My buddies from work Terry Wilmarth, Eric Bohm, 
Lee Baugh, Danielle (?), Sayantan Chakravorty, 
Chee Wai Lee, Layla, and I all hiked out to Clinton Lake,
a nearby park, on Sunday, May 16.

To get there, you head up I-74 toward Peoria, take a left 
at Farmer City, Illinois (0011), turn right at the grain silo
at Parnell, Illinois (0012), and proceed through the cornfields
(and oil derricks!) until you come down into a valley and cross
a bridge at 1693 E Swisher Hill (0013).  

The North Fork trailhead is south of the parking lot (0014).
We passed a land leach (0015) and zillions of snails on the 
trail.  After an abandoned cabin, heralded by its (hole-free!)
outhouse, look for a (manmade?) lake covered in horrifically 
green algal growth.  As we passed by, cotton fluff from the trees
was blowing by in a most scenic fashion (0016 and movie).

The lake itself is quite appealing (0019), although there are 
few opportunities to get near the water.  I was suprised by
the quantity of trees with burls (0020-0021); it's tough not 
to wonder about leaks from the nearby nuclear power plant (0025-0026),
whose electrical lines radiate out in all directions.
I'd never noticed how high-voltage lines occasionally crackle,
like a bug zapper; supposedly this phenomenon is related to 
sizzling pockets of water trapped in corroded parts of the wire.

Like many man-made lakes, there are a number of snaggy parts 
(0023), one of which looks distinctly ducklike (0024).
I was suprised at how quickly we'd eaten up 5 miles of trail,
with the bridge across the lake marking the halfway point
(0027), along with a boat launch (0028-0029).  

My favorite spot was a shady patch of grass right on the 
waterfront (0030-0039), with three decaying stumps just out 
of reach offshore.  As we continued on, we passed a large 
grassy area that shone like a savannah (0040-0041). 

The end of the trail is marked by the old Swisher Hill
steel bridge, which the sign (0042) claims is from 1898.
The bridge is substantial, made of riveted 1/4" steel
in a complex spaceframe arrangement (0043-0045), with 
a fresh coat of modern silver paint.

The trip back was the usual cornfields (0046).









