Location: Island Park, Geneva, Illinois
Planted: September 2, 2002 by yooperann (wfisher47@attbi.com)
Terrain: Level
Difficulty: Easy, family oriented
Stamp: homemade, and a pretty crude first try. But it's appropriate
to the setting.

Setting: Geneva is an old mill town on the Fox River, about 40
miles west of Chicago's loop. It has maintained its historic
character and has a compact and interesting downtown shopping and
restaurant district. Its festivals, which include Swedish days in
June, an art fair in July, a wine and food festival in September, and
a Swedish Christmas Walk, provide additional excuses for a
visit. We especially enjoy the annual two-day Fox Valley Folk Music
and Storytelling Festival, held over the Labor Day weekend. An
additional attraction for letterboxers is an American
Science and Surplus Store, located about two miles east of downtown
on Route 38.

Island Park is on the Fox River, in the heart of Geneva. It
is a lovely shaded park, with cedar-chipped playgrounds, trees
slanting over the river for daring kids to walk out on, lots of
fishing spots, ducks to feed, and one of the region's best bike
paths, the 33 mile Fox River Trail, which in turn connects to the 55
mile Illinois Prairie Path.

Clues: Geneva is at the intersection of Illinois Highways 31 and
38, about half way between Interstate 88 and Interstate 90. But you
don't have to drive if you don't want to. Chicago's
commuter train, Metra, (Northwest Line) will take you from downtown
Chicago to downtown Geneva (and less than half a mile from the
letterbox) in just over an hour. Island Park is on the
east bank of the Fox River, just south of State Street (Route 38).

Island Park has four bridges associated with it, two large bridges
over the Fox River and two smaller ones that take you on and off the
island. Locate the two-level bridge where you can
cross on foot, by bike, or in cars, but never in automobiles. Your
quest for the letterbox begins at the east end of that bridge.

You will be at a spot where four bike paths meet. Two of them run
along a chain link fence with barbed wire at the top. Follow the
path that will put the fence on your right. As you come
to a sign warning of ice and steep slopes, leave the chain link fence
to take a path that will put a split rail fence on your right (much
more attractive, and appropriate for Illinois, the home of the
world's most famous rail splitter, Abraham Lincoln). Follow that
fence to its end and then stop.