Seba Park

Tree art and bike art in front of stores at Seba Park in South Elgin, Ill. on the Fox River Trail. 28 Apr 2013.

Traditional Flooding

28 Apr 2013.  South Elgin Main St. bridge intersecting the Fox River Trail, looking South. This kind of flooding happens alot. The building just to the left of the picture was recently removed. So there is a nice open yard one can use to get up onto the bridge. The trail goes under the bridge and then loops around to connect to the sidewalk going across the bridge. Note: The line of debris on the trail in the foreground shows the level at which the flooding peaked earlier.

Teepee

April 28 2013 on the Fox River Trail looking South on the East side of the river across from the National Street Metra station. Note the Teepee just left of center in the background of the picture. Indians should know better than to build in a flood plain! Hehe.

End of season for road bike

So, all the overtime work I have been putting in and the weather changing has prompted me to bring the road bike inside until spring. It is just more convenient now to come home from work and find a bike already set up on the rollers and get to biking.i still have the folding bike for any outside riding anytime during the rest of this year.

   When I took the front wheel off of my road bike to mount it on the rollers, I found that i need to do something with the magnet and odometer from the front wheel. I tried last year to put the odometer magnet on the back wheel and that proved to be a debacle at best. I had the computer set over 2000 mm for wheel circumference. I decided to do something different this year. I used zip ties to strap the magnet to the front roller! Hahaha! I had to set the computer to 359 mm...lol.

The little white thing in front of the roller is an old fish food container with the odometer transmitter strapped to it. At least its a better set up than last year. :)

September 2013 Chicago Critical Mass ride.

I decided to take a half day from work and go downtown to the Chicago Critical Mass Ride.A view of downtown from 
I-90

Me driving and the bike on the back of the car.

My buddy and the bikes at 
Daley Plaza awaiting the beginning of the 
Critical Mass ride.

Three trails

Three trails in one day. The Stone mill trail then the Long Prairie Trail and lastly the Stone Bridge Trail.The below pictures are not in order and I am too lazy to put them in order. So I will just describe them as they are.

This is at the very East end of the Long Prairie Trail near Capron, Illinois.
Boone County Conservation District trail sign in the parking lot at the East end of the Long Prairie Trail.
Looking East on the Long Prairie Trail in Capron. I have seen people finding/placing Geo-caching items near or around that picnic table in the past.
Approaching a bridge West of Capron while heading East on the LPT.
Still approaching.
Parking lot at East end of LPT.
LPT sign at tfhe East end of the trail.
Looking East at the very end of the LPT.
Approaching the end of the LPT at the East end of the trail.
The Brown Conservation Area at the West end of the LPT and the East end of the Stone Bridge Trail.
My bike up against the wall of the restrooms at the Brown Conservation Area.
A sign on the Stone Bridge Trail.
A sign on the SBT at McMichael Road.
Map of the SBT.
At the Stone Bridge Observation Platform.
At the West end of the Stone Bridge Trail. If you look close, you can see the continuation of the railroad tracks on the opposite side of the street under the bridge.
A couple of miles from the West end of the SBT.

Stone Mill Trail sign at the West end of the trail.
Looking West on the SMT.At the Milk Days park in Harvard Illinois at the East end of the SMT.

Springtime flooding near FRT

Spring flooding on/near the Fox River Trail on 27 April 2013. Photo near intersections of Williams Place and Duncan Ave in East Dundee, Illinois.

Stooges

Hahaha!

New angle on bike blog

Okay. So I didnt really blog much this year about biking. But I sure took alot of pics this year and the last few that never made it onto the blog. So I will attempt to post at least one (random?) picture per day this fall and winter. So here is the first picture(s):

Pictures from the intersection of Rte 31 and the Fox River Trail and its corresponding road(bike?)blocks.

This spring I found that a large project would be blocking the Fox River Trail for all of this year and the NEXT YEAR AS WELL due to piss poor planning.

A much needed bypass of the downtown Algonquin area would begin construction.

Along with all the unneeded related fallout.

Like this bridge that was taken out and won't be replaced for quite a random while for some random b.s. political reason.

And the side trail I found around the problem which only worked well in the spring due to the later overgrowth problem.

Down there where that building is in the distance is where the trail is.

And just circumvent the back of the ballpark over to the side trail and back onto the main trail to Crystal Lake. A fun ride but a deterrant to riding that direction sometimes this summer. :(

Biking this summer

I have not ridden on any new trails this year. Too many things have gotten in the way of new trails and rides. So most of the year of biking has been spent on local stuff like the Fox River Trail and the McHenry County Prairie Path and the Illinois Prairie Path. I currently have logged 1,185 miles for the year.

Below are a couple of pictures I took while riding on the FRT today in Algonquin.