Day trip to the Mausoleum and Rose Creek (December 2nd).
My suggestion for a day trip was the Mausoleum. I always enjoyed the big family walks we use to take after Thanksgiving dinner years ago. It was fun having family and extended family out on a hiking excursion, talking, watching the kids run around and enjoying nature. So we decided to drive to Fairbury for our next trip. It was a great day weather-wise so we were ready to take the hike to the Mausoleum.
First, I have to tell you what we saw when we parked the car and headed on the trail that takes you into the Rose Creek Wildlife Management Area. You don’t have to walk too far on the path until you come to a bridge that crosses the creek. Upon my initial glance I see a heavier guy sitting in a lawn chair facing away from us on the other side of the bridge. He was holding a rifle. It was a nice day but it was still December and I noticed he didn’t have a shirt on or long pants. Not being able to see his torso because of the lawn chair I started to slow my pace a little thinking “does this guy have any clothes on at all”. Definitely not looking forward to that kind of confrontation!! If I had been alone I may have turned around and left but since it was both Ken and I, we proceeded across the bridge. A closer look revealed that he had gym shorts on and shoes, but that was it. He was target practicing but stopped shooting when we got near. To take the path we wanted we had to veer off to the right so we left him to do his shooting; but not before listening to some of his complaints about the farmer who farms the field just to the left of where he was sitting, saying that the farmer complains about him target practicing so near the farmer’s land. With the angle he was shooting, shots were most likely traveling across the farmer’s field, but we didn’t comment on his rant and continued on our hike.
Like I said, it was years ago that we had been to the Mausoleum and the trail had definitely changed. High water and erosion have left it in poor shape at different points along the path. There were a couple of places where straps had been tethered to tree roots so you could pull yourself up to the path. It took some work but we made it. We felt like we got our workout.
The inside of the Mausoleum hasn’t changed as far as we could tell. There could be some new names but we couldn’t tell. Ken knew one guy that carved his name in the sandstone years and years ago so we always look for that name, Tiny, and we found it. We are always in awe of how much time and energy it took to make the Mausoleum complete with “beds” for the deceased and a dome.
When we were done viewing the Mausoleum and looking at the scenery along the creek, we decided we would head back by going over the top of the hill rather than trying to navigate that path again. As nimble as we are, one of us may have ended up in the creek after a long fall down the steep bank.
As we were walking through the trees we could still hear that guy target practicing so we thought it best to stay close to the creek until we were comfortable heading for the bridge. He was still there and he asked a few questions which we answered as we kept walking over the bridge. On the other side of the bridge Ken and I started searching along the creek for a place where we could get down the bank to fish. It didn’t take too long before we found a way down so we went back to the car, got our fishing gear and scrambled down the bank.
Ken took a picture of me fishing.
There’s really not much to tell about the fishing itself . . . we didn’t catch anything. But it was a beautiful afternoon and we both enjoyed just watching and hearing the water move down the creek. Time seemed to pass so quickly and we could tell it was getting late so we packed up and headed home. It was another great day-trip.