Tunnel Hill Trail were end of the day affairs, but their location on the calendar made for some differences in terms of available daylight. I knew I’d be riding against the sunset, but I reasoned that I had lights on the trike and, if could get _to_ the Tunnel in the daylight and get an opportunity to see some of the rock formations I’ve seen in pictures, I wouldn't mind riding back in the dark.
The Norns clearly detected my urgency on the way to Vienna, and decided to have a laugh at my expense by putting road construction along the way that had not been there in May. Sitting still in a line of traffic on a two-lane road knowing you are racing against the sun and are otherwise 10-15 minutes or less from your destination is its own exquisite type of torture. Still, I took deep breaths and waited semi-patiently. Eventually the road opened up and I was on my way.
...Until the next construction zone. I’m pretty sure this happened approximately 723 times on my way to the trailhead.
But once I got there, I got the trike unloaded, and everything started out fine...
I had not researched ahead of time exactly how far from the trailhead the Tunnel was - it didn’t really matter, because I was going to ride to it regardless - but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the 9.3 mile indicator on the sign didn’t concern me a bit - I routinely ride further distances, but the trail is soft material - ranging from crushed stone to, at times, frankly just dirt, which always tends to be slow going. Still, as I’ve told my child on multiple occasions, if you wait for the perfect day, the thing will never happen. Besides, either way, I wanted to ride, so I rode on.
The first half mile or so this way is reminiscent of the ride to Karnak, including the very cool retention of the old railroad bridges. This is a taste of how it all starts out:
But while the trail starts out similar in this direction, it did start to hint at the rocky nature promised at by the pictures I’d seen fairly early on:
And rolling on, I was pleasantly surprised to start to hit the rock wall sides I was hoping before while there were still some vestiges of daylight:
Riding with the rock walls on either side provides a very different feel from my usual experience of being on the open road. It’s very cool, but did have me beginning to imagine myself traveling through a medieval world, watching for ambushing archers above... but that’s probably just me.
What the rock walls also meant, however, was that the available daylight was rapidly occluded. For a brief period of time I needed my light to see even though I could see blue sky above:
It was an interesting effect - I’ve seen it before, traveling out west, when mountains interpose between you and the sun later in the day. I can’t say I’ve ever seen it in Illinois, but here we were.
It was also brief. Though I wasnt able to see the sun go down, it clearly departed. Now it was dark overhead as well as in front of me. But at this point I figured I had gone this far, and that I might as well keep going till I got to the Tunnel itself.
It emerged from the shadows in a fashion that was, well, surreal at least.
As it broke from the shadows it occurred to me - perhaps not for the first time - that we were just two days away from Halloween.
Of course, it would have been a little creepy anyway, and somehow riding into the dark of a tunnel is still a little unsettling even when the area outside of it is also pitch black.
But I went thru anyway. Honestly, the fact that it creeped me out made me feel like I needed to go thru it. Besides - I’d come this far, hadn’t I? So I went thru, and then turned around and came back thru the other way:
It really was just as dark coming out of it as it was inside. I live in a pretty rural area at home as well, but on the prairie you can see the open sky. Here, between the trees and the rock walls there was nothing. It was a different experience to be sure.
I can’t recommend waiting until the end of the day to tackle Tunnel Hill Trail. My time in southern Illinois was very limited - I was headed for home the following morning, and I wasn’t sure when the chance would present again - so I didn’t want to let the opportunity pass. But I definitely hope I get the chance to do it again in the daylight.