Down the Old Plank Road

Beautiful weather, a great bike path, and an excellent turnout made for an enjoyable day of riding along the Old Plank Road Trail (OPRT). We were very glad to welcome Don to his first ride with the group, and also were quite happy that Ken and Pat's daughter Kathryn agreed to join us. The others along for the ride included Jason, Marie, Pat, Nelson, and me (Eric L).

We started the ride at the western end of the trail just off Washington Street in Joliet. I had ridden the trail one time before, but it had been a couple of years. I remembered it having quite a few road crossings but otherwise being a very enjoyable ride. That was the case today, and fortunately on a Sunday afternoon most of the roads we had to cross weren't very busy at all.

The trail itself was pretty busy with families out for a stroll, old ladies walking their dogs, and old men passing us on their bicycles. Luckily it was almost perfectly straight and mostly flat, so you could ride at a pretty good pace and still see quite a ways ahead.

As we sort of anticipated and planned, our cycling group ended up splitting into multiple pieces, each according to their preferred distance:

• I think Pat and Kathryn had hoped to reach the 10-mile halfway point at Frankfort, but ended up making just about 10-12 miles round trip, in large part due to an unfamiliar bicycle for Kathryn.
• Marie headed back after resting with the guys at Frankfort, ending up with a total of about 22 miles.
• Don, who says he has hardly been riding much at all in recent years, turned in a 38-mile performance after riding 19 miles out and then heading back due to time constraints. We may need to check and see if Don is telling us the truth about his recent riding habits.
• Nelson, Eric, and Jason rode all the way to Western Avenue in Park Forest. Round-trip they totaled 41 miles...or actually 40.98 despite Eric's attempts to reach 41 by doing circles in the parking lot. (Stupid rounding errors. I thought I had it!)
  

The best thing about the OPRT would have to be downtown Frankfort, approximately the halfway point of the trail (11 miles from the western end). This is by far the nicest 'rest area' we've had on our rides so far this summer. There are trail-side restrooms with flushable toilets and running water, drinking fountains for refilling water bottles, nice benches for resting, a bike shop if you need assistance, and best of all, a convenience store that sells frozen treats!

Here's Jason working to offset some of those calories he was burning on the 41-mile ride:

And yes, that is a sandwich of ice cream stuffed between chocolate chip cookies. (Ken and Pat, don't you wish you were with us during that stop?!?)

And here's a photo of the trail area itself in Frankfort:

I really commend the town for making this a very nice place to stop and rest.

And finally, the ride summary itself, taken with my fancy "Forerunner 205" gadget which turns out to be not so nearly as fancy as Nelson's new "Forerunner 305" gadget:

Last but not least -- if you dare -- click on the following video to hear the song that was stuck inside my head the entire time we were riding today: