Take the time while its there

You have to take the time while its there. Fall is quickly fading away, my best friend in Cleveland has already made the official snow call, beats me to it every year. One of these years I'll get to make the first snow call... it might have to wait until I retire and move to Colorado, but one day it will be me (shake my fist!).
So I went road tripping with my girlfriend, her boyfriend, and her kids to Shawnee National Forest for some hiking.

It was a pretty day, if not gray and overcast. We did two trails, the Little Grand Canyon and the Paunnee Natural Bridge.

Thats me, near the bottom of the canyon. It was a pretty long and steep climb down, and I was one of the few who did not get wet (thanks Bobby at Cabelas for the hiking shoe advice last summer!!!).  The spring was not very active, but there were some pretty good pools of water along the way down.



Wild ivy growing on the canyon floor.




Thats me and my girlfriend at the top of the canyon, about 2 miles into the hike. It was only 3 a 3 mile loop, but climbing in and out of the canyon made it seem a lot longer.



Along the climb out of the canyon. You can see how slick it was with the water and wet leaves.



The natural bridge, from under it. It was a good 50-75 feet long, and a good 15-30 feet off the ground. Really cool. My friend has a photo of me on top of it, hope she emails it to me.

 We ended up checking out some wineries in southern Illinois, similar to the sweet stuff made in Missouri. Thank you, but I'll take Californian, French, or Italian any day. And because it wasn't a full day yet we headed into Carbondale for pizza at a little local pizza joint. All in all a fun day and what a way to make the most of the tailing end of fall.