On Saturday, September 5th, Dillon and I set out to hike the Running Deer Trail at Everett McKinley Dirksen Park in Pekin. After reading the reviews on AllTrails, I knew I needed to record the hike because the trails can get really confusing. Dirksen Park is about 400 acres of woodland and prairie. It used for mountain biking and hiking and there are quite a few offshoot trails from the old days it was used a BMX park.
I made sure to spray ourselves down with bug spray before we headed out. I’m not sure if it helped or not, but the trails did not seem that bad when we were there.
We set out and right away you cross a wooden bridge with no rails. I’m the type of person that hates heights if I’m not enclosed and will not walk over sidewalk grates. This felt like I was walking over those. Had there been water in the creek, I’m not sure I could have walked over it. It made me pretty nervous!
Once we crossed the bridge, we headed right. I think the official map shows the route going left, but I don’t think it matters.
The trail takes you along the creek, which in early September was pretty dry, but I bet its beautiful when flowing.
Right off the bat, we came to a “Y” in the trail with no signs or directions telling us which way to go. Luckily, I was recording our route, so I knew to head left. This happened a few more times and I was glad I had the app.
There are some pretty good elevation changes, but nothing a novice couldn’t do.
Dillon loved to stop and feel the bark on the trees and I used that as a good excuse to catch my breath after a steep climb.
We crossed another creek, which was fairly dried up again. This bridge was not as scary as the other.
Most of the hike was wooded, but we did come to a small prairie opening that made for some pretty views.
After crossing the prairie, this next wooded area was my favorite part of the trail. The woods were a little more open, not a lot of under story growth. We saw a deer in here, and you walked along a ridge that overlooked the creek, which was beautiful. I bet its awesome in the Fall.
After this area is where I got lost. Somewhere around 2 miles, the map shows you crossing a creek. I could not for the life of me find this crossing. There is another trail that heads North and we started wandering on that a bit, but after pulling up a different map, I could tell it would take us way out of our way and I didn’t want to get stuck somewhere being alone with Dillon.
I headed back to try to look for the crossing a little bit longer, but did not have any luck. I decided to just turn back and go the way we came.
On our way back, I encountered two mountain bikers, but they were the only people I saw the entire time.
When we got back, my overall mileage was just at 4 miles, so even though I didn’t complete the loop, I’m still proud of what we did.
I will try this one gain, but I think I will head in the opposite direction next time to see if I can find the crossing coming from the other way.
The park is beautiful, but not well marked. There are not any “You Are Here” maps and there are some color markings on trees, but most were pretty worn off. I would recommend it, but make sure you have a good map, or are using the AllTrails app.
Thanks for hiking with Dillon and I!
