Thanks to Jason and Erica and Cat, I got to go on an interesting 120-mile bike tour up to Wisconsin and back while I was visiting Chicago, and I didn’t have to do any of the planning.

(rhetorical question: who rides 120 miles to a Super 8 motel at the edge of a cluster of strip malls, just for fun?)

I was less interested in any specific destination than I was in checking out a variety of towns, environments, and regional cycling infrastructure (impressive!), and this ride certainly delivered.

It started off through lush, damp, marshy woods (this section of bike trail runs along the North branch of the Chicago river, which periodically floods, which I hear is why this land hasn’t been developed).

Rolling past the Japanese Islands at the Chicago Botanic Gardens:

There’s some Angry Birds joke to be made here:

This section of the trail ran dead-straight for miles, below high-voltage power lines (the utility company right of way presumably protected this narrow strip of land from other types of development):

Our one unplanned detour, a few hundred feet down a grassy path that looked like it could be a shortcut… but wasn’t:

Later that day, the trail gave way to gravel or crushed limestone– still hard-packed enough to ride on easily, though a few softer sections would have been tricky on really narrow tires.

Scoffing at path closures:

And by late afternoon, we were at the end of the DPR trail, near the Illinois-Wisconsin border:

Some slogging along the on-again, off-again shoulders on busy multi-lane streets brought us to strip malls at the edge of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where we ate unhealthy food at a Buffalo Wild Wings surrounded by fifty flat-screen TVs, had some local beer (Spotted Cow from New Glarus), and then watched whatever movie we could find on TV (Rambo) at the Super 8 before passing out.

The next morning, up moderately early (I had a flight to catch later that day, so wanted to leave some buffer time), I realized I’d reassembled a broken chain incorrectly the day before and it had been wearing a groove in a tab on my derailleur– the noisy riding on gravel and end-of-day fatigue had me ignoring the warning noises.

“Milk for America”, with a cow as M:

Amazingly well-maintained, smooth, asphalt paths in Southern Wisconsin:

Riding through industrial areas North of Chicago:

A freeway off-ramp that looks like it’s been blocked off for years, and not a single car in sight.

At a gate to another bike path, several bike-themed sculptures:

A few-block detour to a scenic overlook of Lake Michigan:

Skokie sculpture park:

And finally back in Chicago (though these sharrows suggesting bikes ride in the sometimes heavily cracked, glass-and-gravel-covered section of pavement right next to the sidewalk were a bit suspect).

I disassembled and packed the bike into the case (only 16 minutes start-to-finish, down from 30 last time), and back to the airport I went. Success!