Sunday, June 24, 2012

Plainfield to Oswego


On Saturday the 23rd of June it was me, Casey, and Jon riding from Plainfield to Oswego.  From the picture, are you starting to notice a common theme to these bike rides?  But really, when you ride right past a place, you have to support a hometown business.  Besides, when we arrived at the Dairy Hut we were the only three people in line.  Then by the time we got our ice cream a few minutes later the line was over 20 people long!  Who knew we could draw such a crowd?!?  (Was it the bike pants??)

On the way out of Plainfield we followed Heggs Road to 127th, but on the return trip Jon guided us along the nice set of Oswegoland Park District trails through Grande Park and across the awesome pedestrian bride over Ridge Road.

In fact, Jon had a pretty interesting story about that bridge, a story that reflects very well on the developers of Grande Park.  And that bridge has always been a favorite destination for our family bike rides with the kids, so I appreciated knowing more about how it came to be built.  I may have said this before, but if you ever have a chance to go biking around Plainfield with Jon, you can learn a ton of interesting things.  At least I think they are interesting, so I'm grateful Jon is willing to share!  And I'm even more thankful for Jon's role in making our town such a great place to live!!

The bridge also happened to be the destination for Casey and me the last time he and I were able to ride together.  (That's a different story, one about a beautiful little princess who prefers not to share her carriage with bugs.)  So I was very happy that Casey was able to join us for a longer ride this time.  And we were all glad that the weather was overcast and cool, with just a light breeze.  It was a perfect Saturday evening for a bike ride with friends!

Details provided below:

End to End on the Old Plank Road Trail

On Saturday the 16th of June a group of us gathered for another trip along the Old Plank Road Trail.  This time the plan was to ride the whole thing, which for Tim would be his first 40-miler.  He and I started at the Joliet trailhead on Washington Street and rode to Frankfort.  In Frankfort we met up with Jon and the other Eric [note: to clarify, I am The Other Eric, not the other Eric].  They were not able to start quite as early that day.

While in Frankfort we also stopped at the trailside bike shop (Plank Road Cyclery) and I picked up a nice insulated water bottle for Tim, who had been riding that day with a large red thermos attached with a bungee cord to his bike rack.  My excuse, so that he would accept the gift, was his upcoming birthday.

Now personally I had no problem with Tim's thermos arrangement.  I greatly value function over fashion any day!  It was an excellent way to haul a large amount of ice water.  But he seemed a little self-conscious...and it was completely impossible for him to drink from the thing as he rode along.  Although I would have enjoyed watching him try!  So now he has a new water bottle.  In fact, he ended up liking it enough to order a second one when he got home.  It's nice when a gift is appreciated! 

Together the four of us rode to the eastern end of the trail at Western Avenue and then headed back to Frankfort.  Upon reaching Frankfort, Jon and Eric left us alone again (naturally) so Tim and I had to finish the ride back to Joliet on our own.  But not before I enjoyed some gelato at Mama Rosetta's Gelateria & Espresso Bar.  Tim waited very patiently while I ate.

When Tim and I finally made it back to Joliet it was time for dinner.  All afternoon we had been planning to eat at Dairy Queen, and seeing as it had been over 10 miles since my last ice cream, we headed that direction.  As it turns out, the walk-up Dairy Queen at Washington and White is maybe not the ideal choice for a fine dinner (see the representative photo above) but at least the ice cream was okay.

We did accomplish our main mission for the day, which was to ride 40+ miles.  Details are provided below:

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Exploring Drauden Road

Tim and I took a little trip this afternoon and met up with Nelson along the way.  Due to time constraints we didn't ride too far, but we did explore a portion of the first leg of next month's excursion.  This would be the section from the church down to our first stop at River Road and Jefferson, although we didn't actually get to Jefferson today.

I had ridden this route multiple times but I wanted a couple other group members to give it a try with me.  My plan was to get their impression of narrow Drauden Road and also to see how it was to get through there with more than one cyclist. 

I wish I knew a better way to bike from the north side of Plainfield to Caton Farm Road.  Once you get to Caton Farm there are lots of options for getting around, but I don't know of a really comfortable way of getting from Lockport Street to Caton Farm.  So my practice is to take Drauden and endure the 0.8 miles where it is narrow with no shoulder.  Actually I think that is the practice of many cyclists, because I often see others along there, too.  Luckily the cars have always been very patient and careful, which was the case again today.

Tim and Nelson thought it wasn't too bad.  I'm thinking we should go through there in multiple groups, 2-3 at a time.  That way cars don't have to get all bunched up trying to pass a whole group of cyclists at once.  We'll see how traffic is that morning and make a decision at that time.

Here's the summary:  

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Ottawa to Starved Rock Campground

Since much of this weekend was filled with Relay for Life activities, Friday afternoon we scheduled a ride intended to go from Ottawa to Utica along the I&M Canal Trail (~20 miles round-trip).  This would be the last leg of the trip we are planning for early July, and since we had not ridden it before, Jason suggested we check it out.  It turned out that only Jason and I were available, which was unfortunate given the really enjoyable ride we had.

As sometimes happens...we ended up riding a bit farther than originally planned.  Upon arriving in Utica faster than expected, we decided to see whether we could ride safely to Starved Rock State Park.  That meant crossing the Illinois River on the Route 178 bridge.  Friday evening...not much traffic...no problem.  We crossed the bridge and headed into the park.

After a brief stop at the visitors center, we planned to head back to Utica.  Then upon further reflection we decided it might be good to see whether we could ride safely from the visitors center to the campgrounds.  That meant climbing a steep switchback 200' hill (during which we saw both a turkey and a deer standing right next to the road) then exiting the park onto Route 71.  We were a little concerned about riding on 71 with no shoulder, but the flat wide road and sparse traffic made it easy.  We made it to the campground and peddled past the spaces reserved for our group next month.  Looks like we'll have a beautiful spot!!

On the way back to Utica, we figured it might be good to see if the Route 178 to Route 71 option might be easier than climbing the hill in the park.  Probably it depends on whether you prefer short and steep to long and gradual.  It might also depend on the amount of traffic at the time.  Either way, we went around the park and followed 71 to 178, flew down the hill, crossed the bridge again, and made it back to Utica.  After a brief and mandatory stop for ice cream at the County Cupboard, we headed back to Ottawa.

Overall it was a really fun ride with great weather and beautiful scenery.  The section of the I&M Canal Trail between Ottawa and Utica is a bit narrow in spots but well maintained and unlike any other portion I had ridden.

The one little snag yesterday was that I forgot to bring my Garmin watch to track our route.  Luckily, there's an app for that.  Just before leaving work I paid $0.99 and installed the MotionX-GPS app.  At the expense of high battery usage on my phone, it very accurately tracked the whole route and gave me a file I could upload both to the MotionX site and to Garmin Connect.  Here are the details:

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Old Plank Road Trail: Joliet to Frankfort

On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, three members of the group (Jason, Tim, and I) took a trip on the west half of the Old Plank Road Trail starting in Joliet.  Being the first Sunday of the month, we elected to wait until after the Men's Group lunch at Tap House Grill in which Jason and I also participated.  Normally it's not a good idea to indulge at the Tap House and then go bike riding for 22 miles, but the ride turned out to be a good way to burn off the calories from lunch.  It also allowed us to enjoy a few more calories in the form of ice cream at the halfway point in Frankfort:


Jason was disappointed that the convenience store didn't have the chocolate-chip-cookie ice cream sandwich he treated himself to during our Old Plank Road ride in September 2010.  I'm not sure how he remembered this from almost two years ago, but he thought the name of the sandwich was the "Big Boy."  Despite our encouragement, he wasn't willing the ask the cashier, "Do you have any Big Boys?"  Instead he had to settle for a different snack.  As it turns out, it may be good that he didn't ask.  A brief web search into the topic turned up the following product, with a slightly different name:


The ride itself went a little faster than is typical for our group, but someone possibly named Tim had this pretty good excuse about having to go to work that night.  So we took it easy on the first half of the trip, then high-tailed it back to the cars after the break.  The ice cream helped energize us.  We also got to experience the joy of drafting, where the person in front blocks the wind (and avoids hitting dogs) while peddling like crazy, and the bikers behind him coast along effortlessly.  It took us about an hour to ride the first 11 miles, but less than 45 minutes on the return trip.

See the link for details:


I think this a trail we definitely want to ride again with more members of the group!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Bike the Drive 2012 -- With Sun!

Bike the Drive this year greeted the group with much nicer weather than what we experienced a year ago. Jon, Eric W., Jason, and Nelson made the trip together this time. So that leaves us with this perplexing question:

Who took these pictures???

Jason, Nelson, Jon, and Eric resting in front of MSI

We took a very similar picture last year, but all you saw in the background was the fountain!