Four New Trails In One Day!

Wow! Has it been that long since I have posted to this blog? Yikes! I will have to do some back blogging to get caught up here! I have been racking up some good miles since May when I decided to abandon my old road bike project and just get to the biking by buying a new road bike that noone in my family had already owned. I will back blog my monthly mileage later on.
        Yesterday, Saturday 8-9-14, I managed to ride on four new trails I had never turned a spoke on in the past. My friend Rob and I decided to take our road bikes down to the inner Chicago suburbs to do some trail riding. I looked at some pictures and video ahead of time at this great website called About-bicycles.com . They are a great resource for videos and pictures of trails in the Chicago area. So I was looking at the Greenbay Trail page at their site, as well as a few others, and realized that maybe road bikes weren't the best choice of bikes to take. So managed to talk Rob into using a mountain bike. I used a hybrid folder.
    Ahead of time we had decided that Lake Bluff would be the best "middle" spot to park. From there we took the North Shore bike Path to the West(Map). This trail connects the Robert McClory Trail(Map) and the Skokie Valley Trail(Map) to the Des Plaines River Trail(Map). We took this to the Skokie Valley trail.

A winded Rob pointed South on the Skokie Valley Trail.

We picked the right trail to ride first in the early morning light. Note there isn't much shade to be had on the Skokie Valley Trail. We found that the bikes had low tire pressure so we were in search of a gas station for most of the Skokie Valley trail.

Skokie Valley Trail sign

Skokie Valley Trail in the Lake Forest area looking South. Have you ever seen a double no passing line on a bike trail before? Wuuuut?

Looking North from the same location as the last few pictures.

The Skokie Valley Trail is somewhere in the approximate range of 8 miles long. It currently runs from Rte. 176 South to Lake-Cook Rd. When we got to Lake Cook Rd. we went East to the Braeside Metra train station where we headed South on the Greenbay Trail. The Greenbay Trail is approximately 16 miles long, running from Wilmette to Highland Park. We went as far as Kenilworth and then headed back North.

Robert McClory Bike Path sign

We took the Greenbay Trail back to the Robert McClory Trail and North on that back to Lake Bluff. The Robert McClory Trail stretches all the way from Highland Park to Kenosha Wisconsin for a nice approximate distance of 26.5 miles! That full trail I am going to save for another day. That will make a nice round tripper. Now back to Saturdays ride.

A 90 degree turn on the Robert McClory Trail

We stopped for lunch at Buffos Restaurant in Highwood. Good stuff. Mmmmm, pizza!

Rob is about sick and tired of the mountain bike and its sluggishness.

At the end of the trip we had a nice 40 miles in. What a good day to ride. The temperature averaged about 73 degrees during most of the peak hours of the days riding. We decided to break out the road bikes when we got home to remove the kinks that the other clunky bikes had worn into us. So we finished with a ten mile ride on the Fox River Trail.

First page of GIT 2011 finished

I have finally finished the first page of my long promised GIT 2011 travel log. I spent a bit of time and thought trying my hand at setting up the website myself. Hence the way late appearance of the first pages.
I am sure I will be updating this page as I finish the other pages. So check back and lemme know if you like it. For those of you that don't know, last year I rode the whole Grand Illinois Trail around upper Illinois from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. And from as far South as Joliet to the Wisconsin border. I did so over the course of ten intermittent days. I hope to have the first day of the trip loaded onto the webpage soon. Hope you enjoy it. And keep on biking!

Good day to ride

Got in 22.22 miles on the Fox River Trail today. Went North to Crystal Lake and back. When I got to the point where I turn around, I decided to go into old downtown Crystal Lake to see what kind of stores and shops are down there now.  And I ran into a nice bike shop called Wheel Werks. But I got there too late. They were closed.  Will check them out later. At least I got their website link off the front window. Overall the ride was a good one.

Cinco De Bike-o

I know I know! It makes no sense when you translate it. But it sounds funny and this is ONLY a bike blog.  So who cares? Anyways, after I got off of work at six in the morning I wasn't ready to sleep yet. So I decided to get in another ride on the Fox River Trail. Headed North from Carpentersville towards Algonquin.  In a past posting I was talking about a bridge over a creek in the Algonquin area of the FRT bike trail and how that bridge was out for repairs. Well, they had removed the whole dang bridge, as my pictures had attested to.  The signs had said the bridge was going to be inaccessible until May 5.  When I got to the area the signs were still up and the barriers as well. I thought I might as well go take a look for myself to determine the current conditions. The picture captions are numbered but not in order. I am too lazy and short on time to fix it right now. Heh.

1)That lite spot ahead is the location of the bridge.

4)A look up the trail from the center of the bridge.

2)Much closer to the bridge now.

3)Entering the new structure from the South.

And then I decided to lengthen my bike trip now that I have established that the bridge is useable again. I am going to head North to Lake In The Hills to see if I can see the site of that small plane crash that happened yesterday. Also, the new pedestrian/bike bridge over that nasty intersection of Pyott and Three Oaks Road should be nearing completion and is right next to the LITH Airport.

Riding North on the FRT. LITH Airport on left side of pic. Gravel pit on right where I THINK that small plane crashed. But no signs of it there now.

Looking across the street from the FRT at the LITH Airport.

Looking South on the FRT at Pyott rd. and the LITH Airport.

More looking South on the FRT.

More looking North on the FRT.

In that last pic, if you look hard, you can make out an old grain silo. That is where the new section of trail will open and go around the nasty busy intersection of Pyott and Three Oaks Roads and over a new bridge.

Left old trail leading to nasty intersection. Right new trail with new bridge.

Looking East up the new trail.

Looking North up the old trail.

On the new section of trail looking North at the new bridge.

Looking NorthEast from new trail section.

On new section of trail looking West towards old section of trail.

Looking directly North uphill towards new bridge.

New bridge construction not complete yet! Bummer.

A closer look at the forms.

Forms and corrugated galvanized steel on bridge.

Looking down and NorthWest at nasty intersection.

Looking parallel with West side of bridge.

On the bridge.

Good sturdy bridge! 20000 lbs!

Looking parallel with East side of bridge.

Looking down and East at Three Oaks Road.

Looking back South at my bike and the new trail.

Looking SouthEast at gravel pit from new bridge.

Alas, the new bridge is not done yet. I think I will continue North for a few more shots of the bridge and then into Crystal Lake to finish half of the ride.

On MCPP looking North towards the nasty intersection.

Entry gates at nasty intersection.

Just past the entry gates at the nasty intersection.

Construction everywhere.

Waiting for cars to pass in order to cross.

Looking East at the new bridge.

New lanes being added under new bridge.

And the old trail keeps heading North.

Looking South at the nasty intersection.

On the MCPP looking South at the nasty intersection.

Where the old and new paths merge.

Looking South where the two paths merge.

Looking South at the beginning of the new construction.

McHenry County Conservation District trail sign.

The Rules