Midewin - 8.15.10, Post 1

This was so very clearly not the world's most thought out trip ever.
The Chicago weather had, theoretically, broken.  We were out of the 90's and into the lower 80's... or so the weatherman said.  So I wanted to get out and shoot.  And I wanted to get out of the city.

I did a little Google roulette and decided to try the Midewin National Tallgrass Preserve.  It's in Willmington, IL, just south of Joliet, an area I was familiar with since I used to live down there about 10 years ago.

Long story short, during World War II, Korea and Vietnam the military had a munitions manufacturing plant in this area.  They made TNT, bombs, shells, the whole nine yards.  In 1970 they shut down the plant.  It took them 25 years to clean the land of the contaminants and in 1995 the land became the property of the National Forest Preserve and it was turned back into a proper Illinois prairie.

It's a very, very large prairie with several different distinct ecosystems - savannah, woodlands, wetlands, etc...  And you need to drive from one to get to another.  It's very, very big.

Anyway...

Problem The First:  My cursory glance of the website did not reveal that the welcome center is not open at all on Sundays.  Guess when I went.  Of course.  But there was this nice little literature holder with a map of the park and some phone numbers.  I see one that says "After Hours" and call it to see if I can still hike even if the welcome center is closed and to see if there's a place to park, since the gate to the main parking lot was locked.  I called and got a machine.  I hung up, figuring that there was no one there.

So as I continue looking over the info I notice that it actually says, "Emergency and After Hours".  Oops.  I've hung up on an emergency number.  I really do know better than that.  So someone called back to make sure everything was okay and I apologized for being stupid and he told me that I could still hike and where I could park.  He was very nice in the face my huge Oops.

Problem The Second: The weatherman lied.  Hugely.  When I got back to my car after my hike it said it was 92 degrees.  I'd gone through all the water and Gatoraid in my bag and eaten all my pickles (I like to pack pickles with my lunch - they add water and salt :) by the time I got back.  Good thing I keep a gallon of drinking water in my car in the summer!  This is not the kind of place where you can just nip over to the nearest 7-11 and grab something.  There's a porta-potty in the parking lot.  That's the only 'convenience' outside of the (closed) welcome center.  In fact, you're so far out that each trailhead has sign in book so people will know you're out there.  In my 8 hours out there, I saw one couple on horseback and one guy on a bike.  That was it for the day.  (On the flip side, I did have a cell phone signal the whole time (except for IN the bunker) so I wasn't too freaked out about being in the great unknowns on my own.

Problem The Third: After having survived almost 38 years without ever getting a tick in my life, I saw the "Tick Area" signs and went, "Okay, note to self, brush off bugs."  And then continued to hike around in my shorts and t-shirt.  Yeah, I was all the way home when I realized I had a tick in the middle of my right calf.  I didn't feel a thing, so it's a very good thing that this little monster was somewhere where it was easily seen.  Anyway, this thing caused huge amounts of drama.  I called the E.R. and said, "I have a tick, I can't get it out."  They had me call my doctor, who of course, wasn't in on 6:30 at night on a Sunday.  So her service called her, she called me and the long and the short of it was I had to go to the E.R. to have it removed.

I hate anything that goes through my skin.  Needles, pins, BUGS!  So this thing had me pretty freaked out.  The nurse was great though and got it out completely painlessly.

But here's the part that sucks.  I'm on antibiotics for two weeks to make sure I don't get Lyme Disease.  I've read enough on Lyme Disease to know that I never, ever want to get it.  But wow, these drugs are no picnic either.  Both the E.R. doc and my doc insist that this one is the best one for the job, but my body really hates it.

So, you know... if you see Tick Area signs, take them very, very seriously.  Wear long sleeves and long pants, tuck your pants into your socks, the whole nine yards.

I have never been so grateful that I wear a bandana over my head almost every time I shoot.  I really don't want to think about one of those little blood-suckers being lost in my hair where I wouldn't be able to see it.

Problem the Fourth: If I did want to go back, it would be further into the fall, when it's cooler and the flora will have changed. Unfortunately, Midewin is also a hunting ground.  In the fall it's apparently deer season (Spring is turkey season - that said I didn't see one turkey or deer all day).  A.) I don't want to see people hunting deer.  I certainly don't want to see them succeed.  B.) I'm sure the park has it sorted, but I'm not entirely sure that I want to be hiking in the general vicinity of people shooting guns.

So!  Anyway, I spent the day out there doing a five mile trip around the Bunker Group 63 Loop.

While the munitions plant is gone, and obviously, so is anything that might blow up, the storage bunkers are still there.  Row after row after row of these things.

Throughout the grounds there are a few open ones.  They have signs on them that they can be used as inclement weather shelters.  I used one as a place to stop and eat lunch. :)  They aren't ridiculously huge, but they are smooth concrete.  The echoes in these things was amazing.  Just unzipping my bag made enough noise to echo for five or six seconds.

 Unless you're a huge insect fan, this place - at least the section I explored - was kind of a wash.  Lots and lots and lots of bugs (I got attacked by a swarm of - wait for it - butterflies!)  But other than the cows used to maintain the prairie (and kept behind barbed-wire away from the hiking paths), I didn't see a mammal all day.  But like I said, there was an insane number of insects.  Here's a little red ant on a Queen Anne's Lace.

[Ant's Anne Lace]

 Here's a bee on a milkweed plant.  I like how you can see, so clearly, the stripes on his abdomen.

[Milkweed Bee]

 The place is butterfly central.  If you want a place to catch 'flutterbies' in their natural environment, this totally is your place.  I this case a female black swallowtail feeds from a bull thistle.

[Floating Female Swallowtail]

 The prairie was pretty dry, so where there were ruts in the road, water tended to collect.  Around these little watering holes would be hundreds of butterflies.  These are Clouded Yellows.  With their wings open, they were maybe two inches tip to tip.  Very tiny.  And there were huge flocks of them all over the prairie.
[Clouded Yellow Butterflys Get Together for a Drink]

 I'm fairly sure this is an Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly (though I found that name on a Wisconsin butterflies site - but I don't think Butterflies get caught up in the cheddar curtain or anything, so...).

Anyway, what I love about this shot is that not only is the little 1 inch butterfly a beautiful purple, so is his shadow!

[Me and My Purple Shadow]

 The Buckeye Butterflies were very calm and tended to land in the middle of the paths.


[Basking Buckeye]






Okay, that's post one.  More from this hike tomorrow. :)