Back to reality today after our partial weekend trip to the City of the Big Shoulders (Chicago). We had a great time on Friday night with our friends from the area, but my ride in suburbia was a bit of a bust. Besides breaking a rear wheel spoke, my biggest disappointment was with the trails. A co-worker of Rene’s who knew the area suggested that I ride the
Busse Woods Trail, which is located near the
Woodfield Mall and close by the hotel we were staying at in Itasca. The problem was, it was a paved trail and I had hoped to ride off-road on this trip. Looking back on it now, I should have brought the road bike and taken his suggestion. On our way to dinner on Thursday night we went by the park and it was very busy with bikes, skaters and dog-walkers.
I had researched trails last week and found a Chicago mountain bike site where the trails in the area were listed. Nice maps of the trails were posted courtesy of the Cook County Forest Park Preserve as well as photos and commentary about the different loops. I settled on the
Palos Park Preserve, located near Willow Springs in the Western suburbs. The setting is beautiful with a series of park access points, picnic areas, boating/paddling areas and as I was to discover later, horse riding stables. The word on the site was to start at a location called Wolf Creek.
Following some minor wrong turns, I eventually found the area. There were other cars with bike racks and the trail head signs, so it must be the place. After unloading the bike, I checked the map and then headed out. The first trail section I found was the main yellow loop, which turned out to be the longest trail in the park. It however, was not single track but rather a wide hard gravel trail. It rode very fast, with ups and downs and a few twisty turns but it felt more like a gravel road than a trail. In numerous spots there were serious wash outs that appeared to be were caused by poor trail planning. No diversions were put in place to run the water off to the edge and in most places, the trail was lower than the surrounding forested area so the it served as a gully for water instead of shedding it. As I went along, I found this was a
consistent problem everywhere.
Within the first 2 miles, I came to a section of legitimate single-track, the black loop and dove in. It appeared to be very similar to trails in our area, but within a short distance, it started to get greasy and wet. I came across a hiker who told me “there is a little water but most of it was in good shape”. As I continued down the trail was clear, but it continued to be wet and muddy. As a result there were numerous areas where riders were obviously re-routing the trail wider and wider to avoid the mud. I know they had received some recent rains (as we did in MI the week before), but the soil was more clay-like than ours and it did not appear to shed water well. But the more disturbing issue was the complete lack of trail maintenance and
diverters that could have helped to route water away from the trail. The other issue was, rather than follow the contours of the ground, the trail often dove straight down a swale and then right straight up the other side. Both sides then became a funnel for ground water creating more wet and muddy spots. This section of trail was pretty clear and easy to ride and actually had some fun twisty sections. It eventually came back to the main gravel trail (yellow loop) after 4 or 5 miles of single-track.
From there I headed up the gravel trail which eventually led to an open field area and the next section of single track. As I was turning in, I noticed a deer heading towards me, so I stopped and got out the camera. It did not run away and walked around me, stopping to eat as he went. I decided to bail before he did and head in to the green loop trail. At first, in the open areas, it was appeared to be another fun section with some twists and turns, but it soon
deteriorated as it ran back into the woods. This time, the trail was not only muddy and wet but now it was over grown. In sections you had to spread the branches out in front of you to avoid being hit in the face. In sections it improved, but then came the horses. Two riders appeared out of nowhere around a corner and I immediately stopped. I stood off to the side and let them pass with little comment, but have to admit to being surprised they were riding that trail. One, because horses and bikes typically do not share trails back home and second, this trail was not well suited to horseback riding. That coupled with the wet trail, they were doing obvious damage. I stayed with it until the trail came out to a main road, somewhere in the central part of the park. I did not immediately see another
extension to the trail and rode up the road a bit to look for it. I eventually found it across the road and it was in worse shape than the first section. From the overgrowth and wash outs, it looked like it had not been ridden in some time. As I went along, I found out why.
The rest of this single-track was worthless. It constantly crossed muddy, wet areas, especially lowlands and yet showed numerous re-routes along the edges where riders had tried to avoid the mess. By the time I got out of this section and back to the park main gravel trail, I was coated in mud, my shorts were wet and I was not having fun. More than a few expletives later, I decided to stick to the gravel trail for the near future, if for no other reason than to clean the mud from my tires! There were other, non-marked single tracks that broke off of the main trail, but within a hundred yards, most deteriorated pretty quickly. I would be forced to back track and that became tiresome very quickly. So, I stayed on the main trail and at an intersection took off to follow the brown loop which headed south and west away from where I had started. I rode this trail for some time and saw numerous washouts especially on hills where no provisions had been made for water diversion.
After about 4 miles, the trail came to an elevated main road and there was a tunnel underneath. I noticed a sign stating that it was a horse crossing, but the trail markings did not indicate that it was for horses only. On the other side, I began to see more and more horsesh_t on the trail and found myself constantly avoiding it. After a couple miles, I came to a main turn in the trail and there I found the first stable. There were a couple horse riders on the trail and they made muttering comments as they walked by about bikes on trails (I was standing off to the side while they passed). I continued on for 5 or 6 miles until the trail dead ended at another stable. All along the way, it was covered in droppings and I suspect that is why there were no other bikers on the trail. It was open to bikes but given the mess and the potential confrontations probably not worth riding.
At that point, I started heading back to the car, hoping to find other single track sections along the way. I followed the yellow loop until it intersected the orange and cruised that for 3 or 4 miles until it came to the red. There I turned down a short section of trail that I thought was a loop, but it dead ended at another road. That is where I broke a rear wheel spoke, trying to hop up off the trail onto the road to turn around. I torqued a little too hard and bang. Luckily, the wheel was still rideable, so I looped the broken spoke around an adjacent one and started riding again. I still had about 6 miles to go but avoided the rest of the single track, cruising the gravel trail back to the car.
In the end, I did get quite a few miles in and it was a beautiful day to ride. But the lack of single-track was disappointing. I am not sure why it was in such poor shape but maintenance did not appear to be high on the park systems priority list. But allowing horses to ride
MTB trails? That is just stupid. The park is so large it seemed to me that they easily could have segregated the groups into specific regions to avoid conflicts as well as trail damage. I enjoyed the chance to ride the trails but I think next time, I’ll bring my road bike!
We moved downtown on Friday night after Rene finished her training class and stayed at the W on
Lakeshore Drive. We were lucky enough to have a room on the lake side, so I was able to take pictures of the Navy Pier and beachfront from the room. After checking in, we headed into town for some coffee and shopping along Michigan Avenue. We only had a couple hours and then it was back to the hotel to clean up for dinner. We were meeting some good old friends who live in the area at one of our favorite restaurants, Coco
Pazzo. We have gone there numerous times and it never fails to please, but we especially love sitting out along the sidewalk where you can really people-watch!
After dinner we headed to a local piano bar where we actually sat at the piano and enjoyed a night of good music. I will post some of those pictures later!
The evening ended back at the W. The lobby bar was closed but they have a Club on the 33rd floor, so we stopped up for last call. All of us had a great time watching the "crowd". From the looks of things, desperate times call for desperate measures I guess!
Rene and I had breakfast in town before heading out. The traffic wasn't bad and with only a few construction zones along the way, we made it home in record time. Just in time to head back out to a number of my daughter's friends graduation parties! Fun stuff; not. It felt great to just sit on the couch and vegetate that night!
Sunday was all work and no play which made me a very dull boy. But it had to be done. Weed pulling, garage cleaning and basement cleaning, all in preparation for our girl's party. Friday is only 4 days away now and everything must be perfect or else. Not sure what else is, but believe me, it is not an option!
Hope you got some riding in!
