Section Eight Woods - Cache River Basin

"Cache River State Natural Area is situated in southernmost Illinois within a floodplain carved long ago by glacial floodwater of the Ohio River. When the Ohio River adopted its present course, it left the Cache River to meander across rich and vast wetlands. Among the outstanding natural features are massive cypress trees whose flared bases, called buttresses, exceed 40 feet circumference. Many are more than 1,000 years old, including one that has earned the title of state champion bald cypress because of its huge trunk girth, towering height and heavily branched canopy."  That tree can be viewed quite closely while walking the new boardwalk at Section Eight Woods.

The boardwalk, damaged by flooding in both 2008 and 2011, with as much as eight feet of excess water rising and breaking the wooden walk and leaving behind extensive damage.  In 2012, it was reopened by fundraising and volunteer work by the IDNR, Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, Friends of the Cache, and Southern Illinois Audubon Society last year was completed with financial support from those partners and the “Wetland Warriors” at Creal Springs School.  We had never been to Section Eight, despite having been to, and loved, Heron Pond, which is part of the same river basin.

Over the last 100 years, 230,000 acres, more than half of the former wetlands in the Cache watershed have been lost to land-clearing and drainage projects.  The Post Creek cut-off, completed in 1916, was especially damaging to the wetlands because it diverted the upper segment of the Cache River directly into the Ohio River and isolated 40 miles of the shallow lower channel.  After World War II, the forests of southern Illinois began to disappear at an alarming rate; followed by a 10 year period between the 1960s and the1970s, where thousands of acres of floodplain forest in the Cache watershed were cleared, drained, and converted to agriculture.  With the loss of habitat, increased
sedimentation, and large scale fish kills it became clear that the health of the Cache River Wetlands was in critical condition. As a result, local citizens organized the Citizens Committee to Save the Cache to protect what remained of the Cache River Wetlands. By 1990, this citizen-based conservation effort received a significant boost with the establishment of the Refuge and the Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture. Today, through cooperative conservation, the tide of wetland
destruction is being reversed.  There's a whole lot more to the Basin than the few places we have been, which leaves lots of room for more adventures down South.

We were taking one of the Harley's down to Paducah for a cruise when Kevin unexpectedly pulled over at the entrance to Section Eight.  Unlike Heron Pond, which is far from the beaten path, Section Eight is right off the main road.  If you aren't watching for it though, you may miss it.  The parking area is small, and it's easier to see going one way over the other.

The boardwalk is nice, it's clean and wide, although we actually only met one other group of three, who entered as we were leaving.  It's pretty, and it's peaceful.  Not nearly as long a boardwalk as Heron Pond, you can meander in and out in 15 minutes or so, and that's taking your time.  But if your out there for bird or critter watching, or nature photography, you could conceivably spend some quality time uninterrupted.

How to get there:

Follow 37, Section Eight is just past Cypress Grove.

N 37° 18.195 W 089° 01.293

Wisewell's Christmas Tree Farm

When we moved here, we didn't have a Christmas tree, so our first five years we went to Wisewell's every year and picked out a live one.  It was our family tradition.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, we'd head out in the truck, dress warm, and make the short drive to the Christmas Tree Farm.

We actually bought a big pre-lit tree on sale a few years ago, and hadn't been to Wisewell's in a while, but the last few years I've been saying we need to go out and get a live wreath if not a tree.  So my parents came to West Frankfort for a visit, and have never been to a Christmas tree farm, and we were decorating our tree that day anyway, so what a perfect excise for a visit!

We started out in the "Trim A Tree Shop."  In years past you bought your wreaths and trimmings here.  Unfortunately they aren't selling wreaths this year, so we just looked around the shop a little bit.  It seemed a little more sparse than in years past as well, but it is still early in the season, they'd only been open one day when we went there.  The trimmings they have, though, are beautiful.  All glass ornaments drawers full of pretty things.

So since Grandma and PaPa hadn't been to a farm before, we thought it would be a nice idea to take the tractor into the field. I actually wasn't sure we'd be allowed, since we weren't planning on purchasing a tree, but our son asked the tractor driver and he told him to climb on up, so we did.  To me,t his is the best part.  Wisewell's has several fields they grow scotch pine, white pine, and frasier trees in, which they rotate year to year, so the same fields are not over harvested and everything has a change to get nice and big.  

Maybe they knew once we went out afield we'd end up bringing something back, I don't know.  But we ended up finding the perfect little scraggly Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and just couldn't leave without it.  So we flagged down the 4-wheelers that drive around with the chain saws and cut it down.  It took like 10 seconds. HaHa.

If you don't want to traipse around in the field (but, really, who doesn't?) they also have a really nice selection of pre-cut trees in between the two barns.  If you like flocking (the white snow stuff) on your trees, you can get your's flocked or go into the big blue barn and pick one out which has already been treated.

So after we picked our tree you hitch a ride back to the barn and get your tree 'shook' on a neat little contraption that reminds me of those weight loss shaking machines from the 50's.  They take your tree in and mark the price, and you go back into the Trim A Tree shop and pay.  They must have taken pity on our little tree, because the price is $8.00 per foot, and we got our tree for $15.00, and I know it's more than two feet tall.  It is also $5.00 for the ride into the field, but it's per family, not per person, so our family of 6 rode for five bucks.

Word got around inside the shop that we had a funny little scraggly tree, so the younger girls working in the shop had to come out and laugh with us.  They kept saying how much they loved it.  And that's why I like coming here, it doesn't matter if you want the fullest most beautiful tree in the field (which we have had) or the littlest one you can find, there's something for everyone.  Most people were having the employees help strap their pickings to the roof.....we got a little more creative.

Now, you SHOULD keep your tree in water filled stands, which you can buy at the farm.  But, in holding to Charlie Brown tradition, we cut some wood slats, and decorated sparingly.

I LOVE our tree, and we love Wisewell's. :)

Wisewell's Christmas Tree Farm
Snow white flock trees, Scotch Pine, White pine. Fraser.
Sun, Thurs & Fri 12-5
Sat 10-5.
Closed Mon, Tues & Wed.
Fields open Sat & Sun.

14779 Christmas Tree rd,
Herrin, IL

618) 983-5114

How to get there:
Take I-57 tot he Johnston City exit (59) and turn West.  Go two miles and you will see w big white sign for the Farm.  Turn left onto Christmas Tree road.  It's about 1/2 mile down on the right.

Heron Pond

We were navigated to Heron Pond by Connie, of Connie's Vienna Hot Dogs. This was really far out there, it took a while to get to and was way off the beaten path. To get to the pond you have to travel off the main road and down a one lane gravel road, and hope you don't meet another car on your way. I thought certainly we would be the only ones, but surprisingly there was at least 8 other cars in the parking lot. We had several options of paths to go on, we took the Heron Pond path, and walked about a mile to the pond.

 It was so beautiful the whole way, and we kept seeing patched or purple seek through the green forest...this was the cypress trees and swamp we were looking at. e finally came up on it, and it just comes out of nowhere. You walk down a dock for about a quarter mile into the swamp among the Cypress trees. I had never seen them before, some of which are the oldest trees in Illinois, over 1000 years old, and these are all located in the Cache River area. if you come back out of the swamp, and take the trail further down, you come to one of the largest trees in Illinois. It has a base of over 25 feet. you can keep going down the trail for like another 5 miles, but having a three year old we turned back there. It was exceptionally beautiful, and Id love to see it in the springtime as well as in fall. If you like things unexpected off the beaten path this is definitely a good place to visit.

From Vienna at jct. Hwys. 45 & 146, take Hwy. 45 south 5 miles to Belknap Road, then go west 1.5 miles to gravel road, then turn and go north 0.5 mile

For Further Information Contact: Site Superintendent or Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Natural Heritage Biologist, Ferne Clyffe State Park, P.O. Box 67, Goreville, IL 62939 (618/995-2568)