Current Issue

Feature > Events/Trail Rides

February 2005 Issue

Illinois Safari

Great Off-Road Adventures In Illinois

story by David Christensen and Allen Merritt
photos by Synthia B. Miller and Allen Merritt

For years, we’ve heard there’s good four-wheeling in Illinois, but we never believed it. We’ve zipped across the Land of Lincoln on Interstates, north to south, east to west, and never imagined any better wheeling aside from mudding through endless cornfields.

Fortunately, wheeling friends from Chicago and Wisconsin convinced us to attend the Illinois 4x4 Safari in Pittsfield. We searched a map and found Pittsfield near the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. 54, about an hour west of Springfield.

The peninsula between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers looks like a gentler version of the Ozarks, but with much richer cropland. The rolling hills and valleys have an elevation difference of about 300 feet, with a 50/50 mix of forest and crops. Nutritious crops and lush forest make Pike County, Illinois, the top whitetail-deer harvest county in the country. The observant will note the abundance of deer, turkeys, and other upland game and understand why sportsmen lease hunting rights on the farms.

While hunting brings much revenue into Pike County’s economy, off-roading activities bring in another half-million dollars annually. Hunters use the trails developed by the off-road community. And during the prime hunting season, off-roaders reduce their activities. Between ranching, farming, lumbering, hunting, and wheeling, this is a model for multiple use of the land.

Pittsfield, population 4,300 and county seat of Pike County, is a cross between Tom Sawyer’s nearby Hannibal, Missouri, and the Pennsylvania Amish country. The local Wal-Mart even has a hitching post for Amish horses and buggies.

Local property owners rely on and enjoy using ATVs and 4x4s to work their farms and transport hunters to shooting platforms. Several Pike County landowners formed Two Rivers Jeep Club, and they wheeled on each other’s farms. The club grew to 16 landowners, and many Jeep owners from surrounding states joined the club.

Out-of-town wheelers spend several weekends a year performing trail maintenance and other farm labor for the privilege of wheeling on the property. Additionally, the club hosts two events a year, which are open to up to 500 nonmembers in any street-legal 4x4 that meets the club’s safety requirements. The whole community benefits from and genuinely welcomes hunters and off-road enthusiasts. Since all the motels and campgrounds are booked during hunting season and 4x4 events, many homeowners open spare rooms to visitors. Farmers allow guests to camp on site.

Off-Road Adventurers Add Much to Community Life

In the past five years, the Two Rivers Jeep Club has raised between $15,000 and $25,000 per year for deserving Pike County organizations, and last year’s donations topped $30,000. Off-road adventurers do much more than just bring revenue into the community. The Club has sponsored and staffed a number of Awareness Classes based on the United Four Wheel Drive’s course. This year, the club developed its own Advanced Recovery and Rescue course, in which paramedics and an Air-Evac helicopter assist in a simulated accident.

When lack of funding almost canceled the Agricultural and Conservation Field Day, Two Rivers stepped in and saved the event. The Jeepers, along with Illinois EPA, USDA, private firms, and colleges, financed and staffed the event. They sponsored 25 hands-on sessions for 650 fifth-grade students from 11 school districts in topics ranging from forestry to bats to farm safety.

During the 4x4 Safari, the American Legion serves over 400 hungry jeepers hearty breakfasts and dinners. The bowling alley makes sack lunches, and church kids, with help from volunteer firefighters, pressure wash Jeeps to raise money for community projects. Local police help groups of off-roaders stay together as they exit town for the trails. Every merchant and even non-jeeping locals, who we met in restaurants after the Safari, were gracious to visiting jeepers. Pittsfield welcomes 4x4 Safari visitors in the same manner that Moabites welcomed Easter Safari participants 20 years ago.

Each Safari day started and ended at the American Legion, where we enjoyed good country cooking. Evening festivities included drawings and raffles for abundant door prizes, including a Warn Winch and a set of BFG tires. Friday and Saturday, we wheeled on four of the Safari’s 16 properties. The trails were impressive, especially for farm country.

Friday was cold and wet, making many easy trails difficult, and some sections were impossible to navigate without winching. Since the farmers want to avoid digging ruts, which leads to erosion, some trails were restricted to rigs with winches and lockers. That’s the reason for tech inspections during registration: to determine which trails you can run.

Saturday was sunny and warm, perfect for wheeling. The mud dried out quickly, and Jeep tops came off. In the morning, we wheeled on Mossy Mountain (more forested trails with some challenging, wet rock ledges). Few rigs got up one ledge without winching, and several Jeeps snapped drivetrain parts trying to avoid winching.

After lunch, we went to Debbie and Tom Wombles’ farm at nearby Rockport. Tom helped start Two Rivers Jeep Club and didn’t want to limit off-roading to specific dates. He opened Rockport Off-Road Park on 700 acres of the family farm and built miles of trails, dug mud pits, and placed 1,600 tons of boulders in gullies to make several interconnecting rock gardens, ranging in difficulty from beginner to hard-core. ATVs, dirt bikes, and 4x4 wheel Friday through Monday year ‘round in this outstanding OHV park. From an overlook here, visitors can see across the Mississippi to the bluffs in Missouri.

Two Rivers Jeep Club offers some of the best off-road adventures in America’s vast heartland.

 

 

• Shop for parts: www.4wheelparts.com
• Copyright
• User Agreement

Site designed and maintained by Cornerstone Coding