This
is NOT a post about road riding, though the title may imply that.
Instead, it's about riding while on vacation, on the road, so to speak.
I
had the foresight to ship a bike out to my in-laws this past spring,
knowing that we make about two or more multi-day trips to north-central
Illinois (yeah, fine, for all you locals who take exception to me
calling it "central" Illinois -- southwest Chicago). My mother-in-law is
graciously storing it for me. In a shipping box.
The
roads out there are laid out in a very geometric pattern, easy to
navigate and not get lost, as long as you keep track of wind direction.
Bonus is that you can see your landmarks for quite a distance. Meaning
there aren't any real hills (by a Pacific northwest standard).
Anyway...
I was wanting to find some folks on Velocipede Salon to ride with while
I was there this past weekend. While that didn't pan out (and is kind
of a relief, as my schedule degraded quickly leaving me only one
opportunity to save my sanity with a ride), there was a suggestion to
hop onto the I & R Canal Trail and cruise away the miles.
Good call.
I
have a few rail-trail conversions not too far from me, and they're a
nice, mindless ride when it's not a busy time (like most any weekday --
on nice weekends, look out). They're all paved, however.
On
one of our trips out a couple years ago, we had crossed the I & M
Canal Trail on the way to a community pool, and I'd noticed that it
wasn't paved, though I didn't know just how rocky it could be.
Turns
out it's very smooth -- better than a lot of the roads I ride on near
home. The surface is crushed lava rock and cinder, and very well
maintained. A glorious ride.
The fall colors were nearly in full bloom, something that we don't get a lot of in the land of evergreens.
I look forward to going back and riding more of this trail. Maybe I'll be able to round up a couple cohorts to ride along.
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