[Music] in this episode we are on the outskirts of charleston not very far from the weiu studios but from biking to hiking kayaking and more in this episode we'll explain why you should take a hike to lake charleston take a hike on weiu is supported by rural king america's farm and home store camping supplies kayaks fishing and pet supplies and more find your store and more information regarding rural king at ruralking.com hi i'm weiu's lacey spence i've lived in central illinois my whole life and if there's one thing i've learned you don't have to go far to find the beauty of the great outdoors come along with me as i visit a variety of parks and natural areas in central illinois and share why you should take a hike to each episode's location adventure and fun await and take a hike the miniseries thank you for joining us for this first episode of take a hike i am your host lacey spence and we didn't have to go very far for our interview today we are at the beautiful lake charleston and i'm joined by two fabulous guests today closest to me i have brian jones he is the director of parks and recreation for the city of charleston and on the outside we've got diane ratliff and she is tourism perfect so today again we're at beautiful lake charleston um first can you give us a little bit of a background of how lake charleston like the development of it came to be yeah um we actually have two different bodies of water out here now we have lake charleston we also have the embroiled river and they got divided by the side channel reservoir which i'm not sure exactly when was put in but so anyway we we have two different bodies and people use both of them extensively there's a lot of things that go on with the two bodies of water fishing obviously being one of them but again there's other activities that go on out here as far as bird watching people are kayaking paddle boarding and that type of thing even though no swimming is allowed in either one of them that was going to be one of my questions is the recreation out here so how did uh kind of the development start to take place i know at least from recent history one of the biggest things that people notice would be all of the trail work can you talk about that go ahead um yeah currently we do have just over nine miles of trails around the lake separated into three different park areas so we have lake charleston we have woodyard park and then we have lake view trail park as well so they kind of all connect to make one big large loop of trails around here and what kind of started that project i feel like i had heard that there was maybe a bit of awards happening because of these trails can you talk about it yeah it actually got started a long time ago in lakeview park was the first one and it was really the bicycle mountain biking guys are the ones that started developing additional trails in lakeview park and we also have woodyard which is connected to it and then they turn around and ask for permission if they could start developing trails in woodyard which we allowed them to do and so that kind of got us halfway around then we had the reservoir we had the lake out here so the only piece missing was the north uh part of the lake so yeah so the public works guys went in developed a trail on there and then that that completed the entire loop around the lake and they are getting used more than we ever imagined and yes that uh that project got submitted and won the governor's award and so uh you have folks who are traversing it either on mountain bike um on foot is there any other ways that they're traversing these trails or is that pretty much it we've seen people out here on skateboards kids on scooters strollers obviously are a big deal but there's any way you can get around people are out here using the trails and is it pet friendly it is pet friendly but we do ask that you clean up after your animals and they must remain on a leash gotcha and one of the other recreation opportunities that you were talking about included kayaking can you talk about how people are kind of utilizing that yeah when we redid the boat ramp behind us we added a kayak launch which is actually over there which has been very popular so that just came from people requesting or asking you know can you have kayaks out there which you can because it's just a no-wake lake um and again that's just how it came about and kayaking is very popular right now and so there's just seems like be more and more people showing up each day uh wanting to kayak out here do you have a guesstimate of how many people are kind of out here because i know that from living in charleston myself you come out here of an evening and these new parking lots areas they're packed i don't think we have any daily totals but we definitely know that they um are being used much more than they ever were before and on the weekends especially it is very busy out here and uh fishing you said no swimming but is fishing kind of big out here yes um again both sides the river and the lake are both utilized by the fishermen of course they've always been out here but yes it's still um used quite a bit there are a couple of bass clubs that use it for tournaments on the weekends so fishing is still very prominent out here and are you able to talk about the wildlife because i know on social media i see a lot of people who are capturing pictures of wildlife out here yeah we do have a lot of folks that use the trails that do photography and they like to post that on the lakeview trails facebook page definitely a lot of deer birds i know brian had mentioned we do have several birders in town and the lake is actually a hot spot in regards to birding as recorded by the cornell university of ornithology so we actually show up on their their data as having a large variety of bird species in this area we do also have quite a few eagles that make their home out here at lake charleston and if people are looking to get more information is that facebook page a good place to go it really is again a lot of the users are part of that group they post some really great pictures on there um and again the other thing is is they're also helpful to us that hey if a tree is falling down over a trail they'll post that which helps us then get our maintenance guys out here and and we try to take care of it in timely manner so it's really a nice interactive facebook page and are there a lot of conservation efforts um that happen out here yeah uh we also obviously have the uh urban butterfly initiative which has got several plots out here and the city has got involved in that so we have that um we also have the embryo valley stewards that come out here that help us get rid of invasive species as far as plants and that type of stuff so yeah there's several different groups that are involved with this area also and so if i am a resident or a visitor out here and i'm looking to help maintain how beautiful it is out here and clean what steps can i take to make sure that this is still a place for everyone to be able to come and enjoy obviously if you're just out here on your own feel free to pick up any trash or anything that is left behind unfortunately we do have some people who obviously still leave litter around so we have a lot of our normal walkers who will carry trash bags with them and pick up trash as they go that's always very helpful to us we also have you know if you want to go and organize a day where you can have multiple people come out and work you can always contact the parks and recreation department and we can set something up and are there uh organized events that happen here every year is there anything that's like the annual blank at lake charleston uh we have the alex russell memorial kids fishing derby that is here every year in june it's a free event that we put on um through the parks and recreation department and it's a free event so it's just like that yes it's just a chance for the kids to come out and fish for a morning we have prizes and all that so that's an annual thing that we do but if they're trying to sign up for a fishing tournament where can they do that or how can they do that so you can just watch our facebook page or our brochures for information about that gotcha and so throughout 2021 um maybe 2020 into 2021 uh there's been a lot of work that's happened out here recently i feel like we're kind of sitting on part of it um can you talk about the most recent changes that have happened out here at the lake yeah i would say that this area that we're sitting on right now is definitely new to the area we connected the alex russell fishing pier and the boat ramp together made a boardwalk which has turned out very nice and i think it gives people the opportunity to fish off the shore much more we also put a path on the north side of the lake island track which has also been very popular again people fish off the shore and plus it gets the opportunity if you're walking and you don't want to go down the road or go through the lake island track area you can bypass it by taking the path on the north side again some other things down there the new pavilion the playgrounds went in so there's just a lot of areas down by the spillway which was always a popular spot at lake charleston has just got enhanced and we are going to give a closer look at that too because that's just been incredible i know that there's already been people taking advantage of that area for events birthday parties spending time with the family and you mentioned alex russell for folks who aren't familiar who who was alex alex was a was a fisherman and he when he came to eiu i believe is to play football um after his football and college career was over he stuck around and uh he got married to joy russell and he was just an avid fisherman that wanted to promote fishing to children so that they would learn something that would be a lifelong hobby that they could do and he started the kids fishing derby unfortunately he was he died in a car accident and after he passed away a local uh fishing club took on the tournament and ran it and then it got passed on to us and we've been doing it for a number of years since then so that's the little bit of the history of alex and what a great way to honor his legacy than getting kids into fishing getting them outdoors instead of looking at screens all the time absolutely yes so what was kind of the aha moment of we have this great asset this beautiful lake we should really develop it and market it towards people coming to visit we've always kind of had the idea of the the gorgeous lake obviously when the trails started to go in and you know funding was coming through to make all these improvements obviously it was just a great time to draw people into the lake and do different things like we've mentioned there's a lot of different activities that are going on between the fishing and the birding and the hikers and the bikers and you know families coming out and things like that so it's a wide variety that you can get everybody involved in and in talking about the trails i'm not sure if you can hit on it per se but um one of the most recent developments isn't there a trail now that goes from lake charleston to fox ridge is that right it doesn't quite go all the way through but there's another organization out of champaign that is developing trails just on the south of the lake so if you cross 130 the trail system starts over there and it goes towards fox ridge it does not connect up yet is that the goal i think that is their ultimate goal is to eventually get all the way to fox ridge and there has been so much again so much development out here um just in the last year or so is there anything else in the hopper what's next for lake charleston i do think the development part of it is getting close to being getting wrapped up okay um and again we're we're just overwhelmed on uh we we had a master plan done i think like in 2010 um at the time and at the time the price tag i think was close to two million dollars and we just didn't think there was any possible way we could ever achieve that but again through grants and and the city workers doing a lot of the work it's really come together and it's just turned out fabulous and we're so happy that the citizens are out here using this facility again more than ever and again i think the the best part of it is there's so many user groups that are involved and it's not just the one group that maybe it's out here that's taking advantage of this area because it is so beautiful and it's even going to be more beautiful in the fall if you're ever out here when the leaves start turning it is really something to see and in our last couple of minutes here is there anything that kind of strikes you that people maybe don't know about the lake that they get out here and didn't realize that it had to offer um i think part of it could be that um of course the trail system is through woodyard and through lakeview it's all pretty much natural trails so they are dirt basically and maybe some wood chip but we do have a lot of hard surface out here when you're at the lake the levee and i think a lot of people have taken advantage of the hard surface walking again with like diane said with the strollers and those types of things those are very difficult to push through woodyard and lakeview park so again if you don't want to climb through those two parks there's still a lot of mileage of hard surface trails out here that i think people are taking advantage of and if you haven't taken advantage of it come out and give it a try same question to you is there anything sticks out it's just one of those things that every day we seem to find more and more people who are coming out here especially during coven when people needed to be outdoors this place was hopping you'd come out here at this time of day during covid when everybody was on lockdown and there there would be lots of people out here so it was just nice to have something to offer the community during the time when they couldn't go many places they could come out and spend some time in nature with their family and enjoy and it's actually kind of part of the the brainchild of why we wanted to do a show like this is when there was literally nothing else you could do at least you could go outside and enjoy absolutely your your local hot spots um and as you were talking it kind of sounds like this is also a place that would be um handicap accessible absolutely um everything we did we did keep that in consideration and uh made that so that it was accessible and i also think that's wonderful because again you don't want anybody to be left out of being able to take something like this in um is there anything else about uh the lake about the trail system before we transition that you guys wanted to hit that i didn't ask about i don't think so we just encourage anybody that has not been out here please come out and give it a give it a chance and i think they'll fall in love with it all right well we are going to take a quick break and then we're going to transition into our take a hike highlight if you will we're going to highlight one of the newer developments out here at lake charleston so don't go anywhere when preparing for a hike on a wooded trail here's some supplies you'll want to be sure to bring most importantly bring plenty of water no matter how long you plan on being outside staying hydrated should be a priority in addition to wearing comfortable and weather appropriate clothing you should also remember to wear hiking boots or shoes wearing shoes specifically made for hiking will give you the support you need on unpredictable terrain and help you avoid injury when spending significant time outside wearing sunscreen is always a must in order to protect your skin even if you don't burn easily so make sure to bring plenty on your hike bug spray is another necessity when hiking in the woods not only will using bug spray prevent those nasty itchy bites on your arms and legs but it will help you to not catch diseases from insects like lyme disease or west nile virus finally when you're on a hike the last thing you want is to get lost packing a map and a compass in your backpack will help you keep on the right path and we are back we have changed locations out here at lake charleston we're on the opposite side from where we were just located and we're going to get filled in a little bit on some of the highlights of lake charleston so where are we at right now yes this is part of the uh plots for the urban butterfly initiative and we have several plots out here at lake charleston so we have one here the sten's down there's also one in the turnaround down there we have one at the red barn when you first come in and then we also have two additional plots up at the woodyard conservation area so we have several areas that you can come out walk around take a look at it and try to find as many different different species of butterflies as you can now isn't there something that happens every year where people catalog like the butterflies moving through that is part of the program yes they have a a weekend i think they take and they have people try to collect as much data as they can enter into an app and then that way they kind of get their numbers so it's a very interactive idea and again it's very cool that it's something easy that the family can do and then if you're also a little tech savvy again you can take the pictures and try and spot as many butterflies as possible i noticed the sign when we were pulling in here it says monarch city usa that's correct we are an official city we were the first one in the state of illinois and i think there's been maybe one or two additional cities since then but we were the first what an honor that charleston is uh a number one in the the butterfly game if you will so as we scoot a little bit further um up the stairs a little bit shaded region we've got the called the hangout so this is an area for folks to utilize their hammocks is that correct that is correct uh this was an idea that was brought up to us that came from a campground but yeah there's this post there you bring your own hammock out you hook it up to two of the posts and you can lay in the in the shade read a book take a nap whatever you want to do you were telling me this might be one of the i don't want to say underutilized let's say a hidden gem um if folks don't realize that this is here you don't have to reserve it or anything you can just show up correct and so um if you are somebody who's maybe on eastern illinois university's campus very short distance and you want a change of scenery this could be a great place to do that so come check out the hangout absolutely so the next portion that we've got here at lake charleston newer development if you will this beautiful pavilion can you kind of walk us through it yeah we uh we had a pavilion in the same area but prior to we took it down and decided that we needed to upgrade the pavilion and the number one thing that we needed here was restrooms we never had any permanent restrooms here before so we we built this pavilion with the restrooms and it just turned out fantastic we get a lot of compliments on this and this by far is uh the number one reserve pavilion that we have through the parks and recreation department so it does not cost anything to reserve it but we do have people call up to our office or come in and do a reservation so that we don't have anybody overlapping but it's got a fantastic view of the spillway which was part of the idea because again the spillway is an attraction out here people come out here on their lunch hour or they just come out here and just i guess it's the calming of the water rolling over the top of it or whatever but again it's always been an attraction it still is but yeah this pavilion really turned out great again our public works guys did the majority of the work on it and it's just turned out fantastic and something else to remember that we've kind of talked about earlier as far as like conservation and cleanup if you're out here using the facilities how important is it to clean up after yourselves yes as you can see we have trash cans here we really appreciate people uh picking up after themselves and the main thing we always tell everybody is if you carry it in please carry it out and this is your park if you're coming to lake charleston or if you're just a guest if you are just visiting regardless you have to take care of the facility so that it's it lasts and it's here for folks to use years to come absolutely we uh we want to be good stewards and uh have this around for a long long time so now back here i'm spying something that's very bright and very red is this uh newer out to lake charleston is that something that's organized by lake charleston this is a little free library and this thing was uh put up by the well read book club they approached us and wanted to put one out here so we did an agreement with them and they are the ones that monitor the materials that's on the inside of it but i'm sure everybody has seen the free little library so you can either leave a book you can take a book and it's just another added feature that uh got put out here i would say probably a year ago and it's really been a popular thing and even though the show's called take a hike you could also take a read absolutely while you're out here and go to the hangout and go to the hangout so our last kind of big swath of things that have been uh redone out here at the park is this playground can you talk about that yes this uh there hasn't been playground equipment out here i don't think in since the 1960s or maybe early 1970s and it was one of the things that when we started redoing the uh the master plan was this was something that they wanted to put back out here was a playground and it's really been very very popular it's used a lot and it's kind of a unique setup as in it's a long drawn out playground which is kind of unusual but it has climbing rocks it has the zipline which has been very popular since we put that in and again we tried to do something with the natural tones colors not have something big and bright that was going to stick out when you're out here in the in nature so that's the idea behind the color scheme but yeah this has really been a really nice feature that's been added to the area and it's nice that uh it looks like there would be opportunities for your smaller lake charleston visitors up to a little bit older as well correct the pla this playground structure here is actually five to 12 year olds but for the littler ones we've got all the climbing uh rocks and all that plus they can use uh this also and uh yeah it's just it's really just been another really pleasant surprise and as we're on this side of the lake charleston area the spillway and things we were talking earlier about trails and trying to connect to fox ridge and that was the grand prairie friends grand prairie friends correct and so does that uh trail system start on this side or is it closer down toward the gazebo and where we started the interview yeah the area that we cross when you come into lake charleston is actually the road you need to take over to go to the start of the grand prairie friends and it's through warbler woods and uh yeah they've been a great partner and continue to be a great partner with the city of charleston and hopefully one day we will make it to fox ridge fingers crossed now one last thing i wanted to ask for people who are out enjoying the lake is safety there are certain park hours that people are supposed to abide by can you talk about that a little bit yeah from the city standpoint all of our parks are from um 6 a.m to 10 p.m so that's when the park officially closes that is monitored by the police department so again we just ask everybody please observe you know the city policies and ordinances and yeah even on the trails we do have post every mile or so so that if somebody would get injured and they need to call 9-1-1 if they could get if they're not if they're by themselves obviously it's a different situation but if they have somebody walking with them if they go to one of the posts and give them an uh there's a color and a number and that way it gives the the firefighters and the emt people a better idea where they're at even though i know uh gps's are on phones and all that stuff too but again trying to make it where it's safe for everybody and especially if you're a novice you want to make sure you pay attention to those signs because i would say i'm a beginner in the hiking department and when you're out there just make sure you can follow along with the trails the colors like you said very helpful is there anything else about lake charleston while we're out here that you'd like to add or tell the viewers about no i just think again if you have not been out here you're really missing out this is a real gem um in coles county and we couldn't be more proud of it awesome well thank you so much for your time we appreciate it thank you and thank you for joining us for this episode of take a hike and we will see you next time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] take a hike on weiu is supported by rural king america's farm and home store camping supplies kayaks fishing and pet supplies and more find your store and more information regarding rural king at ruralking.com