I am from Central Illinois and my brother is from Forth Wayne Indiana. Do you guys happen to know of any parks and such we could meet up for a weekend hang? Don't necessarily have to have hiking, but would be nice. We went to Charles Deam Wilderness last time. Which is fine, was just looking for a spot closer for the both of us.
The I&M canal site in Channahon that we do our group hangs at is a good place... probably an even split and you are allowed to backpack the length of the trail. http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/PARKS/i&m/main.htm
I recently moved from IL to NWI so still feeling some things out.
You are allowed to hang at the Dunewood Campground in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
One of these days I mean to check out the Bloodroot trail at Salamonie Lake-- looks like a few folks here are ahead of me, lol-
https://hammockforums.net/forum/show...-5-amp-6/page2
I'd like to get to Turkey Run area (though that gets crowded) although right up the road is Shades state park which tends to be ignored.
No idea on hanging there though...
on the IL side- I hear Illini State Park won't allow hanging.
There's the Kickapoo State Recreation area in Oakwood, IL- which is right on the IN border. I've never been there, but I do know they have camping, hiking, fishing, etc...I've heard good things about it.
Being from Terre Haute, I've hit a good deal of the areas mentioned above. Most places I go are at least an hour away.
Turkey Run is a cool park, but has no back country camping and I have not tried a hammock in the campground. Shades State Park, a little further east of Turkey Run, does have a back country camping area, but I have not been there yet.
The Bloodroot Trail in northern Indiana is a nice place to hike and hang on a reservoir like Deam. It's about an hour north of Muncie off of I-69.
Even though you said Deam was a little too far away, just east of it is the Nebo Ridge Trail. It has some great places to hang. Especially on Browning Hill at Stonehenge.
You may also consider the Knobstone Trail in southern Indiana. Maybe not what you're looking for, but its another destination.
My group just did Garden of the Gods at Shawnee National Forest this past fall and thought it was nice. Indian Point looked to be a great place to hang for back country. We base camped at the Pharoah Campground and it was pretty good. Its a nice area.
The beauty of turkey run and shades is their popularity. That seems counter intuitive, but in this case provides alternate, non-state run campgrounds. I recommend Clements Canoe outside of Shades. I've hung there many times, right on the water. Yeah, it's car camping, but at least we're out!
I was at turkey run this weekend. Nice but crowded in the beautiful weather. The Ranger recommended shades to us since we didn't have an rv. He said it was cheaper and less crowded. It was a nice place and the hiking was nice but more day hiking than backpacking.
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