Bernie's Week 5: Indiana, Illinois, and the People Who Show Up
A little over one month in, and Bernie Krausse is moving through Indiana and into Illinois on the Great American Rail-Trail — through thunderstorms that turned his hands blue, trail angels who opened their homes, and a canal towpath that's been carrying travelers since 1848.
Photos by Bernie Krausse
The Great American Rail-Trail seems to have a way of arranging things. You walk into a town uncertain of where you'll sleep, and somewhere between the city limit sign and the nearest trailhead, the answer tends to find you.
Bernie Krausse
Great American Rail-Trail - Westbound
Started: March 28, 2026
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Bernie Krausse is one month and one week in on the first-ever known thru-hike of the Great American Rail-Trail. He left the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. on March 28th, and as of Day 35 — May 1st — he's working his way up the Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail, headed west. The GPS data he's generating and verifying mile by mile is shaping Hiking America's Great American track in real time.
But the story of Week 5 isn't really about data. It's about what happens when you put yourself out there long enough and far enough that the world starts meeting you halfway.
Day 29 — The Nickel Plate Trail and Blackberry Brian
Bernie crossed the Wabash River into Peru, Indiana, on the morning of April 25th — historically the winter headquarters of American circus operations, a fact his imagination had some fun with. A stop at Wendy's to charge his phone turned into a small moment of connection: the cashier, moved by his story, handed him two extra bottles of water for the road. Twenty-seven miles later, he arrived at the trailhead in Rochester, where Blackberry Brian — an experienced ADT hiker who walked much of the trail coast to coast — picked him up.
That evening: Mexican beer in the sun, chili warming on the stove, and two hikers comparing notes about the world. Some of the best trail intelligence gets shared exactly like that.
Day 30 — Mosquitoes, Trumpeter Swans, and a Time Zone Shift
Sunday in Rochester felt like a town still dreaming. Bernie started his 31-mile day on a quiet, newer section of the rail-trail, then transitioned to Bicycle Route 35 through Indiana's agricultural interior. The Tippecanoe River had flooded its banks, and the mosquitoes — Bernie's words — were "rejoicing in his presence." 🦟 Three trumpeter swans disagreed with the mood entirely, honking and flying directly overhead.
By day's end, he'd crossed into Central Daylight Time and wrapped up two miles of the North Judson Erie Trail before Brian picked him up again for a meal in Culver, home of a historic military academy.
Day 31 — The Storm That Turned His Hands Blue
After a morning tour of Culver and breakfast at Culver Coffee Company, Bernie was dropped at the North Judson Erie Trailhead to resume his westward push. Sandhill Cranes called out as he walked. Then the rain came — and kept coming. For three hours, Bernie walked through lightning and thunder he described as "the gods using the sky as a bowling alley where every throw cracked as if they scored a strike." His hands turned blue. His legs stiffened. When the rain finally stopped, 30-40 mph winds took its place.
He arrived in Kouts having covered 29 miles — and was welcomed indoors by trail angels Jerry and Denise, who had also hosted Rhiis and Sara the previous July during their northern ADT walk.
Dry clothes, a warm meal, a guest room, and heavy rain pounding outside. That's the grace of a good trail angel on a hard day.
Day 32 — Synchronicity in Hebron
The connections kept coming. Jerry and Denise, it turned out, are originally from the Wooster, Ohio area — the same Amish country corridor Bernie had walked weeks earlier. The trail has a way of reminding you how small the country actually is when you're crossing it on foot.
Bernie's gear held through the storm: a Decathlon rain cover combined with garbage bag liners kept everything dry. With leftover dinner packed for lunch and a full breakfast from a diner in Hebron (portions described as "gigantic"), he walked a peaceful 26 miles into Crown Point, Indiana — camping in a trail angel's renter's backyard, the universe still providing.
Day 33 — Into Illinois
A 5:30 a.m. start, whippoorwills calling before dawn, and 32 miles with approximately 97% trail ahead — Bernie crossed from Indiana into Illinois, moving from the Erie Lackawanna Trail onto the Pennsy Greenway, a section that was new territory even for him. He paused to talk with 78-year-old Neil for twenty minutes, a man who'd been thinking about walking across America the way Forrest Gump ran — a dream simmering for years. Bernie descended into Chicago Heights on the Thorn Creek Trail, then straightened out onto the Old Plank Road Trail, a route dating to 1850 when logs and boardwalk were laid down so wagons could avoid the mud.
He ended the day at a hotel south of Chicago — the suburbs dense, the trail holding.
Day 34 — Joliet and the Canal
The Old Plank Road Trail carried Bernie through a striking range of landscapes: the industrial working-class history of Chicago Heights, then the manicured neighborhoods and multi-million-dollar homes of Frankfort, then recreational users — families, retirees, stroller-pushing parents. He dried his tent on a bench in the afternoon sun. He reached Joliet just as rain returned, ducking into the same Wendy's he'd visited two years earlier while walking the ADT from west to east.
Then, following the Des Plaines River, he turned onto the Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail — an unpaved towpath with open water, thick marsh, and hundreds of redwing blackbirds. Not a single mosquito in Illinois...yet.
Day 35 — The Canal, an Osprey, and Trail Magic at the Brewery
May 1st. An osprey dove into the canal at dawn like it was performing a morning ritual. Great Blue Herons, muskrats, pond turtles, a tree full of double-crested cormorants, a colony of egrets in a snag. The canal is a living corridor, and Bernie was moving through it.
The Illinois & Michigan Canal was dug between 1836 and 1848 by Irish immigrants. By 1870, steam-powered boats had replaced mule-driven barges. Bernie, working upstream on foot in 2026, was adding another chapter to its long story of human movement.
In Morris, he stopped at a local brewery. The imperial IPA was the best he'd ever had. Someone's unfinished pizza became his. A Hawaiian man at the bar noticed his Camino scallop shell, and they fell into conversation — the man is heading to Portugal this year and may now walk a ten-day stretch of the coastal Camino from Porto. Before Bernie could leave to cover his remaining eleven miles, a stranger had already paid for his drinks.
Trail magic doesn't announce itself. It just shows up.
Bernie camped near Seneca that evening, knowing a trail angel's home was waiting at the end of the next day. Five weeks down. Still moving west. 🥾
Hiking America's GPS Tracks of the Great American Rail-Trail
Week 5 covered significant ground across Indiana and into Illinois, including several sections that are actively being refined this week:
- We've updated two gap routes
- 3 miles of new Great American Rail-Trail in Casper, Wyoming
- New connector trail in Chadron, Nebraska
- The routing of a trail in Illinois has been modified
The updated tracks are now live on Gaia GPS for Hiking America subscribers and available free to everyone via our public link - https://hikingamerica.kit.com/great-american-gpx
In addition, Hiking America Subscribers will find
- 43 new Services Waypoints - 3,800+ and counting
Bernie's boots-on-ground verification is what makes this data useful. Every mile he walks, we learn something.
Hike Your Hike - John.
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