Wednesday June 16: Chesterton IN to Glenview IL

83.35 miles

A variety of trails today.  From Chesterton, we headed WSW on the Prairie Duneland Trail, went through Hobart, and easily caught the Oak Savanna Trail.  This was true to its name and had some great views (see water plants above).  In Griffith, IN we picked up the Erie Lackawana Trail. The Erie Lackawana trail gets interrupted in Highland, IN, and we had a lot of trouble locating it.  We asked several locals for directions. Even though these were mostly locals on bikes, they had no clue. Finally, we rode a scary mile on Indianapolis Blvd past I80-94 and then picked up the trail again, then crossed the Illinois state line at Sibley and State Line Rd (no big welcome sign here, either).

We went past Wolf Lake on the Illinois side and up the Burnham Greenway Trail.  Wolf Lake is one of those places that's determined to be pretty, despite the power lines, railroads and interstate highways that surround and even cross it.  There are always a lot of people fishing in Wolf Lake -- I wonder if the fish are edible, since there is/was so much heavy industry nearby.

A few miles farther north, we caught the Chicago Lakefront Trail, which is an experience not to be missed. On a warm sunny day nobody seemed to want to miss the experience and the trail was crowded, especially in the usual spots from Soldier Field to North Avenue Beach.

Just after that, Cliff Hoffman said hello on his way back from work, and he paced us up to Evanston.  I served with Cliff on the Evanston Bicycle Club board, and have worked with him on the North Shore Century, so let me take this moment to say that Cliff's a prince, even before speeding us along on our journey today. We headed west on Church/Beckwith and made it home.  It feels great to have come this far.

Back home, I went over to Fed Ex to pick up our new team jerseys for the second part of the trip (pictures to come).  Abby designed them and Pactimo made them (it's great that their order quantity minimum is small, although there are, of course, setup charges).

The next part of the trip starts June 26, when we head west with a larger contingent.