Dunes Heritage hike

this is the hike rescheduled from November 12, then March 18, then March 25!

meet near the washrooms at Chellberg Farm at 11 CT, 12 ET

this event will be sponsored jointly with Rick’s Hiking and Fun Group https://www.meetup.com/Ricks-Hiking-Fun-Group/ .

dear hiking friends–

today’s hike features a cross section of the history of the region during the 19th and early 20th centuries. we have taken this hike every year since 2002, except for 2020.

please check the weather before departure and have appropriate clothing and equipment [https://weather.com/weather/today/l/46301:4:US](https://weather.com/weather/today/l/46301:4:US) . bring along a lunch which we will eat on the trail, plus enough water (one quart minimum).

remember, this is a fee area–you must DISPLAY A PERMIT to park here–so before you come to the lot, make sure you study the rather Byzantine and non-user-friendly fee structure at the National Park website
https://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/fees.htm

i’m not sure how much they enforce this off season, or what the fines are, but be informed and beware.

i will pass a hat for a small donation to cover expenses: mostly, this is the cost of using the meetup website, but sometimes I need some dinero to pay for occasional gifts to neighbors who let us use their parking, prizes for contests. as long as i can cover this with people putting $2-3 in a can, i prefer not doing anything more binding or complicated.

this is a complex route, with lots of unexpected twists and turns–if you get ahead of me, make sure to stop whenever you come to a junction with another trail or road, or in any place where the trail is ambiguous or confusing. also, make sure you know where your car is parked.

i also encourage you all to take and post pictures to the site. if you don’t know how to post to the site, text pictures to me, and i will post them.

i’ve decided to tweak our route this year so that we hit all the points of historic interest first, and save the long walk across the prairie, over the river, and through the woods as an optional section at the end.

i had previously planned to change our starting point also, but decided that the trailhead i had hoped to use had inadequate parking.

we will gather near the restrooms off the parking lot, and wait till 12:20 ET for all to arrive. then we will turn right at the valley’s edge and walk a short distance till we come to the Chellberg Farm.

this is a preserved farmstead which was owned by Swedish immigrants to the region, and operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. depending on the NPS budget, there may or may not be animals in the farmyard and the barn.

after that, we will ascend a series of bridges and stairs up a streambed and across a road to the Bailly Family Cemetery. it is quite elaborate for a pioneer graveyard, with a stonework mound and a tall wooden cross, and has carved gravestones with passages from the Bible and the Apocrypha.

we will tarry there awhile, then walk south on the west leg of the Bailly-Chellberg trail till we come to the Bailly Homestead, with preserved buildings covering about a century of construction from the family of fur trapper-trader Joseph Bailly and his descendants.

we will look around for a while, and at this point, you may decide how much more you want to hike. if you go east, you will arrive back at the parking lot in 0.3 miles, for a total day’s hike of 1.8 miles.

if you go south, you will cross the Little Calumet river, ascend a hill, and come to the Little Calumet trail, which will take you across the Mnoke’ Prairie, back over the Little Cal, over a boardwalk and through the woods, and back to the parking lot by a much longer way for a total day’s hike of 4.4 miles.

we have traditionally ended this hike enjoying the Hoosier hospitality
of Wagner’s in Porter.

but sadly, i feel that the state of the Pandemic means it still isn’t safe to have a large group at an indoor restaurant in cold weather.

if someone else wants to organize a restaurant visit, go right ahead, but regretfully, i am not comfortable doing it myself.

hope to see you there,

Rick

directions:

from US 12, turn south on Mineral Springs rd; enter the parking lot marked “Chellberg Farm”; try to arrive by 12:00 ET; we will wait till 12:20, then depart on foot.

from US 20, turn north on Mineral Springs rd; enter the parking lot marked “Chellberg Farm”; try to arrive by 12:00 ET; we will wait till 12:20, then depart on foot.