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!