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:
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