The Southern Leg of Des Plaines River Trail

Well, it didn't start out that way. It started out with...we need to get to REI for some stuff for our upcoming trip to the southwest. And as long as we're at it, and passing this really neat store Caputos (which has all kinds of great produce) we may as well get some vegetables for the grill.

Shopping for veggies done, we travelled on south toward the REI store. Before too long we found ourselves at the lower leg of this very long trail. We figured we'd bike a little and then hit the REI store. We also planned to go to the Lake County Fair again tonight . So we started at the Camp Ground Road Woods


and continued to North Avenue. We saw several deer, on the return leg of the trip, I stopped right next to one...less than 10 feet away and she just kept on munching on the plants and looking at me with those big brown eyes. So sweet and totally at ease. I hope Chuck got a picture and me and the deer...it was a special moment.

After awhile we found ourselves crossing the tri-state tollway (this takes you around Chicago and on to Indiana) Anyway we stopped on top of the bridge for a water break. got some shots of what was happening below us.

and around us



We rode all the way to North Avenue or the southern end of the trail today giving me a total of 27 miles...and I thought we would do 10 or so! Having completed this section I can now say that I have ridden from the Wisconsin border all the way to the outskirts of Chicago, no small task.

On the way back my wrists were giving me some discomfort so I decided to put on my biking gloves for some support and protection. When I looked up Chuck had taken off down the trail. So I pushed on north to return to the car and hardly moved more than 50 feet when I heard him calling me off on to a non-descript side trail. He had discovered an area where people had built up some bike dome-hills for mountain biking. So we proceeded to whoop it up and do some crazy riding. Whee! What fun, I was rejuvenated; good thing too we still had 10 miles to ride to get back to the car!




We finally did make it to REI and I (of course) tried my best to fill the shopping bag they have placed throughout the store to make it easy to carry several items. I almost succeeded in filling this time! got a bunch of stuff for the upcoming trip. NOW I honestly believe there is nothing else to buy in anticipation for this trip, other than shampoo.