Utica to Colona Photos

Mark's Dad, Jim, came to visit!

One of the washed out sections of the Hennepin trail.  Notice how thin the paving is.  Also the canal is about to empty in to that river if it floods one more time.

The pathway into my possible stealth camping spot.

The section of Highway 6 between Geneso and Colona had a construction section, turning it into basically a 10 mile bike trail for me.  Bikes can pass through construction zones when cars can't.  Winning.
 

Downtown Uitica was kind of cool.

Jim and Me!

This truck was trailing this tractor at about 22 MPH with it's flashers on.  I got a 10 mile no-work 22 mph draft. Stinky though.
 

The IM Canal decided this was a good place to end. Not at an intersection, just in the middle of nowhere, forcing the rider to backtrack about a mile.  Thanks jerks.

My current location. It's dark now as I caption this, and it looks like I'll be able to sleep here and not ride to my stealth spot. 

The Hennepin Canal Trail is officially closed... and apparenntly has been for awhile.

Uhm... your lock isn't locked...

View of the IMC from a bridge in La Salle. Way in the back is a rusting out ghost barge!

Utica to Colona: Did you know that Ilinois is broke?

I was told that a lot today.  Illinois is broke.  They ain't gonna fix it.  Well no kidding...

The first 40 miles of my ride today took about 5 hours.  The second 47 miles took a little under 4 hours.  All in all I did 87 miles with 6:19 on bike and got into Colona about 7pm.  Ergh.

The real issue was routing... I had about 5 miles left of the unquestionably beautiful but questionably surface Illinois-Missouri Canal trail to get me into the bigger sprawl crap area of La Salle.  From there I could pick state highways or a kinda meandery way to the Hennepin Canal trail which would take me all the way to the Quad Cities on the Iowa border  (Colona is more-or-less in that same metro area).

Since I was in a semi-busy area I went for the trail over the highway. Mistake!  First, it was hella hard to find and I got stuck on one of the worst gravel roads I've been on since Wisconsin.  When I finally got to the trail around mile 25 it was terrible.  Pretty, yes but it had a terrible surface.  It was partially paved with that 1/2 thick rock asphalt that's worse than crushed limestone, and the crushed limestone parts were soft and you sank in deeply.

The trail was officially closed, I guess, by the ancient trail closed signs everywhere. This basically means "We're out of money, this trail probably sucks now."  It did.  It was washed out in a few places and all-in-all pooptastic.

At mile 40 I finally got to an area where I could kick-off the trail on to regular highways.  Highway 6 is a red road on the map, but it shoots straight to the Quad Cities and is right next to I80.  That means that I80 will pull off all the through  and truck traffic, leaving me with only saturday local traffic.  I90 in South Dakota did a similar thing for my Highway 14 route about 30 miles south of it.

Highway 6 was great! Sure it was a bit hilly in spots and I had a side/headwind, but damn it was nicer.  There were cars but nothing worse than what the highways out west had (no shoulder though).  I pushed 35 miles into Geneso in no-time, took a short break, and then made a plan...

Oh, wait,  before I tell you my plan, I did cheat for about 10 miles.  A tractor passed me at about 22mph trailed by a large pickup truck with their flashers on to warn cars.  I was able to draft off that truck for 10 miles, barely working to go 22 mph instead of the 16-18mph that I was doing before.  I paid for it by sucking exhaust, but it was fun! 

Ok, back to the plan...

So, Colona is 10 miles past Geneso and the last town before I'm in urban sprawl crap from the Quad Cities.  It's still a town of a few thousand, so camping here should be hard. However, the crap canal comes through this town so I re-found it just before town and got on it to find a stealth camping spot just inside town. 

I found a great spot, but when I went in farther to get water I happened upon a pavillion with water, bathrooms, and power.  Even though I'm in a big town, this area seems dead. The plan is to do all my night stuff here, and then when it comes time to sleep assess if I need to bike 2 miles back to my stealth spot or if I can crash here.

Some final thoughts: The people in this part of Illinois are hella nice!  It seems I'm finally out of Mordor's realm of influence. Tons more people have been coming up to me and talking to me, asking about my trip, etc.  As if to punctuate this, my good buddy Hab's in Eugene's Dad came up and found me on the road once he figured out where I was. He lives in a town in Illinois about 30 minute south of where I was riding (too far off route to plan a stop.)  He brought me Cherry Tomotoes!  Winning!

This is probably my last night camping, as tomorrrow night I'll be at my sister's in Iowa City and then I'll ride my last day into my Dad's place in Cedar Falls.  It's crazy to think that it'll all be over soon....

ILYI

Peotone to Utica photos

There are lots of photos of this day, because it was varied and pretty. As usual, the photos are in random order.  Phones aren't computers.

This is in the Illinois-Michigan Canal (IMC) trail.  Notice how the bridge is out.  We'll come back to that later.

The IMC had several camping spots along it.  This one was by far the most developed. I'd have stayed here if I'd had enough water with me.

View from the IMC

Where I did camp, in the trees along the Illinois River.

The IMC  was spanned by some pretty cool bridges.

The hell that is Minas Morgul (Joliet). Notice how the road I was on has zero bike infrastructure, yet was the main bike route through town.
 The IMC trail was pretty overgrown at times. I've been told several times that Illinois is broke.

Views from the IMC



There was lots of the Giant Purple Swamp Wheat around, which makes me think that the entire field I saw of it was not meant to be a crop.

Along the Illinois River near where I camped.

This was the trail into Minas Morgul.
 

Minas Morgul did have some OK views.
 

Remember that top picture?  After going down a steep bank I got to walk my bike over a 2x4 go get across.  It was sketchtastic!
 

The IMC is not well maintained, but still better than that POS trail in upper Wisconsin!

The canal is a bit dried up here... and the trail is a brown lawn.

The path into Minas Morgul

Illinois likes to close paths (this was the IMC) without posting why or detours.  This one had a bridge out and it took me awhile to get around that and re-find the path.

Minas Morgul

Early in the morning.  This is what it looks like to lose at County Road Roulette.  Illinois has a much greater percentage of gravel roads than Indiana, so... it was a hard morning.

View from the IMC




View from near where I camped on the Illnois River
 

Dinner Time!

Peotone to Utica: Pavement Shmavment!

Uh, what a day. Long day, but with new and interesting experiences!

First I should explain what happend last night.  Just as I was writing my post about how people this close to Mordor (Chicago) and other urban areas get overly wary of strangers, I met Jim in the bar and after a bit of conversation he invited me to stay with him and his wife Mary at his place about 5 miles away!  We finished our beer, threw my bike in his truck, and away we went.  We had a good time, and I learned a lot about Jim's small bridge building business (for golf courses, etc).   I saw some of his work and it was pretty great.  In the morning he and Mary made me a great breakfast with his "world famous" omelettes and I was on the road by 7:30am!

That was the last quick thing that would happen. Today I did 88 miles with 6:35 on bike getting to camp around 7:30ish pm.  Egh.

The morning was the slowest part.  In order to find a bridge over the Des Plaines River I had to go several miles north to Minas Morgul (Joliet), the closest town ecompassed on the map by lava fueled by the evil sprawl that is Mordor.  I tried to play County Road Roulette there, but the percentage of gravel roads in Illinois is MUCH higher than in Indiana, so I had a rough time with that. All the paved roads I found were too busy and narrow, even by out west standards.  I kept having to stop to check maps, etc.

Finally I found a crushed limestone bike path that took me the lst 10 miles into Minas Morgul, then I had to navigate that hell with a map that didn't have most of the roads on it, and eventually I found the Illinois-Missouri Canal trail to get me out of there.

Minas Morgul was just a bad as I remembered Mordor sprawl towns to be.  Zero... ZERO bike infrastruture, busy roads, lousy pavement, and a maze-like layout.  Calm roads randomally shoot you on to busy ones and the intersections are all huge and full of hazards - riding in Minas Morgul was like being a deer running across a busy highway with all the cars being driven by hunters with machine guns while talking on their cell phones.  My back tire was even stabbed by a Ringwraith (or maybe it was a piece of glass) to give me my fourth flat of the trip.

Once on the trail though everything got great.  Even though it's crushed limestone I figured I'd stay on it for awhile. I was likely to end up on gravel anyway playing roulette because all the paved roads this near Mordor are too busy, and at least the trail wasn't washboarded.

Interesting sidenote: Did you know that the bike lobby is why we have paved roads?  The League of American Bicyclists (I think it was them) in New York State lobbied to get the first paved roads so they could ride on them with their bikes.  Car drivers didn't care about that stuff. The first paved roads were made for bikes; we had them first. Then cars came and took them over.  Keep that in mind.... paved roads were orginally for bikes, not cars.

Anyway, the canal trail goes about 66 miles west to La Salle (halfway across Illinois) so I figured I'd stay on it.  It was beautiful!  Riding it felt more like backpacking than bike touring.  It wasn't always in good shape, but it was always awesome. To make it even more awesome, at mile 72 today random construction guys working on the trail gave me several free beers.  Winning.

The slow morning route finding combined with the slower pace on the crushed limestone trail (same effort, 2mph slower on average) meant I didn't get in until 7:30. I had wanted to go farther, but I ran out of daylight since I'm on the east side of the central timezone.  I'm staying in Utica, a tiny town but kind of touristy.  The park was way too central so after asking around I found free isolated camping down by the Illinois River.

I had a nice dinner on the water, watched barges and heron, and the sounds of a music concert occasionally waft to me from somewhere south of here.  Sure, I have to have a tent, but it is great here.

Tonight I'll fall asleep to the crazy loud frogs, bugs, and small woodland creatures rummaging around outside my tent.  Fun!

ILYI

Hamlet to Peotone photos

Jim and Mary have a gigantic aloe plant

I've been seeing these for days. Lines feeding Mordor!

Jim and Mary, my hosts!

Indiana is island of trees in a sea of crops.

County Road Roulette wins again!

This is what I look at all day.

Indiana had these bikeways, but I have no idea where they go.

This dugout is where I almost slept

Hmmmmm

Hamlet, IN to Peotone, IL : Happy Birthday to me!

I'm sitting in a sports/dive bar in Peotone, Illinois, watching Chicago do badly in pre-season football and just finished my second food entre.  I didn't plan to stay in Peotone - 84.78 miles, 5:53 on bike, arriving at 5:25 - but Beecher, ten miles prior, was a big meany town.

The ride today was pretty great.  I got out at 7:45ish thanks to the time change back to central time being right at Hamlet. I had a side wind with a slight tailwind and my County Road Roulette sent me 40 miles before I hit a town and took my first break. Since it's my birthday I had a good breakfast meal at a diner and was back on the road by about 12:30.  I did another 10 miles to almost the border where I detoured to a truck stop and bought an Illinois map. There I shot another 20 miles-ish to my intended stop town of Beecher - pop bout 5k. 

5,000 people  5,000 people about 10 miles south of the beginning of the orange blob on my map that marks the lava sprawl urban area that encomasses  Mordor (Chicago) , East Chicago, Mirkwood (Gary), and all the crap surrounding it.  Not only is 5k too large of a town for me to easily sleep in, but being this close to Mordor compounds it. The park was in the center of town, right by the police station, so I figured I should ask if I could stay there.

The nice reception lady at the police station had all sorts of excuses why I can't - mostly because people would call and be worried.  She seemed unable to comphrehend that I would be discrete and that they could just tell the worried callers that I had permission.  After saying no she carried on one of those awkward 10 minute conversations where she  tries to convince us both that she's saying no because she has to, instead of admitting to herself that the real reason she's saying no is because she's afraid, unable to think outside the box for creative solutions, and a slave to the articial rules that she lives her life by. i just wanted to leave...

I know I sound jaded when I say that, but look. I'm a teacher. I force rules on the unrully all the time, and one way I must ALWAYS be challenging myself is whether or not the rule I'm enforcing is actually legimate.  Does my complaining student actually have a point? And if so, can I be human enough to concede that point - assuming they have challenged me in a socially appropriate way?  And even if they did challenge me in an innappriate way, can I seperate out those two issues and still make a change in my own behavior?

I don't expect anything from other authority figures that I don't expect from myself.

I didn't even bother asking at churches. Part of it is our proximaty to Mordor.  Large urban areas make people impersonal and afraid.  People who are afraid of other people aren't nice to strangers.  If you see this happening to yourself, it's time to move to someplace that allows you to be a good human.

So, I headed 10 more miles and over some gravel to Peotone - an even larger town!  But the authority lady mentioned that it had a fairgounds, which means I could try stealth camping.  I'm not even going to bother asking here. They'll just say no, so I'm going to hide and no-one will be hurt by my victimless crime.  And I should succeed too, because I found a stealth camper's dream! Baseball dugouts!  There are a few in the park, and one doesn't face any roads and has a dark sun guard.  I should be fine in there.

Since I can't go there until dark and it's my birthday I went to this bar in there dead downtown.  I secretely hope a bar patron will take me home, but I doubt it. (Edit: one did! See Below!)  The bartender is young and has that "I'm young and don't like cops" attitude and she's told me I'll get arrested if I get caught in the park  Right.... I know the fact that I have unearned privilege is bullpoop, but I am a tall, well-spoken, well groomed, adult white man. I'm not getting arrested for sleeping in park.  But we'll see.. let the adventure continue!

//edit: Actually, I met a fellow name Jim at the bar is who is giving me a ride to his land about 5 miles outside of town and letting me stay there.  Winning! No getting arrested for me!

ILYI

 

Indiana meet Illinois! Day 57, first day of week 9, one loop around lake Michigan, one birthday, and 3,668 miles. By mileage and time if I'd taken my original route to Vermont (straight across Michigan, Ontario, and New York) I'd be ending in Brattlebourough today. #biketour

Millersberg to Hamlet Photos

Indiana: Oceans of flat crop with islands of woods.

There are several pictures of this stuff coming up.  I'm coming is Giant Purpose Swamp Wheat (GPSW) because it's giant, purple, grows in a swamp, and looks like wheat.  Anyone know what GPSW really is?

GPSW is giant. Thanks County Road Roulette for finding this for me!

This stuff by the road is actually over plant, I was lucky enough to be there when a Danger Mower was battling it.

Mmmm....

When playing County Road Roulette (see wordy post) sometimes you get Upwind Corn Fields, which block the sidey-headwind.  Winning!  Also, attn: South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  This is what corn is supposed to look like. Iowa, you can carry-on.

My home for the night in Hamlet.  I was able to ask for premission to stay here so I don't have to hide. They even gave me a bathroom key!

I think this was mint.  Acres of it.  It was great!

A crossroad at County Road Roulette.
 Hamlet

A wininng road at County Road Roulette - straight, blacktop, and flanked on both sides by mint fields!
 

"Hey Soul Sister!" (if you get the joke you are good at 5-year-old trivia)

This is some high-security corn.

I've been wanting to take a picture of the majestic wheeping willows that I've been seeing since South Dakota (and even some earlier) and I finally got around to it.  These are my second favorite tree.  First is Mullberry, of course.