We were welcomed to the ride with a bright sunny day. While, this may seem like the best blessing God could give to a ride, by Sunday afternoon with temperatures soaring into the 90s and sweat almost literally coming off of me in buckets I began to wonder if God was punishing me for missing church :) Our ride started along the beautiful Fox River trail and headed south. When we hit Aurora we headed out onto country roads. After seemingly endless miles of cornfields we hit the blessed shade of the Illinois and Michigan canal trail. We stayed overnight at Illini State Park, a beautiful small park with two showers per gender. 135 sweaty tired bikers and four showers. As you can imagine, we started up some great conversations in the shower lines!
Day 2 was an easy day. We rode the I&M canal trail to its end in LaSalle and then came back to Utica for a stay at Starved Rock State Park, about 35 miles. The I&M is a beautiful trail with a lot of bird and turtle viewing opportunities. In places the old canal works are still visible, in other places the canal is completely grown over. The canal is a great reminder of the audacity of humans. Unable to navigate the Illinois River, a new river was dug beside it. As audacity increased the Illinois itself would be reversed and damed. Yes, I said reversed. The brilliant idea was had to send Chicago's sewage down the Mississsippi instead of into Lake Michigan. If only that ingenuity had been put to use keeping the sewage out of the river in the first place!! We had storms that night, and was very happy to discover that my new tent was indeed waterproof! We were told that tomorrows weather looked like beautiful tailwinds (bikers dream weather!) the entire way.
Day 3 was much cooler thanks to the previous evenings storms. So with excitement we started our 72 miles with glee about our tailwinds. “This is going to be a piece of cake!” Ok, I don't know what Chuck's (one of our organizers) idea of a tailwind is, but mine certainly doesn't include strong winds out of the north when your cue sheet points almost straight north. Sigh. The long, slow day did show off the true beauty of Illinois. There is the local bar in West Brooklyn that opened early so that we could stop there for lunch, and then to our surprise provided us with sandwiches and cookies for free and drinks for a dollar! There were the three young brothers along the road with jugs of water. One of the faster bikers had limped to their door, tongue hanging to the ground begging for water. They thought “hey, why not sit out there and just give everyone that passes some water”. We spent the night at Lowden State Park on the Rock River. It has the second biggest one-piece concrete monolithic statue, or some such thing. Hey, it was a long day of “tail winds” it's pretty hard to remember the details! The statue was pretty impressive though. It stood, arms crossed, looking out over the Rock River. The artists imagined so many others before them standing enjoying the view in just that pose, and you could see why. It was gorgeous.
Day 4 we hit the road for Rock Cut State Park near Rockford. We had beautiful rolling hills, and of course more corn. I remember it being nice, but can't remember much else.
Day 5 was supposed to be our “day off”. The gal I had found to ride with and I had decided we would go swimming and kayaking instead of large amounts of biking that day. We got down to the lake and started hearing thunder, and got told there were reports of a big storm coming through. We decided that we did not want to be in the middle of a large body of water in a lightening storms, so decided we would do the optional loop into Rockford, pick up some lunch while there and try again in the afternoon. 45 miles later (day off my sore backside!) we came back to the lake with not a storm in site the whole morning. We walked into the kayak shop and heard rumbling. We decided we would try anyway. To our luck, no storm and a beautiful hour of kayaking!
Day 6 we headed up to the Wisconsin border and road along it for a while. I had to stop and adjust my pack, and the best spot happened to be on the cheesehead side, so I guess you can say I took a side tour into Wisconsin, if only for a few feet! The terrain was again beautiful rolling hills. We arrived at Chain O Lakes State Park. The evening was celebrated with S'mores.
Day 7, last day of the ride. We weren't the only ones upset to be ending, for the heavens themselves opened up and cried. And cried. And cried. We stopped at Dolton's rained out farmer's market and brought delicious strawberries from one of the few brave vendors. Most of the day was spent on trail, first the Long Prairie Trail and then the Fox River Trail. I love trail riding! I love wooden bridges! I love very beautiful wooden bridges that gracefully arch underneath another bridge! I love downhills! I love curves in the road! I do not love when rain slicked “caught you looking in awe instead of watching the road” wooden bridges that come right after a wonderfully fast downhill and then a curve. My bike and I disagreed on which direction to go, and we both ended up splayed across the lovely wooden bridge. To share the moment, we roped the rider behind us into our argument, and she too wound up splayed across the bridge. OUCH. Every limb had at least one bruise on it from the encounter, and our already wet spirits became thoroughly soaked.
Day 8. I awoke at home invigorated and ready to do it again. With the exception of a few nasty looking bruises, and a slightly sore rump, I felt really good. What a ride! Thank you to everyone who “joined” me on the ride by answering the second mile challenge! I hope you had some hot days, some headwind days, and some rainy days, but like me found that even bad weather can't stop the beauty of what was accomplished!
Keri