Mill Creek

[music playing] Lacey: Winter, spring, summer, or fall, there's not a bad time to visit Mill Creek.

I'm WEIU's Lacey Spence.

We'll share why you and your family should take a hike here, coming up.

Rameen: 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.

Lacey: 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 too far to find the beauty of the great outdoors.

Come along with me as I visit a variety of parks and natural areas across Illinois and share why you should take a hike to each episode's location.

Adventure and fun await in Take a Hike: The Mini-Series.

Lacey: Thank you so much for joining us or another episode of Take a Hike.

I'm your host, Lacey Spence.

And today, we took a quick drive down the road about a half hour from the WEIU studios.

We are at Mill Creek today.

We've got our guest.

Joining us today is Jeff Tippett, the Executive Director here at Mill Creek.

Thanks for having us today.

Jeff: Thank you for coming.

Lacey: Of course.

So we are ready to dive into all things Mill Creek.

We've got a beautiful day to be talking about why folks should come here.

But first, I actually want a little bit of background on you.

How'd you end up here at Mill Creek?

Jeff: I'm retired 30 years as a police officer, and I moved down to Mill Creek for the fishing.

And I got a little bored with being retired, so I took this job.

Lacey: So what is maybe your favorite part of the job?

Do you get to be outside at all?

Jeff: All the time, we're outside almost all the time.

And my favorite is always the lake and the fishing.

Lacey: Well, wonderful.

So as we go through reasons people should come to Mill Creek, let's start there with the fishing.

Jeff: This lake is known for their bass that are on the lake.

And we have tournaments every weekend with people who come down just to fish for the bass.

And then towards the middle of the season, we start getting crappie.

They start hitting real hard.

Then you'll get your tournaments for crappie.

And people just come down, they fish all the time.

They'll fish clear into December and January, as long as the water doesn't ice over.

Lacey: I tell you what, I've driven through overnight for work back in the day, and I would notice little lights on fishing boats pretty darn early in the morning.

When are folks getting out here?

Jeff: They get out before dawn.

Before the sun comes up, they'll be on the water.

Happens all the time.

Early, the guy who gets here earliest gets the best fish, I guess.

But I'm not one of those get up at dawn guys.

Lacey: Me neither, if I didn't have to.

Jeff: Right.

Lacey: For fishing and stuff, is there an association that I need to link up with to be able to fish here?

Jeff: If you're wanting to have a fishing tournament here, what you would do is contact the IDNR for an application.

They would review your application for fishing, either approve it or disapprove it, then send it off to us.

And we would get it and we would approve it or disapprove it, depending on how many boats we have out on the lake that day, or what we're expecting.

Lacey: Got you.

Jeff: We take a maximum, I'm sorry.

We take a maximum of 40 boats per day in a fishing tournament.

That's as many as we'll take.

Lacey: That sounds like it'd be a pretty competitive field out there.

Jeff: Yes, yes.

Lacey: Well, wonderful.

So speaking of that's how you get a tournament started.

For ones that are pretty rooted here, who would I need to link up with to try and get in on one of those?

Jeff: That would be, there's a Wednesday night tournament that runs every Wednesday night, and his name is Mike Daily is his name.

You'd have to link up with him and he could point you in a direction to go.

Lacey: Awesome.

For boating out here, I know that's also pretty big.

Is this a no wake lake?

I mean, I see other boats out here.

So what are we kind of looking at?

Jeff: This is a big recreation lake for recreation boaters.

We have 93 homes that are on the lake, and we have a marina that holds about 200 and some, at least 200 different boats on it.

There is no horsepower, nor is there a size limit on this lake, so it gets pretty busy during the summer.

Lacey: So that's anything from your bass boats, your pontoon boats, jet skis.

Jeff: Jet skis, bigger boats, your wake board boats are big on this lake.

There's a lot going on in the summertime.

Lacey: I bet.

Is there any sort of kayaking, or canoeing?

Are they trying to compete too much with these big boats?

Jeff: We just installed two kayak chutes over on the courtesy docks here, as well as we've just finished concreting our boat ramp.

And it has increased our kayak to people who want to come out and kayak quite a bit.

We see a lot of kayakers just recently.

Lacey: I bet because it's so beautiful out here.

If I'm someone who's not familiar with the lake, is there any particular good spots, or points, or coves that I should maybe try to look out for?

Jeff: Well, on every cove, you have a point, on every point, usually have fish if it works out that way.

So if I were telling somebody where to go fish, I would tell them to fish all the points of all of our inlets.

And we have, it'd be six inlets, major inlets, and there's a lot of fish holed up on the points.

Lacey: Got you.

So is that the secret?

Jeff: Some of it, yeah.

Lacey: So also, is there swimming allowed out here?

Jeff: Swimming allowed only in the coves.

You can't swim on the main lake.

And if you are going to swim, you have to wear a life vest, as well as there's an orange flag that you have to put up on your boat so that everybody knows they have swimmers in the water.

There's a lot of swimming that goes on in these coves during summer.

Lacey: A great way to cool off.

Jeff: Yes.

Lacey: So other than boating and swimming, I know we've hit that really hard, Mill Creek is also definitely known for its camping.

Jeff: That's right.

Lacey: Can you talk about that a little bit?

Jeff: We have 143 active campsites right now, and have received a grant to put an additional 32 campsites in, which we're working on presently.

The 32 new campsites should be all full hookup, whereas the 143 are only a partial hookup, just electric and water.

We're really excited about our 32 new campsites and hope they're completed soon.

Lacey: And I just want to make sure I understand.

I know there's definitely camper camping because we drove by campers on the way in.

Is there tent camping out here as well?

Jeff: There is.

We have many, many primitive camping sites, and we encourage people to get back to nature and basically get on these camp, these primitive sites.

Lacey: And if I'm somebody who is looking to try and snag a spot, how would I do so?

Jeff: You would just call our gatehouse, 217-889-3601, and ask for a primitive camping site.

They take some information and you'd be all set to go.

Lacey: Got you.

I have to ask.

Sometimes you never know if there's a way to do it online, or phone, or you've got to come in person.

Jeff: We have an online service that we're putting into place right now, but it's still being worked on, so right at this very moment, you can't do it online.

Lacey: That's fair.

We'll stay tuned for that.

Jeff: Yes.

Lacey: So as folks are staying here and camping here, other than the lake, what type of outdoor activities are available for them?

Jeff: We have horseback riding.

We have one of the biggest bicycle trails, the Fay Pickering Memorial Bicycle Trail.

We have many walking trails.

We have most everything to do out here.

It's always busy.

We have off-road vehicle trails.

We have 30 some miles of off-road vehicle trails.

There's quite a bit to do.

Lacey: With the off-road vehicle trails and things of that nature, do I need to get any sort of a permit to bring my four wheeler out here or anything like that?

Jeff: Yes, you do.

You would just stop by the gatehouse and get a state permit.

It's our OHV annual permit, and along with our, the park's annual permit to use it.

You just display it in your windshield and you're all set for the year.

Come out anytime you want.

Lacey: Awesome.

Circling back to the trails that are bicycle, are they dirt, are they gravel?

Jeff: They're mostly dirt, and they're cut through the trees.

It's really a pretty ride, and part of some of the bicycle trails is quite challenging for people and their mountain bikes, yes.

We also have quite a few races out here with the mountain bikes.

I would say at least eight or 10 a year.

Lacey: Well, this seems like quite the destination for it then.

And speaking of events, what are some of maybe the highlights that happen throughout the year that folks should know about?

Jeff: Well, you definitely should be aware of our 3rd of July celebration, where we have literally set up for food trucks, and we have bands and all kinds of activities going on.

We have a DJ on the water who plays to the boats that come out on the water, and then at dusk, of course we have a fairly large fireworks display.

It's a whole day event.

Lacey: That sounds beautiful.

I'm sure there's no better front row seat than on the water on a boat.

Jeff: Oh, yeah.

It's really beautiful.

We probably have 200 boats out there all parked at one point.

There'll be a DJ on the dock playing while the fireworks are going off.

The folks really love it.

Lacey: So we've covered the 3rd of July very well.

What else happens throughout the year?

Jeff: Throughout the year, we have a large hayride in the fall months, as well as we have a trick or treating, hours for trick or treating, where we literally shut down the entrances to the campground and the kids can just go from RV, to RV, to RV, getting all their candy and goodies from them.

That also is quite an experience if you're part of it with children.

Children come from all over for this.

Yeah.

Lacey: Do people decorate for it and really get into it?

Jeff: Oh, yeah.

They decorate their RVs.

We have two competitions, the best decorated RV, and of course, the best costume, and so it's pretty cool when they're working on it.

Yes.

Lacey: You roll up to the haunted RV.

Jeff: Yeah, exactly.

Lacey: And so is there anything else throughout the year besides around the 4th?

Jeff: Well, we have the chicken ... Oh, boy.

Chili cook-off.

Sorry.

Lacey: No, that's okay.

I get so excited I'd barely be able to spit it out.

We love a good chili cook-off.

Jeff: There's a good chili cook-off just right in the beginning of fall.

There's some other breakfasts, and there's the Easter egg hunt on Easter.

There's quite a bit to do for the kids several times throughout the year.

Yes.

Lacey: Well, and a great resource you were telling me off camera to keep up with all things Mill Creek is to check out your Facebook page.

Jeff: That's correct.

Lacey: And so if you aren't taking notes along with us for all of these events, you can pop in there, and especially if something comes up during the year, something special, you can usually find it there.

Jeff: That's correct.

You can.

Lacey: Let's see.

We haven't talked about hunting.

Hunting is pretty big out here.

I know that the deer are out here like crazy.

Jeff: Yes.

We have more deer.

I encourage hunters to come out and hunt because we have a lot of deer.

We start October 31st and then end at some time in January.

This year, I will end it January 17th or thereabouts.

You're able to bring in your tree stands with you, either on a daily basis, or you can rent what we call a sticker and leave your deer stand up in the tree in locations that are marked.

Most of the outside of the lake, anything south of the campground, you're able to hunt, as well as many other acres.

We have a total of 2640 acres, and most of that is huntable.

Lacey: And is it shotgun hunting and bow hunting?

Jeff: No.

Just bow hunting.

Lacey: Just bow hunting.

Jeff: The only shotgun hunting we allow is for the geese, and that's twice a year, and you have to be shooting over the water in order to get a shotgun permit for geese.

Lacey: Got you.

Is there any other hunting out here for, I don't know, maybe sort of pest control, other than geese and for deer?

Jeff: No.

No, there really isn't.

Lacey: And what about any sort of plant life out around the lake?

Jeff: Well, we of course get every ... Our morel mushrooms that come in once a year and everybody hunts this lake for morel mushrooms, and everyone claims they have the secret spot that they go to and load up.

Lacey: Well, do you have a secret spot?

Jeff: No.

Lacey: You're not going to- Jeff: Not that I'd tell you.

Lacey: You wouldn't tell us.

Jeff: That's correct.

Lacey: Love it.

Well, while we're out and around the lake, is there anything that I might have missed that folks should check out or should know about?

Jeff: I would like just to go back to the Fay Pickering Memorial mountain bike track.

Lacey: Oh, sure.

Jeff: And make sure that everybody knows about that, and they should come out and try that ...

They have an easy, a moderate, and then of course a difficult trail.

And it's pretty challenging.

They're all pretty challenging places.

Lacey: Yeah.

And out here, we're at the boat launch, and you were mentioning a little bit about it, that a lot of this has been recently, Got a little extra TLC.

Jeff: That's right.

Lacey: Can you talk about that?

Jeff: We just completed a grant given to us by the IDNR for the whole boat ramp, and it's behind the cameras back there, but we just put up a new boat ramp.

It used to be just an asphalt, it was very bumpy, and it's all now concrete, just as solid as can be.

Behind you, we put up that little pergola where people can stand and be out of the sun while you put your boat in or take it out.

Or if you want to come up and have lunch, use the pergola, and of course, the tables that we're sitting on, they could lunch here very easily also while they're enjoying the lake.

Lacey: And we know that if anyone's trying to back a boat, the last thing you want is things to be bumpy.

And you're already stressed out enough.

Jeff: Yeah.

As I said, people sit up on the hill and literally watch people put their boats in and out, and I guess it's pretty comical.

I've never done it.

Lacey: Saying, "Please look away," if I were to ever attempt that.

Jeff: Correct.

Lacey: I also like that as we were coming to this particular spot, the very nice ramp walkway, because we want to make sure that the outdoors and everything is accessible.

Jeff: Right.

We're ADA compliant and we try very hard to be ADA compliant for everything that we do here at Mill Creek, including our cabins and walkways and things like that.

Lacey: Now cabins, is that something I can rent?

Jeff: We have eight cabins right now, with plans on putting a ninth one in.

And you're able to rent those same way, just dial that number and tell them you want to rent a cabin.

Is it available?

And they'll tell you.

We have eight cabins throughout the lake and they're all ready to go.

Lacey: Awesome.

Now if I'm looking for some grub, somewhere to eat, are we near any good eateries?

Jeff: Well, Pat's place is right over here.

That's called The Mill Creek Restaurant, and a lot of people frequent that.

That's about the closest one.

She's within a half a mile of the park and she has great food.

Yep.

Lacey: And then we are roughly, gosh, 10 to 15 minutes from Marshall.

Jeff: Seven miles from the city limits of Marshall, so it's an easy drive.

Inside of Marshall, you'll find all your grocery stores and everything that you would need in support of a park.

Lacey: And in our last couple of minutes here, is there anything about the park that is a must see before someone leaves?

Do you have a favorite spot?

Jeff: I just like the colors when the colors change in the fall.

I know it's spring, but when the fall colors come in, I spend a lot of time out on the lake just because they're beautiful, and watch our two resident eagles on the lake also.

Yeah.

Lacey: Awesome.

Well, we're going to take a quick break.

And the next time you see us, we'll be on a boat.

We're going to check out some of those fall colors as we're taping here in October, but our folks will be seeing it in spring/summer as they're making their outdoor plans.

So don't go anywhere, Take a Hike will be right back.

[drone sounds, music playing] Lacey: Welcome back to Take a Hike.

You'll notice I kept good on my promise.

We are on a boat.

We've still got Jeff with us.

And where are we headed, Jeff?

Jeff: We're heading down towards the dam.

It's about four miles straight on down the lake.

Lacey: So what kind of history you got on that?

How long has it been here?

Jeff: The project, this whole watershed project started in about 1972 with the purchase of some land.

They actually started making the dam and the lake in the early '80s, late '70s, early '80s, and I think 1983, Mike, they opened it.

It was filled with water.

Yep.

Right in that area.

Like I said, it's 840 acres approximately, with about 33 miles of shoreline.

Lacey: Got you.

And for the folks at home, just to let you all know, Mike is our captain today.

And we've been told he's the crappie king, so we're in great company today.

So again, how big of a lake were you saying this is?

Jeff: 840 acres.

Lacey: My goodness.

Now is there anywhere on the lake where you would go and maybe feel kind of secluded at all?

Jeff: Oh, absolutely.

There's four, or five, or six inlets that go back perhaps a mile or better than that, and people go back there all the time.

And that's where they do all their swimming or fishing, just to get off the main lake when it's congested.

Lacey: And so as we had hit on a lot of events earlier, one of the things I always like to ask is if there's any way for people to give back.

Is there any sort of clean up, or efforts that happen here?

Jeff: Once a year, we have a campers' cleanup, where the campers come out and they help us clean up the campground, whatever debris is on the ground from over the winter.

The only thing we ask of people is that they use the trash receptacles and try and put everything that they bring in the receptacle that they want to get rid of.

And the folks are wonderful about that.

They want to keep the park clean.

Lacey: Definitely.

And we try to stress that throughout our episodes, that we want people to leave no trace, to leave the nature, to not be picking the plants, or disturbing the animals, feeding the wildlife, those sorts of things.

So as we're heading out here on the water, we're seeing a lot of fishermen and women taking part today.

You were telling me that there's folks who come during the week, which we're here during the week.

I was concerned that we wouldn't be as busy today.

But you say that's not quite the case.

Jeff: No.

There's plenty of fishermen out here, and they're here all the time, even when the season gets over in November.

The fishermen here will fish clear into January if there's no ice on the lake.

They love it.

Lacey: Now do people fish when there's ice on the lake?

Jeff: Yes.

Lacey: Did you mention that earlier?

Jeff: Oh, yes.

I've never seen the lake completely freeze over, but the parts that do, you'll get guys that come out here and dig a hole and ice fish.

There are people who that's all they want to do is ice fish.

Lacey: Now what about, is there any good fishing stories, any that stick out that are just crazy, that might be fun to share with our viewers?

Jeff: There's plenty of stories.

Everybody's got one that got away, or got one in the boat that was huge and put it back.

Mill Creek Lake is a little known destination for musky.

There's a lot of big musky in this lake.

And we have just started recently taking tournaments from musky fishermen, which is a whole different fishing technique other than everything else.

And they did pretty well this last tournament that they're in.

I'm sorry.

Lacey: Now as we are going along, again, we're taping in October, we are getting a sneak peek at the beautiful fall colors that you were hyping up.

I think our cameraman's going to give you a very good look at those.

What is it like for you to be able to work here and be able to share these views, this glimpse of nature, with the Central Illinois area?

Jeff: I live on the lake, so I can come down and be on the lake at any time.

But I encourage everyone that I talk to to come down, see these colors, see what's going on on the lake, do a little fishing, or even just a little boating.

We have a lot of pontoon boats that just literally just cruise the lake just like we're doing.

Lacey: And I know this is a heavily used place by locals and folks probably within that half hour to an hour range like we are.

But where have you heard people coming from, the lengths that they have gone to come visit Mill Creek?

Jeff: We had a man come from Alaska to use the Fay Pickering Memorial Trails right there, and he made sure that we knew it.

He was driving through and he had to stop, it was a destination for him to bike on that.

So I would say that's probably the farthest.

Lacey: Wonderful.

That's neat.

So it's got quite the draw then, not just Illinois.

Jeff: Yes.

It does.

Lacey: Do you get a lot of Indiana residents coming?

Jeff: We do.

We get a lot of Indiana people who drive an hour, hour and a half, and they just love coming here.

Most people do once you're on the lake.

Lacey: And to go through the nuts and bolts a little bit, are there certain hours that the park is and isn't open?

Jeff: We're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you just want to come and drive through the park, that's fine.

If you want to just walk through the park, that's fine.

We're open all the time.

Yes.

Lacey: Awesome.

Jeff: We're now down at the dam looking at the dam, which is the largest manmade dam probably in the state of Illinois.

Along the top of it is the Fay Pickering Memorial Bicycle Trail, so you'll see bikes go right over the top of the dam every day.

The NRCS, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Clark County Park District are who are the caretakers of the dam, and we're presently involved in a grant where we're looking at the dam thoroughly through a perspective, and the NRCS has given us a grant to do that.

So we're pretty excited about that.

Lacey: And you were saying that's to make sure that everything's structurally looking good.

Jeff: Yep.

They drill holes in it and they really go through, almost a year, they've been working on just taking a look at what's the site of dam, that everything is good.

If there's any weaknesses in the dam, the second part of the grant would be that they would help us with repairing.

Lacey: And when you were talking about the spillway earlier, what were you saying about the emergency of it?

It's never been close to... Jeff: Never.

We have an emergency spillway at that end of the dam.

And if the water were to get over 616 feet above sea level, it would start emptying into the spillway to relieve the pressures on the dam, and go around the back of the spillway.

And there's actually six more small dams as you go along to slow it down.

And we've never even been close to 616 feet.

It's never gone over the emergency spillway at all.

Lacey: That's a relief.

I know that when we've done ... We had done an episode on Lake Shelbyville in our first season.

There was a lot of fishing around the dam.

Is that the case here or no?

Jeff: Yes.

They fish around here in the deepest part of the lake right now, we're about 60 feet.

And you'll get a lot of fishermen who go up along the dam and fish for the bass that hang out in the riprap in the deepest part of the water.

Yes.

Lacey: Jeff, you've been a wealth of information for us today.

Thank you for coming on Take a Hike.

Jeff: Thank you for coming and interviewing us.

Lacey: Of course.

And thanks to our viewers for joining us for this episode.

We hope we'll see you next time.

[music playing] Rameen: 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.