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Posted: 1/22/2020 4:58:08 AM EDT
[#1]
What was the IL group out there?
I came out with a couple of new friends, and would love to keep the momentum of the rally going. Would anyone else be interested in getting a battle buddy group going here? I'm in the far southern tip if anyone else is down here. God knows this state will be one of the next to get some truely aweful laws passed, and Virginia showed us what we can do if we're organized and have a good network in place. Plus I learned I really need to be in better shape 
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Posted: 1/22/2020 11:26:25 AM EDT
[#2]
I have been active with witness slips, but now need to get more done than that. I am in a rural area South of Champaign and would be up for meeting up with others as well.
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Posted: 1/22/2020 2:22:55 PM EDT
[#3]
First,
Congrats/thanks to all the IllAnnoy guys that went south and showed up for the VA Rally. Thanks for representing us! You guys were awesome. Would be great if we could pull something like that off at IGOLD... So we have had semi-regular get together s for the Northern Ill folks, They used to be at Marksman14's house and then dropped off due to his dad moving and just life in general. We had a get together sometime in Oct I think. We're about due for another one of these. EDIT: These were more friendly cookout and display parties than any type of training....still great, but not training. I've also been watching the battle buddy hikes and been thinking about suggesting something locally here for us. I've been out hiking with a pack on my own just locally around my house, but would be interested to see if anyone else would want to do some hiking with a weighted pack. I think it would be a good idea to setup "squads" based on geography to allow us to organize and train locally.... So, one way or another....I'm in. |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 3:58:03 PM EDT
[#4]
I recently moved to McHenry County, I would be interested with a hike or get together as time allows. First born is due here any day now
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Posted: 1/22/2020 7:10:15 PM EDT
[#5]
I’m not in this section much but saw the battle buddy thread in GD and decided to come see if anything was going on locally. I’m in Dupage County and would be up for a hike or whatever depending on location and timing. I’m a roofing contractor so I have a lot more free time this time of year than I will in spring/summer/fall.
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Posted: 1/22/2020 9:16:25 PM EDT
[#6]
Hey Redbird,
Where abouts in DuPage? I have Springbrook Prarie by me (crushed limestone 6 mile loop). There's also Waterfall Glenn (9 mile crushed limestone loop, Approx Lemont Rd and 87th) as well as Green Valley (75th and 1/2 mile w of 53). I'm doing 3 mile hikes every other day now so I'm in. Let's hook up. Time to get something started and as more people pipe in we can start to expand and setup Squads regionally, similar to what they are doing in VA. I'm just running my pack with hunting gear in it, but sandbags will work as well. |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 9:18:02 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I recently moved to McHenry County, I would be interested with a hike or get together as time allows. First born is due here any day now Where abouts in McHenry? Maybe Red and I could meet up with you and do something on the weekend.... |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 9:24:11 PM EDT
[#8]
Bishop, 300Blackout and W9TRB,
Do you guys know any Arfcomers local to your area that you could contact or PM to see if you can drum up a few guys to hike with? Don't want you guys to be left out, but obviously, some distances are too far for any type of regular hike...Maybe we can shake the tree in GD and see if we can get some I'llAnnoy guys in there to come in here and see what we can stir up. I'll start a thread in GD....let's see what happens... |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 9:24:26 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Hey Redbird, Where abouts in DuPage? I have Springbrook Prarie by me (crushed limestone 6 mile loop). There's also Waterfall Glenn (9 mile crushed limestone loop, Approx Lemont Rd and 87th) as well as Green Valley (75th and 1/2 mile w of 53). I'm doing 3 mile hikes every other day now so I'm in. Let's hook up. Time to get something started and as more people pipe in we can start to expand and setup Squads regionally, similar to what they are doing in VA. I'm just running my pack with hunting gear in it, but sandbags will work as well. Edit- your inbox is full. Drop me a line at redbirdxx at geemail. |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 9:57:09 PM EDT
[#10]
Try again, I let my membership lapse becasue of all the New Overlord BS...and it has been INCONVIENIENT....Killed the number of IMs I was able to store....so, I reupped.
We should be good to go. |
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Posted: 1/22/2020 11:25:25 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Reaper, Where abouts in McHenry? Maybe Red and I could meet up with you and do something on the weekend.... |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 11:01:07 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I’d be up for heading north to meet somewhere in between. @slarti I'm located in Cary, call it rt 14 and rt 31. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 11:26:35 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Bishop, 300Blackout and W9TRB, Do you guys know any Arfcomers local to your area that you could contact or PM to see if you can drum up a few guys to hike with? Don't want you guys to be left out, but obviously, some distances are too far for any type of regular hike...Maybe we can shake the tree in GD and see if we can get some I'llAnnoy guys in there to come in here and see what we can stir up. I'll start a thread in GD....let's see what happens... I'm hoping to find some folks to get a Southern IL group going. So far everyone else has been central/northern and a 3+ hour drive each way really eats into the hiking time. This state is just too damn long. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 11:27:26 AM EDT
[#14]
Reaper,
Do you know any Arf guys in your general AO that you might check with to see if they're interested? I'll try and see if there is somewhere decent to hike that's loosely midway between the two general locations. Once we work out a destination then we can work out a time. RB and I are already going to meet and to a hike in our general area on Friday. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 11:38:26 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Reaper, Do you know any Arf guys in your general AO that you might check with to see if they're interested? I'll try and see if there is somewhere decent to hike that's loosely midway between the two general locations. Once we work out a destination then we can work out a time. RB and I are already going to meet and to a hike in our general area on Friday. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 12:08:43 PM EDT
[#16]
Like I said, I'm up for whatever and pretty much wherever (within reason) for the next few weeks. Once the weather turns my schedule gets a lot more hectic, but hopefully by that point we'll have something of a system/schedule in place that I can work with.
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Posted: 1/23/2020 12:26:29 PM EDT
[#17]
So Reaper, first congrats on the new addition, you're life is about to change... ;) and you'll be busy as a bandit. This will be a do what you can effort, I hope you're not feeling like there's any pressure.
When you're ready, Just jump into the thread and let us know. I the mean time, we'll look for someplace to meet that will accommodate all of us. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 1:25:12 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
So Reaper, first congrats on the new addition, you're life is about to change... ;) and you'll be busy as a bandit. This will be a do what you can effort, I hope you're not feeling like there's any pressure. When you're ready, Just jump into the thread and let us know. I the mean time, we'll look for someplace to meet that will accommodate all of us. |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 5:58:30 PM EDT
[#19]
I’m in southern cook county.
Lots of paved/gravel trails within 20mins ish of my location. I’ve been to the trails by Argonne with the family before. Subbed for interest |
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Posted: 1/23/2020 6:03:11 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I’m in southern cook county. Lots of paved/gravel trails within 20mins ish of my location. I’ve been to the trails by Argonne with the family before. Subbed for interest |
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Posted: 1/24/2020 1:01:36 AM EDT
[#21]
I’m about 15 min south of 80 and 55. I’m up for whatever.
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Posted: 1/24/2020 9:33:30 AM EDT
[#22]
I'm in Plainfield. I'd be up for hiking.
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Posted: 1/24/2020 11:30:03 AM EDT
[#23]
Muels,
I hunt close to those areas and we could probably setup something to go hike around either DesPlains or Midewien. Would probably need to be a weekend, but I'm up for that. BSS4F4, Redbird and I are hiking today at Springbrook Prarie in Naperville. PM myself or Red if you're interested. |
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Posted: 1/24/2020 7:06:41 PM EDT
[#24]
First contact in the books. 3 miles at a pretty casual pace in slushy snow. I'll call it a decent start for a couple old men ;)
Slarti informed me that body armor isn't going to count toward the 35 lbs., so I'll need to make adjustments there.  Attached File Attached FileOh, and the time is off because we stopped to talk to someone on the trail and I also forgot to hit the stop button when we got back to the cars. After some guesstimated adjusting we were right around 3 mph. Good meeting you, man. Looking forward to the next one. |
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Posted: 1/24/2020 7:13:03 PM EDT
[#25]
Yep...was great meeting you as well Redbird...
and Slarti was slightly hobbled today and unable to actually ruck (sucks to be old). Looking forward to setting up future hikes and meeting you all. I'll try and layout some times/areas and we can go from there. I'm thinking we can have a "weekday" hike for those local and them maybe a once weekly hike for the guys that are further out. Watch for updates in this thread. |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 2:11:52 PM EDT
[#26]
So, who’s up for putting something together for next weekend? If we can get a count and an idea of everyone’s location we could start looking for a central meet location with acceptable trails now.
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Posted: 1/25/2020 2:32:53 PM EDT
[#27]
I'm in
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Posted: 1/25/2020 8:11:27 PM EDT
[#28]
ost
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Posted: 1/25/2020 10:57:07 PM EDT
[#29]
I'm one of the Illinois guys that was in Richmond with @300Blackout_drunk. @Bishop3, you were in my squad, right? I'm glad you posted up. I've been trying to track down the guys I met just to say hey and take notes for posterity. I'd be interested to know who gave you the swag since they were also from IL.
To say that I was impressed with and highly motivated by the Virginia Battle Buddies would be an understatement. I'd love to see a chapter form up in Illinois and I'd be willing to drive some hours for hikes to make it happen. Southern Illinois would have the best terrain but I'm sure there's good hiking just about anywhere. I'm out in the country a little bit west of Champaign so I know that I'm in @w9trb 's neck of the woods. I'm a sometimes backpacker already and I enjoy training with gear on in order to get acclimated to wearing it. Not being able to carry long guns will make it a bit less fun but it would still be cool. I think there's talk of a southern Indiana group starting up, too. That might be an option for some folks and long guns might theoretically be possible since open carry is legal in Indiana. At least with pistols. Not sure about long guns. But I'm in. |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:00:31 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
So, who’s up for putting something together for next weekend? If we can get a count and an idea of everyone’s location we could start looking for a central meet location with acceptable trails now. |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:07:51 PM EDT
[#31]
It looks like Muels and Doorman are south, too, maybe would could start looking for locations south of 80? That’s not too far for Slarti and I and if it meant getting a bigger group together I’d be willing to drive some. That could shorten the trip from Champaign a bit.
Muels, Doorman, either of you guys interested in something next weekend? Edit, missed bssrf4, Plainfield is south as well, so it’s making even more sense. |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:29:01 PM EDT
[#32]
Des Plains, Midewin, (not far from 55/80) Matthison, and Starved Rock are further west, but maybe we try and track a little south so RadBaron doesn't have to go that far.
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:40:15 PM EDT
[#33]
It looks like Pontiac is a good middle area if we want to meet RadBaron. Seems like there might be some decent trails out that way. RadBaron, can you check this area out and see if there are any decent trails?
This might be a possiblity...we could hike it twice. Looks like its 2.6 miles. EDIT: Might help to put the link in. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/illinois/humiston-woods-loop |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:44:44 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
It looks like Muels and Doorman are south, too, maybe would could start looking for locations south of 80? That’s not too far for Slarti and I and if it meant getting a bigger group together I’d be willing to drive some. That could shorten the trip from Champaign a bit. Muels, Doorman, either of you guys interested in something next weekend? Edit, missed bssrf4, Plainfield is south as well, so it’s making even more sense. @bssrf4 Using the @ before a members name sends them a notification. We should try for a hike followed by some shooting! I’m an ISRA member and so is bssrf4 and a couple other ARF guys as well. There is also the range in Ottawa (can’t think of it now!)......its $30 a day per person though..... |
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Posted: 1/25/2020 11:57:25 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There is also the range in Ottawa (can’t think of it now!)......its $30 a day per person though..... |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 1:09:51 AM EDT
[#36]
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Posted: 1/26/2020 8:27:54 AM EDT
[#37]
In the Champaign area is Kickapoo State Park and Kennekuk, both have awesome trails. Danville, really, but close enough.
Up in Will county- long but flat is the towpath, there are several access points in Joliet, Channahon, Utica, etc. Plus, as mentioned, Waterfall Glen further north. |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 9:30:46 AM EDT
[#38]
If you guys want to do some shooting, I'm a member out at ASC in Waterman. The upsides would be it's only $10/day for guests we'd have considerably more latitude in what we can do (rapid fire, shooting on the move, etc.), the downside is it's not a short drive for most and I'm limited to 3 guests at a time.
I'd be up for a hike in any of the locations mentioned thus far. I'll need to keep a little closer in as the year progresses, but I'm willing to be one of the guys doing a bit of driving now when I have the time. |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 11:12:55 AM EDT
[#39]
I wonder how many of us belong to the same activist groups, such as NRA, Illinoiscarry, SAF, ISRA or other groups of a similar bent?
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Posted: 1/26/2020 11:23:04 AM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
It looks like Pontiac is a good middle area if we want to meet RadBaron. Seems like there might be some decent trails out that way. RadBaron, can you check this area out and see if there are any decent trails? This might be a possiblity...we could hike it twice. Looks like its 2.6 miles. EDIT: Might help to put the link in. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/illinois/humiston-woods-loop Have you guys checked out the "official" American Battle Buddies thread? American Battle Buddies If we're going to do this my vote is that we go by the guidelines that are laid out in that thread. I think the most important thing is getting together with other folks but the Battle Buddies system is pretty cool and there's a lot of method to their madness. The tl:dr is that we could use this hike to achieve a Provisional rating in the Battle Buddies organization. We'd need to complete a 3 mile hike in NLT one hour, wearing packs with a minimum 35 pound dry weight (excluding water). Since we can't carry long guns on the hike  our packs have to be 10 pounds heavier than if we were carrying guns.From that point on the hikes get longer and the packs get heavier. The thread I linked above details everything pretty well. I really like the idea of forming up an actual Illinois Battle Buddies chapter. |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 11:37:53 AM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That trail looks like pretty nice but I won't be able to physically check it out this week, unfortunately. I'm still playing catch up from being gone all last weekend and beginning of the week. I don't mind driving to the Starved Rock or Mattheissen area for the hike if anyone knows of good trails in that area. I hear Mattheissen is really nice and a lot less touristy than Starved Rock. I'll probably be looking rather paramilitary and although I'm not really worried about frightening all the Karens it might be easier to just not have to deal with them. Have you guys checked out the "official" American Battle Buddies thread? American Battle Buddies If we're going to do this my vote is that we go by the guidelines that are laid out in that thread. I think the most important thing is getting together with other folks but the Battle Buddies system is pretty cool and there's a lot of method to their madness. The tl:dr is that we could use this hike to achieve a Provisional rating in the Battle Buddies organization. We'd need to complete a 3 mile hike in NLT one hour, wearing packs with a minimum 35 pound dry weight (excluding water). Since we can't carry long guns on the hike our packs have to be 10 pounds heavier than if we were carrying guns.From that point on the hikes get longer and the packs get heavier. The thread I linked above details everything pretty well. I really like the idea of forming up an actual Illinois Battle Buddies chapter. |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 11:59:16 AM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The other 7 page thread in GD on this subject is what brought me here to the HT forum looking for exactly this. In other words, I'm down and that's why I'm here. 
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Posted: 1/26/2020 12:36:32 PM EDT
[#43]
So in the large, this is what Redbird and I floated as a loose schedule and I think it makes sense to follow this for now.
1. During the week, folks locally close can hike together. It seems we have a number of people in the south suburban area around RedBird and myself. 2. Weekends, we plan for a hike that will be more centralized so we can get a larger group. 3. Maybe monthly we do something even bigger. This is very encouraging to see this many people piping in, but i know/hope there are many others that I expect to pull in in next month or two. I too have been thinking/hoping for something like this for a while. I have been rucking (with a smaller weight) since early spring of 2019 and am excited about the possibility that this can hold for us. If we can setup a larger hike for Feb 1/2 or Feb 8/9, I think that would be the next step. I'd like to meet face to face and talk about what we all would like to get out of this as a group. I know that's likely not possible for everyone, but as many as we can get, I think it would be a good idea. So, I suggest Matthiessen (so we don't run into Karen. I hunt out at Starved Rock and Matthiessen and it's an accurate statement that there seem to be a ton of suburban hikers in S.R. during the weekend, Matthiessen has a lot less traffic.). What day works better for most? |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 12:36:50 PM EDT
[#44]
Plates don't count for weight. Bummer.
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Posted: 1/26/2020 12:38:34 PM EDT
[#45]
Not yet, Ben said they are still working out the categorizations. I think the standards are still "evolving"....But they will count for weight if you put them in the pack.
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Posted: 1/26/2020 12:49:57 PM EDT
[#46]
I like the ideas that are being floated for the weekend regional hikes and the monthly hikes that could hopefully bring a larger turnout. Mattheissen next weekend or the following weekend sounds great and I'm in 100% barring anything unexpected popping up.
Sundays would be preferable for me since I'd have to turn down some gravy OT to make it on Saturday but that's a minor consideration. If the weather looks nicer on a given Saturday or if Saturday just works better for more folks I'll just politely decline to work that day. I'm willing to do some driving so if any impromptu meetings pop up between now and then let me know and I might be able to make it. |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 12:57:36 PM EDT
[#47]
I'm in for this weekend at Matthiessen and Sunday works for me.
Maybe after the hike we can all go sit down somewhere together and start talking logistics moving forward? |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 1:25:13 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I'm in for this weekend at Matthiessen and Sunday works for me. Maybe after the hike we can all go sit down somewhere together and start talking logistics moving forward? |
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Posted: 1/26/2020 3:09:38 PM EDT
[#49]
Ok, let's say Sunday 2/2 9:00 AM. Meet at Matthiessen PL 9.
41.27981 -89.01949 There are three trails, this one is 2 miles but appears to be the less traveled. There is a 6 mile trail that we can go on, but I'm thinking for this hike maybe we can just add in what we need to get to three. There are some alternate trails. see below. 
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Posted: 1/26/2020 4:13:52 PM EDT
[#50]
That works for me and I'll be there.
BTW, I just loaded up my backpack with 45lbs. and tried it out. That's...not insignificant. I still think the 6 miles is doable with a little effort, but a better pack might be in my future if this takes off. Right now I'm predicting the biggest issue is going to be my shoulders. |
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