About Bicycles > Bike Trail Articles > Bike Trail Blog IV
Bike Trails,
Bike Stories and Articles - Archive 4
5/14/2005 - 6/23//2007
This page is dedicated to bike trail
information, cycling articles and casual bike stories, comments and articles...
6/23/2007 - The Big Ride Adventure Story - Over 100 Bike
Miles in a Day! Geneva Il, to Genoa City Wis.
Note: This
story got pretty long so if you are in a hurry you might want to
stop back when you have some time to enjoy it fully (if you actually
enjoy this stuff! :-) ). I considered putting it on a seperate page,
but these days I like to keep all of my ramblings on the main
page...
Well, I certainly have an adventure story for
today... Casey had decided, a few weeks ago, that he wanted to break the
previous bike miles in one day record (70 miles, by Dale and Me on the I&M trail (back in
2003 then I was only 50!)) and that he wanted to do over 100 miles in one
day!
Well, we knew from the past that you could go 64
miles (round trip) going from Dundee to Genoa city Wis. on the Fox River and
Prairie trails. I also knew that the Fox and Prairie trails were 70 miles
total one way (140 both ways)... so we did some calculations and figured
that if we started in Geneva it would be about 50 miles to the Wisconsin border (Genoa
City)... We also knew that, since we
got stuck riding the trail at night (without a light) the last time that we
would have to leave early and go when we had the most daylight available
(this part of June). OK, so the basic plan in place...
No Photos - Sorry...
:-(
Before I get into the 100 miler story I have to apologize
that I don't really have any pictures... I had my cell phone with me and
could have gotten some shots of the distance riders (Casey, Me, Dara and
Dale) but I was so focused on the ride and everything else that I didn't
hardly get any shots... I only thought about this later and was very mad at
myself for not getting at least a few... I got one picture of a dam when we
first started...)
The Planning and Last
Minute Adjustments...
We knew that Casey and I were going... We weren't sure if
Corinne wanted to go (it turned out that she did not) and we knew that Dara
wanted to go but we didn't know if she could "go the distance"... I took
Friday off of work because I don't like the Fox and Prairie trails nearly as
much on the weekends because of the crowds... (and I also wanted the weekend
to recover) I told Dale that we were going to do the ride on Friday and it
turned out that he had planned that day off anyway and we agreed to meet up
with him too... (although we weren't sure exactly where and when, etc.)...
We finally convinced Dara to meet up with us in Dundee (where we usually
started our trips in the past) and Dale ended up starting in Crystal Lake
(heading south, at first)...
The Trip Starts Early
(yawn...)
Those of you who know me, know that I rarely ever
plan anything that involves me getting up early on a day that I don't have
to get up early... Well, in order to get the most daylight for this trip I
ended up getting up earlier than I would for a regular work day!!! Showered,
ate, had my coffee and drove to Geneva and we were on the trail a little
after 8:00 am! (still missed over 2 and 1/2 hours of daylight)
Casey and I had a few little start up problems, but got it
under control and headed north... We did the first 10 miles before we ran
into this peculiar recumbent rider... Dale! It turns out that Dale started
in Crystal Lake (earlier than we did) and headed south (about 17 miles)
before meeting up with us...
There were a few stories in the next stretch, but I see
now that I'm going to have to limit this to the major highlights since this
is getting pretty long and I still have a lot to go!!!
We Meet up with Dara
in Dundee
I had talked to Dara on phone a few times and we
agreed to meet in Dundee but I wasn't really sure about our timing... then
just as we get to Dundee, Dara has her bike unpacked and ready to ride! Perfect
timing!
We take a few more breaks along the way and Dara agrees
that she is going to try for the Wisconsin and back trip. (64 miles!)
Genoa City Wisconsin
and Linner at Kellers!
OK, I may have skipped some other key events, but I must
move on... We got to Genoa City Wisconsin and had our Linner (Lunch/Dinner)
at our usual place, Kellers Restaurant at around 2:30... A little later than
I anticipated, but still on a decent schedule (I thought)... Now we are 1/2
way (almost 50 miles on Casey and my speedometers).
The Ride Back
The ride back is where things get really interesting...
Mostly at the very end though... So we started back at maybe 3:30 or 4:00 (I
can't really remember exactly...) and Dale takes off to do some independent
freelance riding (on his own without us draggin him down...)... Dara is
really havin a hard time now (with 32 miles left to go!) and she is talkin
about havin us (Casey and me) go ahead and let her get back at her slower
pace... Well, we considered it, but we hung back with her and she pushed on
to keep up and we ended up ending Daras 64 mile ride together! (I can't
believe that she did 64 miles!)
Oh yea, the forecast was lookin like we could have
storms the whole day or at any time... It turned out that we had absolutely perfect whether almost the whole trip, although it was lookin
like we could get soaked at any time! We did get a few light sprinkles here
and there but it never amounted to much... It was a nice temperature and the
fact that it was cloudy (and we didn't have the sun burning us fair skinned
red haired people to a crisp) was a real advantage.
Flat Tires are Bad!
I was also worried about mechanical breakdowns...
and so far we had been lucky (although Caseys and Daras bikes
had some problems... none were total breakdowns...)... I had been trading bikes
with Casey occasionally to give him a break (my bike is much easier to ride on a long trip than his mountian bike)
and just before we got back to Dundee, Casey and I traded and I discovered
that his tire was extremely low... Shorly after that, it went completely
flat!!! I rode it just long enough to get to an opening where we were
accessing our situation... We were only a mile or so from Daras car so we
were really lucky there... We thought about dropping off Caseys bike in Daras car and having him finish the trip on Daras bike,
but casey really wanted his own bike and (since I was having a few odometer problems) we wanted to have his
odometer available...
Just as we are working this out... Dale comes up the
path (this is many hours later)... Perfect timing again!!! Dale has a tire
pump!!! So we pump up the tire and it holds air... We consider the situation
and Dale offers to let us take the pump with us (we are still heading south
at this point and Dale heading north (back to his car) on the final leg of
his trip).
Dale Heads North,
Dara Heads Home...
We take Dale up on his offer to borrow the tire pump
(which we really needed later) and he heads back north and we drop Dara off at her car in Dundee and
she heads home... Congratulations to
Dara on a 64 mile ride!!! Even though
Casey, Dale and I are going for the triple digit miles, I know what it is
like to ride that kind of distance in one day and it is quite an
accomplishment!
So Casey and I head south from Dundee to Geneva for our
last 18 miles or so... (so we think...)
We had a little bit of daylight left and I estimated that
we would get back around 9:00 or so (just starting to get dark)... We tried
to make some good time but the tire was loosing air and we had to stop to
pump it up quite a few times... Then it happened...
Ooopps!
We are trying to make good time and just speed past
a very important fork in the path! We just went off to the left (which
looked right :-)) and there was another path to the right, which just looked
like it went down to the river... We cruised on for quite a bit longer and
pumped up the tire 2 more times before we went by an opening and I realized
that we could not see the river anywhere! ...and it is really pretty dark by
now (it must have been about 9:00)... Aarrrggh!!! We took the wrong path and are lost on a dark trail
after dark and totally exhausted (after 90 or so miles)!!! When I was doing my original planning (remember that
part...) I packed some lights ("just in case") but I almost thought that it
was just extra weight and that I shouldn't bring them because "we will be
back way before dark...". Well, we REALLY needed them almost as much as we
needed the tire pump!
The Correction...
So Casey and I turn back to find where we f... messed
up... it turns out that we went about 3 miles down the Illinois Prairie
Trail (6 miles both ways)... Which would not be terrible by itself or at the
beginning of the ride or in daylight... but it was a pretty bad thing at
this hour and at this time... We got back on the regular trail and I hit a
bump and my light flys off my handle bars (it never was attached well...) I
lost the light clip so we were down to one light now...
Dark Winding
Trails... Fire Flys... Kissin the Sign... Fishing Line...
The good news is that we are back on the right trail
again... the bad news is it's totally dark we have one bad tire and we are
still quite a ways away... (you can not ride nearly as fast on a dark trail
at night)
So I am following Casey (with the light) through
these dark, heavily wooded, hilly and winding trails... It took a lot of
concentration, but one thing that I noticed that was really cool were the lightening bugs!
There were tons of them and they seemed to hang in one place much longer
that what you usually see out in a field or something and they seemed to
"stay light" much longer too... All I can say is it was really cool!
Maybe you have to force yourself into crazy situations like that to see some
of the amazing things that are out there on
this planet!
After a few more miles Casey was really exhausted
and frustrated and tired of being in the woods and just wanted to be back a
the car... We finally got out of the woods at one point and saw a sign for
the city of St Charles (which is very close to our new destination... Yes, I
always say that "the ride is the destination" but we had had enough of that destination and our new destination
was just the car!!!) Anyway Casey was so glad to be so close that he dropped
his bike and kissed the sign!
(you gotta know that I am not makin this up because I really don't have that
good of an imagination!)
Then as we are ridin by some fishermen close to the
river Casey gets snagged by some
fishing line! Apparently they set a
pole down on the other side of the path (up high) with the line in the
river!!!
Sheesh! What next! Fortunately... not much...
basically we made it back to the van at around 11:00pm. A little 15 hour bike ride and adventure!
Finale - Summary
So there you have it... Casey and I made it back and
we reached our goal of riding over 100
miles in one day (our final bike miles for the day was 105). Dale also joined the over 100 bike miles in a day club and Dara hung in there for 64 miles!
We had quite an adventure... Some fantastic scenery,
some exhilarating parts of the trails and some difficult parts of the
trails... Some good times and some difficult times (typical
life stuff...)... All in all it really was
fantastic and I am thinking that we have created another one of those
lifetime memories (who knows... my memory isn't always so good, but I think
this one will stick!)
It took quite an effort for the 4 of us to set these
new one day mileage records and I'd have to congratulate those of you who
may have broken a new record yourselves by making it through the entire Big Ride Adventure
Story!
That's it...
10/08/2005 - Odometer Obsession!! Other Stuff..
OK, the bike odometer thing is
driving me CRAZY!!! I just want to calculate an exact mile and be
accurate... In the process, I have found that our cars are not necessarily
accurate and according to all of my bike odometer calculations my odometer is calculation for a mile is too long
instead of too short... but according to 3 of 4 other sources my odometer is
calculating a mile too short... Sheesh!!!!!!!
Something is wrong and I just can't seem to let this
go... In the process, I have learned a lot about metric to regular distance
conversions... I think I will be emailing the odometer place (Vetta) to see
if I can get an accurate explaination of how their device converts
millimeters to miles and tenths of miles and why the odometers are off... I
won't get into all of the gory details here, but I have done some pretty
extensive testing and the calculations just don't seem right... Maybe I will
end up de-bugging their bike confusers!... OK, after that, I am going to use this
obsession to my advantage and post all of this crap on my bike site somewhere... I get a lot of biker
traffic to that site and it might just be of interest to some other totally
obsessive riders... :-)
Oh yea, before I get of the subject completely... I have
already pretty much made up to a 3% potential error in my mileage with the
extra miles that I have already done... and I don't think it is even off by
that much... I will also be doing more this season... even though it is
really hard to get in the miles before it gets dark these days... :-(
9/28/05 - Goal
for the season (and Scandal)
Another
Bike update: My bike shop (where I bought the Crestcycle), called and told
me that my new stem (to raise the handlebars) is in... I am looking forward
to that!... I have found that I really like
the wrap down style handlebars (I find them
very versitle (multiple hand positions) and I think they give you better
overall control), BUT... I don't necessarily like them so low that you hunch
way over like a speed racer... it will be nice to sit a little higher and
give my neck and back a break...
Well, I have
accomplished my bike riding mileage goal for the season!!! If you click on the photo, <removed> you will see that I went out and had
custom made 2000 mile blowers and hats!!! (OK, actually we still had our Y2K
blowers and hats (of course)!!! ...Oh yea, and for a little extra
sweetness... on the same day (yesterday) and the same ride... with Dale... I
broke Dales standing record for the most bike miles in one season (2008
miles last year)!!! I brought my Y2K party blower on the ride for a little
celebration on the trail and annoyed Dale (on his "birthday ride") quite a
bit! :-) :-) What fun!
OK, now that I've made my goal and done the
celebration, the whole thing has been tainted by a SCANDAL! Remember
way back in the spring when I got so obsessed with my bike odometer settings
and calibrations... Well, I set my odometer based on our car odometers
(which did not even match each other, but I split the difference) and it
turns out that I think my mileage is a little
low... :-( I have checked now with 4
different sources (Bobs GPS unit, Dales odometer and the trail markers on 2
trails) and it looks like I am somewhere between 2.5% to 3.5% off... It
won't take much to make up the difference and I am still counting all of my records with my current
settings, but I will probably readjust
everything (to be completely accurate), once I can determine how to measure
an exact mile accurately. I guess you just can't use car odometers as a
standard... they are not consistent or right!
09/26/2005 -
As you see by my bike mileage above... I am JUST ABOUT THERE! (to my goal that is...)... I
am running out of daylight riding time and am on the borderline of getting
tired of riding.... but it is looking like I will make it... :-). I guess I
should be healthier too... (not sure about that though :-))
09/17/2005 - Great
Western Trail
And now... for a little bike news... I took a nice trip on the "Great
Western Trail" last weekend. That was
really fun... I did 40 miles... It was a nice
uncrowded path in the country and great for bike meditation. I took it from St Charles
to Sycamore... It ends in the same park that we have the Chapman family
reunion! (that was a little nostalgic too!) One
of the nice things about this bike path is that it starts real close to Richs House (my nephew). So... I
stopped by his house on the way back... It was great to see everyone and I
got lucky and was there when everyone else was too!
Oh and today... I headed out to do a long ride
and... I got my first flat tire with those skinny tires, today! That was
frustrating, but I wasn't too far from home, had my phone, had Dara pick me
up, went to the bike shop in town, changed the tire, and was ON MY WAY AGAIN!... I was actually
surprised that I was able to get in a total of 31 miles! Seven miles before
my Pit Stop and 24 after!
09/10/2005 -
Green Bay at Last...
No real big news at the moment, but that doesn't
usually stop me from writing when I have the time!.. Since my web sites were
picking up a little (especially the bike site), I got inspired to try to do some more pages... Like the Green Bay Bike Trail pages, which is
from a trip and pics that I took back in May! so check out the new Green Bay Bike Trail pages on my bike site (if you
like...)
08/31/2005 - Contributions
I want to thank Dale and Bob Cummings for some great article contributions to my bike site. Bob wrote a nice article on the Red Cedar Trail (near
Menomonie, Wisconsin) and has given me permission to use the photos that he
has taken on the website along with the article and photo comments... Check
it out at: http://www.about-bicycles.com/red-cedar-trail.htm! Dale has also contributed an nice article
on recumbent bikes! It's a nice comparison of short and long
wheelbase recumbents... This has gotten my interest too since I also like
the idea of recumbents... they have a lot of advantages over "regular" bikes...
We came across some 70 something old lady on the des Plains River trail
riding one of these things and she kicked our asses (with miles and
speed)!!! Check out Dales article at: http://www.about-bicycles.com/recumbents/bents-tour-strada.htm. (thanks you guys)
08/14/2005 - New Record! Speed ROCKS!
Well, as you see above I have
broken my old bike mileage seasons record (of 1,307 in 2003) and am currently at 1341... and going for that 2K!!!
I have also picked up my new bike...
My initial feeling is that Speed
ROCKS!... It
really is fun to go a few miles an hour faster, on average... This bike is really light and fast... Of course, it is easier too on those long trips
to have a lighter bike with thinner wheels, etc... There are a few trade offs (as with most
things), but I think that I really like getting back into the old road bike (previously called 10 speeds) scene again... (This one is actually 27
speeds!)
I am still making some minor
adjustments and, on the bummer side, I need to bring it back next week for
them to re-do the extra brake levers that they put on...That should not be
too much of a problem though, after I get that worked out...
08/10/2005 - The New Bike! OK, Here's a picture of the new bike  (click
to enlarge) They did get the brake
levers right (finally) and I've put all my usual junk on it... So I'm all
set, I think... I was trying to think of a short easy to remember name for
the bike (like my last two bikes:
the Orange Bat and the Old Grey
Mare)... I was thinking of
something like the Blue Streak or something (since it is so fast)... but Dara was saying that it reminded
her of Crest toothpaste! I looked again and... well
it does remind me of a tube of Crest a little!!! What do ya think?
08/07/2005 - On the Road (Bike)
Again... Within Reach... Rebound!
Well, the Old Grey Mare (my old Trek 7300fx bike)
she aint what she used to be... OK, well it still is what it used to be, but
as some of you already know, I have decided to get back to my biking "roots" and get another Road Bike!!! OK, I
thought I would be happy with a hybrid bike for the next 26 years (like the amount of time I had my old 10 speed bike (the orange bat)), but I guess I still like those silly wrap down handle bars and skinny tires after all...
Here's a generic picture of my
new bike (link removed) It's a Trek 1500... I will be picking it up on
Tuesday, since I had them add the brake levers that go on the upper part of
the handle bars (and they had to install them). Just for comparison, here's
a picture of my old bike (link removed) on location (at Lake Michigan) (I
got a year and over 1200 miles on the old hybrid...)
In a related story... It is
looking like my bike mileage goal for this season is within reach... I
have over 1200 miles now (on the hybrid) and only 800 or so left... and with
a new bike,
I'm sure I'll be inspired to do a little extra...
07/17/2005 - Long Rides!
Dale and I did a little bike trip on the old Des Plains River Trail (DPRT) this weekend... From Route 22 in
Half Day to just before the Wisconsin line (where the actual trail ends at
the north). 65.5 miles! This is where I got the big lake picture (Independence Grove). I also got
quite a few really good bike trail shots to fill in the missing sections on my DPRT bike site pages. I know I won't be getting to that tonight, but I hope to get to
it fairly soon anyway... Oh yea, then as a little bonus, since it was the
hottest day in 6 years, I did another 20
miles today! It really was HOT out there
today! (I am taking tomorrow off (from riding... that is)).
6/4/2005 - Just Ridin..., Inverness
I have been doing a LOT of bike riding. So far I am going after
my old record 1307 miles and Dales record of 2008 miles... I really don't
know if I can keep up this pace, but I am on track so far... I just need to
keep doing 334 or more miles per month through all of October...
Sheesh!!!
In the process, I have found a great bike route through Inverness (the rich area by us...). I just did 21 miles there
today and have a real nice route... So, of course, I took pictures and did a
set of bike site pages with photos that I called The
Inverness Trail (even though it is not
really a "trail"). Here's the link: http://www.about-bicycles.com/inverness-trail.htm (new window) I got a little carried away with the photos and it took a huge
amount of time to put all this crap together... and it may net even be that
exciting for most people, unless you are a fairly serious biker
or know or have an interest in the area... Oh well, it is done anyway...
5/14/2005 - The
Inverness Trails
In order to beat my old mileage records, I have been
exploring new ways to increase my typical everyday bike rides (that I do on weekdays, just starting from my house and hopping on the bike).
One of my favorite areas for weekdays, around rush hour (which is when I
ride a lot), is Inverness. I have a route that I usually do that is 10 or 11
(if you take the extra loop) miles. I just discovered a way to hop over
Palatine road (less than a tenth of a mile on the shoulder) and into a few
new hoods in the northern part of
Inverness... WOW, is it nice!!! I can
increase my mileage by 7 miles at least! I haven't even explored all of the
additional roads...
I am really excited about this... The new areas may even
be nicer than the old hoods that I usually ride in... For those of you who
don't know, Inverness is the extra rich area around here... the houses and
landscaping are absolutely beautiful and there is actually very little
traffic! You rarely see any of the rich people (except for a few Mercedes
once in a while). Mostly all you see are all of the landscapers... and they
do a great job!
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