On the IPP and FRT: 9/19/2010

Oops on the part of Mr. Group Leader. My little navigation error this past Sunday added an extra four miles to our trip...on top of the extra two we voluntarily committed to riding before discovering my error. Even though Marie can now be proud of getting her first 30-miler out of the way, and Don can be surprised that his first two trips with our group averaged over 30 miles, I was feeling pretty bad about the whole thing. And now Marie has suspended me from leading a ride this coming weekend. Lucky for me my parents are coming into town and I wouldn't have been available anyway.

So here's what happened. I thought the group should make at least one visit to the Illinois Prairie Path (IPP) this year before the weather got too cold. This is a very significant trail in the Chicago area, and one I had not previously ridden. So I planned a trip starting at a junction of the IPP and the Fox River Trail (FRT) in Aurora. We started riding northeast on the IPP, then headed back northwest after crossing under I-88. These two legs of the triangle brought us back to the FRT just south of Batavia.

My plan was to ride a mile or so north of Batavia along the FRT and then turn around, following the FRT back to our cars. Total distance would have been about 24 miles. But I also mentioned that an extra mile north would get us all the way into downtown Geneva. The extra mile up and back would bring the total to 26 miles.

Trouble is, I got confused and thought the original plan (24 miles) was to ride a mile or so north of Geneva, and the bonus mile or two (each way) would take us into St. Charles. So I told Marie and Don that if we rode steadily, didn't take long breaks, and didn't have mechanical troubles, we could just make it to St. Charles and then back to our cars by 4:30 PM. So the extra four miles added 20 minutes to our trip, and we got back around 4:50 (after taking no breaks and riding too fast to enjoy much conversation).

The IPP itself, or at least the Aurora spur, was not the most scenic path we had ridden. I'd call it more "utilitarian." It got us from Point A to Point B. Here's an example of what I mean (with B&W to emphasize the true beauty of this segment):



Luckily the Batavia spur was a lot nicer:

And the Fox River Trail was its usual interesting self, complete with a trip past the amazing Fabyan Windmill:


So in total we rode 30 miles, with relatively few breaks and not as many enroute conversations. I think the remaining few rides of the year will be shorter and more conducive to visiting. The fun and fellowship to me are the most enjoyable things about these rides. We don't want to go so far and fast that fitness becomes the only thing we have left. Heck, on this ride we didn't even have time to stop for ice cream! I promise to do better in the future.

Here's our ride summary from Garmin: