I decided on a one-way journey to visit all twelve Madison County Trail Critters.
Now I need to finalize my plan to determine distances, times, and, of course, how many Taco Bells I can stop at along the way.
If we look at the Taco Bell location map, we can see there are, unfortunately, no Taco Bells up by Hamel. But there are a few options for us to consider.
Taco Bell Plan #1
- 0.0mi: Start at the Route 66 Dog Park in Hamel and see Harry (1)
- 1.4mi: Continue on MCT Quercus Trove Trail until the trail map by Jerusalem and Route 157
- 2.3mi: Continue on Jerusalem heading west and turn south back onto MCT Quercus Trove Trail
- 8.0mi: Continue south into Edwardsville to the trail map by the Nickel Plate Junction
- 8.5mi: Take Springer to Dewey to Stolze to Jefferson to get to MCT Monarch Valley Trail
- 9.3mi: The trail dead-ends at Emerson. Head south to Hadley, then west to Lindenwood
- 9.7mi: Head south to Taco Bell, Edwardsville (1)
- 10.1mi: Leave Taco Bell and head toward MCT Nature Trail. Take Troy Road north and head west on 2nd Avenue.
- 10.4mi: Visit Newt (2) before continuing on the MCT Nature Trail
- 15.2mi: Visit Sandy (3), then continue west on Chain of Rocks. Turn south on 111
- 18.4mi: Eat at Taco Bell, Pontoon Beach (2) and continue south on 111. Use Revelle Trail to head east on MCT Nature Trail
Is It Possible?
Adding the six Taco Bell stops adds ten miles to the original plan in Part One. But it also adds thousands of necessary calories. Taco Bell is open late, meaning I am only limited by my ability to move, not by store hours. The critters will also not be opening or closing.
If we assume I can only do 4 MPH and need 20 minutes at each Taco Bell, we are looking at 19 hours.
The Taco Bells are reasonably spaced out: 10 miles, 9 miles, 13 miles, 12 miles, 10 miles, and 17 miles. The last, being the longest, is not ideal. We could easily cut off 10 miles by simply not visiting Hamel and starting at the Taco Bell in Edwardsville.
We can also cut off seven miles by removing the Taco Bell in Pontoon Beach. Going to one less Taco Bell is more interesting than cutting off a critter. Doing both brings us down to a more reasonable 52 miles.
I still remember my Olive Garden run.
The focus of that run was eating at six different Olive Gardens. My focus here is not to eat at six different Taco Bells—it is to see all twelve trail critters. I didn’t need the calories for each of those Olive Garden meals. I can easily adjust how much I eat at Taco Bell and can even eat while running if I want.
The Final Plan
We follow similar routes as the first plan, but instead cut out the Taco Bells in Pontoon Beach and Collinsville. We stop at four Taco Bells, spaced 10, 15, 18, and 17 miles apart, giving me four meals throughout the day. If I can run at 5 MPH and only take an hour total to eat, we could be down to as little as 13 hours.
Who’s ready for some spicy potato tacos and Mountain Dews?
