After investigating the Twin Sisters, we found a little used trail that followed the foot of the bluffs running parallel to the Mississippi River. While a few hundred feet away from the river, we were still in view of it the entire time.
These trails have been used since the Native Americans used them. Some were improved by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the 1930's, and this one seems as though it hasn't been touched since then. Hardly recognizable as a trail in some places, it's obviously not used too often - it's March and I walked into numerous spider webs, so I was the first person to walk here since September perhaps.
The narrow trail was cut on the slope of the hill at the foot of the bluff, right in the center, and at times there was little level ground beneath our feet. We noticed evidence of a trail every so often, a board here or a post and rail there, but nothing really until we encountered a rotten foot bridge across a gully.
Every so often we could spot fossils in the bluffs, and we'd stop to investigate for a while. We also found a few small caves with some interesting local history connected to them. One in particular we heard about, and just had to keep hiking until we found it. Almost all the way back to the town of Savanna, IL, we finally found and explored the cave called Upton's Cave. A bit about that soon.
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