Super Ride 01

I Made the Super Ride. And it turned out to be longer than I thought it would be. I won't include the mileage here, you'll find out at the end of the story.

Here is the final map of the paths I took. Everything north of where is says "Loncolnwood" is the North Branch Trail. Everything on the lake is the Lakeshore Trail. Everything else is city streets.


My original plan was to just ride up and find the start of the trail. So a big part of my trip was just going up the streets. I found a great way up, nearly a straight shot is a street called Elston, which also happens to be almost all bike-friendly with dedicated (small) bike lanes. This was great and made the trip easy. For parts of this ride, I was beating the cars too. They get backed up at stop lights and when it turns green I'm at the head of the pack, even though some of them pass me, by the next light, they're stopped up again and I pull up to the front of a new pack.

I took it easy for the entire trip, knowing that if I were going to survive such a trip, I couldn't really push myself in any one part. Even so I was going about 20mph the whole way up. Maybe the cars made a nice draft for me or maybe I've gotten stronger.

This is the map at the base of the North Branch Trail. As I was checking out the map, a guy rode up and asked if I had ever ridden this before. I guess it was his first time on the trail too. We talked for a bit, his name was Dylan and he was going up to meet a friend and camp out or something. I guess he also fixes up bikes and sends them overseas for people without bikes. Seemed like a cool dude; I said I hoped to see him at the top, and I took off.


Soon after I got onto the trail, I noticed just how much it isn't like the other park or trail I've ridden in Chicago. It's semi-dense forest which occasionally breaks out to find a crosswalk over a major road. The whole trail had me ride by two golf courses.

This is a little more than half-way up the North Branch Trail. The sign quality is lacking. So far I've only seen about 20 people, which is very quite compared to the Lakeshore path. I've passed a lot of green spaces where there were people having BBQs or what-not. Looked like a couple big parties, and several smaller groups enjoying the parks.


I didn't really read the signs or maps, but I learned that I want to follow the red arrows. This pole is right next to the sign in the above photo.


The red arrows (or rather my lack of sign-reading) has led me astray. After riding on some crappy dirt road for 10 minutes it started to rain, I found my way to this place where I called Nathan to give a status report. He tried to help me find my way to the Botanic Gardens, I knew I was pretty close.


Looking at my situation later. I was in fact this close. You can see "Me" and "Botanic Gardens" in the map and a shear .4 miles between them. It the time I spent on the crappy dirt road, I could have found the Gardens and taken cover under their overhang instead of getting soaked. At the time though it was sort of fun to get stuck in the rain. It was an epic adventure after all.


I did find the Gardens after a while. But totally forgot to grab a picture of the front entrance. This I took on my way out. After I got there I pretty much turned around immediately, but before I left, Dylan and his friend came riding in! What timing. It was funny to see him again and this is actually where I first learned his name. Perhaps I'll see him again on the path someday. (I didn't get a picture of Dylan, I thought it would be weird to ask a stranger for such a thing.)


I got on the right path this time, and started making my way south. It doesn't look it here, but the rain has completely stopped. This is all mist that's rising off the path. It looked really nice.


When I stopped later up the road to take a picture, I noticed Nathan had called. I sent him a pic to confirm my status/mileage.


I still felt pretty good up to 60-65 miles. It was the last few miles after that where things started really hurting. My neck and legs really started to get sore. I was afraid to stop for too long lest my legs seize up or something. I also had to stay on the seat or else blood would wake up my butt and then that would start hurting too.

It was bitter-sweet to finally get home. I made my way into the shower pretty quick to get all the dirt and bugs. I tried to have some food but thought might throw up, so I settled for some water and went to bed. Good ride.

This is the next day. I'm surprised I can walk, in fact I'm not much worse for wear. I went about cleaning my bike and re-lubricating the working parts and generally finishing my ride chores. Here is proof of the final mileage. 74.35 miles! It was an awesome ride, and something I look forward to doing again.


The horses that did the work. Can I call legs "guns"?


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For more photos, check out the photobucket page.
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