October Ride Summary

October 23: Fox River Trail from Aurora to St. Charles
With this trip plus the other two we took on the FRT this season, we ended up covering quite a bit of this great trail. Since moving to this area four years ago I have been wanting to ride this portion of the trail in the fall, on a sunny cool day when all the leaves were changing, so I finally got my wish. The conditions on this day were just about perfect for late October. We even managed to take a few pictures!

September Ride Summary

Saturday, September 17: Fox River Trail from Oswego to Illinois Avenue in Aurora
This was our second of two rides on this portion of the FRT. Later in the season you'll see we explored a different section of the FRT, that time starting at Illinois Avenue and heading north to St. Charles.

August Ride Summaries

Saturday, August 6: I&M Canal from McKinley Woods to Morris
One of the nicest, most enjoyable, and most accessible local trails for our group is the I&M Canal. Usually we start at Empress Road in Joliet, but to see different parts of the trail we sometimes gather at the state park in Channahon or at McKinley Woods. We'd also like to explore the portion of the trail west of Morris, but there are rumors of washouts and poor maintenance due to state budget issues. Probably something to look into for next year.


Sunday, August 21: Fox River Trail from Oswego to Illinois Avenue in Aurora
This was the first of two rides we took from Oswego into Aurora this summer. I like showing people this route on the FRT because the first time I tried it I became very lost while trying to navigate through Aurora. The key is to cross the river on the Virgil Gilman Trail, and then follow the signs through town. On my first attempt I tried winding my way through the east side of Aurora, eventually giving up when I didn't feel like competing with busy downtown traffic. Getting through town on the west side of the river is a piece of cake.

July Ride Summaries

Saturday, July 2: Virgil Gilman Trail
This was a fun ride on a warm day with our newest participant, Doug Lloyd. We rode the length of the Virgil Gilman Trail starting behind Menards in Montgomery and turning around at Waubonsee Community College.


Sunday, July 17: Plainfield to Oswego
This is one of my favorite on-road routes, starting at my house and turning around at Hudson Crossing Park in downtown Oswego. From there you can get on the Fox River Trail and ride as far as your legs (and rear) will take you. This day was particularly toasty, so we made the point of stopping at Dairy Hut to enjoy a couple of brain-freezing slushes.

June Ride Summary

Sunday, June 5: I&M Canal from Empress Road to Channahon


I thought there had been more rides in June than just this one, but looking back through my email and the Garmin logs, I can't find anything. I see lots of references to weddings and mission trips and Relay for Life and bad weather, etc. So I think it was a really busy month for lots of people, with uncooperative weather on top of that.

AN UPDATE!

After more searching, I did end up finding a GPS log from another June ride...

Sunday, June 5: I&M Canal from Channahon to Somewhere past McKinley Woods
This was a fairly short and somewhat different type of ride for the group. We wanted to explore the idea of family bike rides, with kids included. It turned out to be a really fun time, though the distance was maybe a tad too long for the youngsters and quite a bit shorter than adults prefer to ride. In the future we would like to re-explore the idea of rides for the whole family, but we are not yet sure how to make those work for everyone.


ANOTHER UPDATE!!

I knew there was one ride this summer when I didn't take my GPS watch to log our trip. I believe that was June 30th. We rode the Rock Run Trail from Gaylord Road down to the I&M Canal, east along the canal to Larkin Road, and then back up the Joliet Junction Trail to our starting point. Here's a map.

Back in Business!

Some things take a while to figure out. And in my case, some things take a very long while to figure out. Long story short: the Plainfield UMC Cycling blog experienced quite a lag over the summer as I tried to sort out access privileges between my multiple Google accounts. In addition, I was having problems managing the route tracking with my Garmin GPS watch. Thus I didn't have ride summary information to post, nor could I access the blog to post the summaries. Other than that, everything was working just fine! Fortunately, both issues have now been resolved.

For those who might have wondered, the Cycling Group actually did hit the trails many times over the summer, and we have continued riding this fall. I'll post a few ride summaries all at once, though I realize it would have been much better to post these right after the actual rides. Although we had quite a few rides this year, and may yet have a couple more, I think we had more frequent participation from more people last summer.

This for me is a lesson in marketing. We need to let the world know we're getting out there and having a great time! Then more people will want to join us! I also realize it was quite a busy summer, so even those who wanted to ride more often might not have been free to join us.

They'll regret it come February when cabin fever sets in and they wonder why oh why they didn't take the chance to ride when they could. Happens to me every winter.

-- Eric

Author sets course for summer biking

Author sets course for summer biking

Bike the Drive 2011

Early this past Sunday morning six members of the cycling group, in three separate pieces, ventured downtown for the annual Bike the Drive event along Lakeshore Drive. This was our first attempt at participating in a large group ride, so we ended up having the typical challenges of getting and then keeping everyone together. The main concern was to keep each cyclist with the person who would be their ride home, so we at least managed that part! We never ended up getting together with Ken and Pat, but that was okay because they had made arrangements to ride with some other friends who live downtown.

Somehow we did manage to get four of our members plus my dad together for a quick group photo next to Buckingham Fountain. This was after Nelson, my dad, and I had made arrangements to meet Jon and Eric at the Bryn Mawr turnaround at the north end of the ride; and after losing Nelson along the way; and after Jon and Eric had been waiting 15-20 minutes for us to get there; and after waiting for me to get off the phone with my office which needed someone to come in and help watch a line of severe storms moving into northwest Illinois (not really feasible in my situation); and after losing me when I told Eric, Jon, and my dad to go ahead without me; and after I met up with them again but still without Nelson; and after ignoring the Chicago Police and slipping through a barricade as they started to close the southbound lanes of Lakseshore Drive at 9:00 AM; and after happily reuniting with Nelson again in front of Buckingham Fountain. So in short, this picture captures the 5-minute period when all five of us were together at the same time.

I am guessing you probably can't tell all that by the photo:

After the picture was taken, three of us headed to the car while Jon and Eric headed south on the Drive. They ended up getting about 8 blocks away from the south turnaround before being moved onto the Lakefront Trail. I'm sure they would have finished the whole ride had they not spent so much time waiting for our half of the group! (Sorry guys!!)

What you may notice in the photo is the lack of a skyline. The point of Bike the Drive, of course, aside from getting up in the wee early hours of the morning, is the spectacular view to behold as you ride along between the city and the lake. Well, this year turned out to be cold and drizzly and so foggy you could hardly see a block down the street. (And just for future reference, an air temperature of 55 or 60 degrees is really quite uncomfortable when you are riding a bike, and even more so with overcast skies and a light drizzle.) So we didn't exactly get to take in the scenery this year. But it was still fun to have the entire eight lanes of LSD completely devoted to cyclists, and it was a good first effort at getting the cycling group together for a big organized ride. Let's just hope for better weather next time!

Here is the ride summary as recorded by my Garmin watch:

Dodging Thunderstorms

We held our second ride of the season this past Sunday afternoon, though not without some second thoughts in the parking lot before we got started.

Thunderstorms were gathering all around and we were visited by some brief showers as we unloaded our bikes, but by some miracle the bad weather managed to stay just south and east of our route. Ultimately Nelson, Marie, and I made it down to the Channahon state park and back while staying completely dry...and not being struck by lightning.

The weather did give me the chance to point out cloud features like the high cirrus anvil spreading downstream from the line of severe storms, and the mammatus hanging out underneath. I should note that these are not features you normally want to see when out riding a bike. (We discourage storm chasing in general, and especially so on bicycles.) I should also note that you have to be careful discussing mammatus clouds around Nelson. He appeared a little shocked by the dialogue. Apparently in Puerto Rico the word "mammatus" has the same etymology as our word, but with a much different translation. I refrained from getting the details!

Here is the ride summary:

First Ride of 2011

Despite the pessimistic forecast, the weather ended up cooperating beautifully and we were able to complete our first ride of the year. Ken, Eric, Jon, and Marie met Saturday afternoon for a 14-mile trip along the Wauponsee Glacial Trail. It was great to get back outside after several months off, and to enjoy the company of fellow riders. Somehow the trip goes much faster when you have someone to chat with the whole time!

Getting Ready for a New Season of Cycling!

Pull down that bike, clean off the cobwebs, fill up those tires, and grease that chain -- warmer weather is right around the corner! The PUMC Cycling Group will be actively exploring the area’s bike paths again this year, and we hope YOU will consider joining us!


Our main goals are fun and fellowship, but bicycling is also a great way to get outside and stay fit. Please contact our group leader at EricLenning@sbcglobal.net for more information.

Whether you are new to cycling or have been riding for years, we would love to have you join us!

Two possible upcoming events:

• Ride the Rock on Saturday, May 14
• Bike the Drive on Sunday, May 29