About Rob

Bike trail and long distance cyclist and publisher of about-bicycles.com

Fitness Bikes at Electronic Stores

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Rob

With all of the Fitness Bikes that we’ve reviewed on this site (Upright, Recumbent and Spin Bikes), I often go out to stores ~ in the brick and mortar world ~ to compare prices, see what stores carry which brands, to check out the exercise bikes, talk to people in the stores about the fitness bikes that they carry and find out about the latest sales going on.

This weekend I was surprised to discover that a few of the stores that I consider primarily consumer electronic stores also have a very good selection of high quality exercise bikes and fitness equipment. The three electronic stores that I checked out were Best Buy, hhgregg and ABT in Glenview, Il.

The first store that I visited was ABT in Glenview, Illinois. ABT is a huge store that has been in business for quite a while and has survived the consumer electronics wars of the past but I believe that there is just the one store in Glenview (so this is not a national chain). ABT has grown into much more than just consumer electronics at this point. If you live in the Chicagoland area this is a good b&m store for fitness equipment.

What I found at ABT was that they carry Proform, Life Fitness, Schwinn and Spirit Fitness exercise bikes. There was a good selection of Life Fitness and Proform, one Schwinn Fan bike ~ the Schwinn Airdyne AD2 Fan Bike ~ and one Spirit Fitness bike.

One thing that was really nice at ABT was that they had the popular Proform Tour de France TDF bike set up and on display. Although this bike is very popular online, there are not a lot of stores at this time where you can actually see and try out this bike so if you are interested in the Proform TDF this is a great place to see it.

My next stop (for fitness equipment at electronics stores) was hhgregg. Hhgregg is a chain of b&m stores (over 190 at this time according to their website) mostly located west of the Mississippi at this time.

I like hhgregg, I think that they are a good alternative to Best Buy and I found that they carry some very good quality fitness equipment too. The HHGregg store by us carried the Life Fitness, Horizon and AFG brands.

What I found very nice about hhgregg is that you can see and tryout the Horizon Fitness bikes that I reviewed at the Horizon headquarters in Cottage Grove Wisconsin and have reviewed and recommended on this website for quite some time now.

Horizon does not have a large selection of exercise bikes ~ just one Spin Bike (the Horizon M4) and one Recumbent Bike (the Horizon RC30) ~ but they are a very high quality brand and also very affordable (a nice combination). I would really like to see them come out with an upright but we will probably need to wait for that one.

The prices for the Horizon bikes at hhgregg were better than online list prices at Amazon and Horizon (factory direct) but not as good as the price from our site when you apply the 10% discount code that we are able to offer at this time. See the two Horizon links above for more information on the 10% discount if you are interested in this.

I would have to say that all the exercise bike brands that hhgregg carries are good quality and, in general, their prices are also very good.

And my last stop on the electronic store/fitness bike tour was Best Buy. I have seen exercise bikes (and fitness equipment) on the Best Buy website but I actually did not remember ever seeing fitness equipment at Best Buy but since I was never looking for it there I thought that I might have missed it.

As it turns out Best Buy only sells fitness equipment online (through 3rd party stores) and does not sell fitness equipment in their stores (according to the sales rep that I talked to (and who seemed knowledgeable)).

So there you have it. A few more brick and mortar stores that you can go to and find and try out different fitness equipment brands.

The New 2013 NordicTrack Commercial VR Pro Review

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Rob

I recently discovered that NordicTrack had just released their new top of the line Recumbent Exercise Bike, the NordicTrack Commercial VR PRO. I have been familiar with the Original Commercial VR for quite some time now and at first I didn’t notice that this was an upgraded version of that bike.

It has taken some time and research but I have just posted my review of the NordicTrack Commercial Recumbent Exercise Bike here.

You can tell right away that the new Commercial VR Pro has a sleeker look than the original version and there are a few other differences too although they may not be real obvious, even with the automatic compare feature on their website, so I added a brief summary of the differences to our review (the link above).

As I mentioned in my review, the Commercial VR bikes from NordicTrack are not really commercial grade bikes ~ as the name implies ~ but really heavy-duty, high-end residential bikes that you can get at a reasonable price.

This is actually good since commercial grade fitness equipment is usually way more expensive then residential models and really not always the best choice for in-home use anyway. Commercial equipment is made to withstand long hours of continuous use (and abuse) by multiple users and often times does not have some of the nicer (more breakable) features that you get on residential models.

One example is that both Commercial VR bikes come with a wireless heart-rate transmitters (chest straps) that are compatible with the bike’s console. You might find commercial bikes that are compatible with wireless transmitters but you’ll need to be sure that it is compatible with the kind that you have or are considering getting.

Besides for giving you a more accurate heart-rate reading (than typical handle grip heart-rate monitors) the wireless HR transmitters allow your hands to be free through your entire ride for reading, using a laptop or mobile device or anything else that you want to do as you get or stay in shape.

I was wondering why NordicTrack, and some of the other fitness websites, are still having sales and promotions when we are just 4 days away from Christmas. Then it occurred to me that, since so many people are ready to get in shape the minute that the holidays are over, it makes sense that the early shoppers (for the after-Christmas fitness season) can order their fitness equipment now and have it on its way and delivered right after the holidays.

Anyway, if you are interested in the latest high-end NordicTrack Recumbent Bikes, see our Commercial VR Pro and Commercial VR reviews and comparisons.

And one final note… It is 5:25pm Central Time on 12/21/2012 and I am still here… It is starting to look like the holidays will be here right on schedule… 🙂

Happy Holidays Everyone!

2013 Bike Trail and Cycling Events Calendar

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Rob

I’ve just completed putting together the 2013 Bike Trail and Cycling Events Calendar and have also updated our Cycling Events Page with the 2013 dates for many major cycling events and rides in the Chicagoland area and Midwest in general.

I just discovered that many people start looking for the next year’s calendar right after Thanksgiving so I hope I’m not too late in getting this together. I know there will still be people looking for a 2013 Calendar through out December and especially just before and after New Years Day.

This calendar is available in PDF and Excel formats and is designed so that each month will fit on one standard ~ 8.5″x11″ ~ size sheet of paper.

I think that the PDF and Excel formats give you a lot of flexibility with viewing online, downloading and viewing on your computer or other devices or to print (one month at a time or all 12 months at once) if you would like a hardcopy.

Personally, I like to have a hardcopy version of the calendar that I hang on my wall. You may not get the same quality, depending on your printing capabilities, as you would with a store bought calendar but there are some nice bike trail and cycling related photos and the calendar includes US holidays and cycling events in the Midwest in the body of the calendar.

You can use this calendar for quick references, for easily printing a specific month on a standard size sheet of paper or you can print all 12 months in high quality, on fancy paper and bind together in a variety of ways. That part is completely up to you. I am just trying to provide an handy and easy to use calendar (related to cycling of course).

The photos on this years calendar were all taken this year and include photos from bike trails in the Chicagoland area and the Midwest and cycling events in our area such as the MB Financial Bike the Drive (on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago) and the Tour or Elk Grove professional bike racing event.

You can find more information and the 2013 cycling calendars on the 2013 Bike Trails and Events Calendar Page here.

I have also spent some time looking up the dates for many of the major cycling rides and events in our area and have included the 2013 dates and links to the websites that sponsor these events on our Special Cycling Events Page.

Well, here’s to a Happy 2013 and a lot of enjoyable cycling miles and activities!

Garmin Edge Hints, Ride Time vs Elapsed Time…

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Rob

Here are a few hints, tips and clarifications on the Garmin Edge 800 GPS Bike computer fields and settings (which apply to the Edge 500 also) that I have found helpful and sometimes difficult to find either in the manual or via an online search.

First, let me explain that I always use the Auto Pause feature which stops the stats and timers when you are on a ride and stopped (or below the minimum speed setting that you set with the Auto Pause feature (I usually set my minimum speed at 3mph)).

I believe that Auto Pause is NOT set by default when you first get an Edge bike computer, which means that your stats and timers ~ most importantly your average speed ~ continue to run while you are on a ride but stopped (to cross a road for example). So if you want your average speed to be your actual average, while riding (and not stopped), you’ll need to turn Auto Pause on (I don’t know why this is not the default).

What I just discovered recently is the exact differences between the Time Stats on the Edge computers. Although there are a number of time stats (lap times, times to destinations, etc.) the two key time stats that I am referring to are “Time” and “Elapsed Time”.

“Elapsed Time” is exactly what is says in the manual which is the total time recorded from the time that you press Start to the time you press Reset (or end your current ride data).

“Time” is what I think of as Ride Time. This is only the time that you have ridden on your ride and does not include the time that the unit is on Auto Pause. In the Garmin manual it says that this is “Stopwatch time” (very confusing, I think). I have also seen this called ride time or trip time on the older wheel, magnet based bike computers. Trip time can be confusing since it could potentially go either way depending on how you read it.

OK, so much for the time stats. Another little trick that I just learned about my Garmin Edge is that there is a much easier way to change what is being displayed in any (programmable) window on any screen in the edge without going into the Menu>Bike Settings>Training Pages… process.

The easier way to change any of the stats being displayed in a window (or box) on the Garmin Edge computers is just to press and hold the window or box that you want to change on the screen until it turns blue.That will take you right into the menu area where you can change the display to anything else that you would like it to be. This should be right at the top of the manual where it explains how to change these things!

Of course, if you want to rearrange the entire screen (like change the number of windows (or boxes) on a screen then you’ll need to go through the regular Menu path process.

The last little thing that I wanted to mention is about the Lap Markers on the Garmin Connect Maps. Personally, I always upload my ride data, from my Edge 800, to Garmin Connect cause it is so cool to have all the stats and a detailed map of your rides to refer to after your ride is over.

What I discovered though is that not all of my laps show up on the Garmin Connect maps (in the numbered bubbles). All the laps do show up on the main screen and in the “Splits” tab but not on the maps. I actually called Garmin support on this to see if there was some way or some trick to seeing ALL of the laps on the map screens and confirmed that there is not. Garmin Connect randomly picks a few of the lap markers and, for now, that is all you get.

Another kind of cool feature with the Garmin Edge computers is the Color Mode Screen Display. This setting is set to Auto mode by default which means that in the daylight hours it is a black on white display and at night it automatically turns to white on black. The photo that I included above was my Edge 800 GPS from last night while the unit was in night display mode. This, of course, can be set to whatever your preference is.

Once again, I still love my Garmin Edge 800 GPS Bike Computer and I think that this is the most fun and useful cycling accessory that I own. I never intend to go back to the old style bike computers again.

If you do not already have a GPS bike computer and are considering getting one (or giving one, since it is that time of year), please see our Bike GPS page for a summary of these units and some good online resources.

Lance Armstrong Mess and Livestrong Exercise Bikes

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Rob

It really is a shame about this whole Lance Armstrong Mess. Personally, I still want to believe that the doping charges are not true and I wish that he would have fought to prove that the accusations were not true. Unfortunately, Lance chose not to fight and his downfall is now history (fairly recent history anyway).

There are many things that bother me about this whole situation but I want to focus on is the things that I am the most familiar with and on trying to preserve the good things (that can be preserved) that Lance has been involved with (outside of racing).

I think that most people that are familiar with Lance Armstrong know about his fight with and recovery from cancer and that he founded the Livestrong foundation to help cancer patients, promote healthy living and to help fight cancer.

If you have seen the recent news stories about Lance not fighting the latest doping allegations, being banned from professional cycling and being stripped of his 7 Tour de France wins, then you may also know that Lance Armstrong has stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong foundation (as well as being dropped from most, if not all, of his previous sponsors).

My concern, even though Lance has stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong foundation, is the potential harm that could be done to this organization since it was founded by Lance and has had such a close relationship to him for so many years. I mean even the name “Livestrong” still sounds like it is connected with the fallen cyclist.

I know that the Livestrong foundation has done a lot of good things in recent years and I really hope that they can continue their good work without a lot of damage or fall out from the Lance Armstrong demise.

The other thing that I am familiar with and that is very relevant to this website is Livestrong Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles. These fitness products are produced by Johnson Health Tech in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin. This company had made quality fitness products long before they partnered with the Livestrong foundation and continues to make quality products under the Livestrong brand name as well as other brand names (Horizon Fitness, AFG, Matrix, Vision Fitness…).

Livestrong LS28IC Limited Edition Indoor Cycle

My concern here is that, if the Livestrong brand name gets a bad reputation, this could cause problems for Johnson Health Tech and the sale of their quality Livestrong products as well as the Livestrong foundation.

I had met with some of the managers and product specialists at Johnson Health Tech in Wisconsin a little over a year ago which is one of the reasons why I am so familiar with the company and many of its products (specifically the fitness bikes).

I have not actually spoken to them recently about the effects of the Lance Armstrong “mess” (as I called it in the first sentence of this post) but I know that the sales of Livestrong Fitness Bikes (indirectly) from this site in November are about 1/10th of what they were last year so that is not a good sign.

Last year, at this time, Livestrong was still selling the Limited Edition LS28IC Indoor Cycle (pictured above) that totally celebrated Lance Armstrong’s achievements in addition to providing a generous donation to the Livestrong foundation for each sale of this bike.This was a limited edition bike and has been sold out for quite some time now which is probably good since I’m not sure how it would sell these days ~ who knows, maybe it would be even more popular. 😐

I don’t think that all this negative publicity about Lance is good for Livestrong brand fitness products but I have noticed that you can get their Exercise Bikes and Indoor Cycles (Spin Bikes) at lower prices these days on Amazon where they were rarely marked down in the past.

The following Livestrong bikes have had price reductions at Amazon recently:

Many of these bikes have been on our Best Buys list which is another indication of the quality of these products.

I know that there has already been a lot of stuff written about the Lance Armstrong news but I had to post what I’ve been thinking and concerned about and, of course, the Livestrong Fitness Bike information that is so relevant to this website.

Previously, I had a blurb on the LS9.9IC page about how Lance Armstrong had endorsed this Spin Bike and just now I jumped on the bandwagon and removed my LA endorsement comments from that page (which was a sad change to make).

Good Riding Weather before the Holidays and Holiday Sales

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Rob

I can’t believe it but I am still adding more bike miles to my bike computer for the 2012 riding season. We have been lucky recently and have had some excellent riding weather here in the Chicagoland area.

It has been into the 50s and 60s the last few days and it’s been really nice for riding if you can get out in the warmer part of the day. Of course, there is a lot less daylight riding time at this time of the year and I have noticed that the temperature seems to drop pretty quickly when it starts getting close to sunset. I don’t usually get a lot of riding in during the week of Thanksgiving but I’ll take it if I can get it.

The other thing that I wanted to mention, which I’m sure you are all painfully aware of (with the xmas commercials revving up for the holiday season) is that we are starting to see some of the big sales happening online and I know that later this week it is going to go absolutely crazy.

I have been watching this closely and I’ll be posting cycling product updates on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on our Specials pages.

For example, we’ll have Bike and Bike Accessories sales and promotions on our Bike Sales, Promotions, Special Deals and Discounts page and Fitness Bike sales and promotions on our Exercise Bike Special Deals and Discounts page.

Also I put together a page for page for bike rider and cyclist gift ideas last year and I just made some minor updates to it for this year. I didn’t have to make a lot of major changes because most of the cycling products that made good gifts for cyclists before still make for good gifts now! Anyway, see our Bike Rider Gift Ideas and Gifts for Cyclists page for bike rider gift ideas if this is something that you are interested in.

Garmin Heart-Rate Monitor Issues and Replacement

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Rob

I’ve had my Garmin Edge 800 and Garmin heart-rate monitor for about 8 months now, have logged over 1400 bike miles this year and I still love this bike computer and use my heart-rate monitor on just about every ride now.

It’s funny, I never had a heart-rate monitor until this year and was not really all that interested in having one before. Now, I feel like I am totally missing something when I ride without it. I am constantly checking my HR and my HR zone as I ride for an efficient ride and also to stay within a safe range for myself.

Anyway, here’s the story on the problems that I’ve had with my HR monitor. About a month ago the HR readings on my Edge 800 started to drop out occasionally or give me readings that were obviously too low. I wet the sensors on the strap, as Garmin suggests, for a better connection and the HR readings would usually come back but they still kept dropping off occasionally.

After a few weeks, it became difficult to get the heart-rate readings on my GPS unit at all and when I did they were usually wrong.

So the most obvious thing to try was to replace the battery in the transmitter so I did that. ~ One note on changing the battery is that you need to remove 4 tiny screws that I found extremely difficult to remove. You have to get the perfect sized miniature screw driver to get them out without stripping them. When I changed the battery on my old Vetta bike computer, I could use a quarter and a half turn opened it up easily. I mentioned this to Garmin when I talked to one of their support people.

So after changing the battery, I had the same problems. Next, I did some searches on the internet for a resolution. I found that a few websites (including the Garmin site) that says that you need to reset the transmitter by waiting a minute after removing the old battery and putting the new one in. Well, I didn’t do that the first time so I opened it up again and did the reset procedure. Still no luck ~ Same problems.

My next step was to call Gamin support. I have actually found Garmin support to be very helpful in the past and with this issue. You need to wait a short time for support but it is not all that bad and I have found their support to be very good (and friendly people too).

When I talked to the support rep I explained the problem and the steps that I had already taken which was good because I would have had to do those things first anyway. I also mentioned that I cleaned the sensors on the strap after each use as they suggest.

The support rep told me that my HR unit would still be under warranty but suggested one other procedure to try which was to wash the sensors on the strap with a mild soap (like Dawn dish soap) and to soak it over night. OK, so I did that and once again no luck.

I called Garmin support once more and explained the situation. This time they just went ahead and sent me a replacement HR monitor (strap and transmitter) since it was still under warranty.

So a few days ago I received my new HR monitor from Garmin and have already used it on a couple of rides. It is so nice to have my HR monitor back again!

I am disappointed that the old one only lasted about 7 months and am a little skeptical about how long the replacement will last. Only time will tell on that. I am very happy with Garmin support though. BTW: I tested the new strap with my old transmitter and it worked so the problem was with the sensors in the strap itself.

Well that got a little longer than I expected.

I did also want to mention though that I still really love my Edge 800 bike computer and will probably never go back to the old wheel/magnet based bike computers again.

I was going to write a little more about the Edge 800 features that I have gotten to like so much but since this post has gotten so long, I guess I’ll just have to save that for another post.

I did put quite a bit of information out on the Garmin Edge 800 Bike GPS Review page on this site for those who may be interested in the Edge 800 (or the other Edge models).

Late Season Riding and New Fitness Bikes

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Rob

It’s that time of the year, here in the mid-west, where outdoor bike riding season is nearly over. Well, it may already be over for some people and may never be over for others (I’ve seen some pretty rugged cyclists out in the dead of winter).

For me, I usually consider bike riding season to mostly be within the daylight-savings-time date range although I can usually get some riding in before or after these dates. Riding at this time of year is much colder, of course, and you really need to dress properly but you also have less daylight.

Anyway, I have still been getting out for some late season rides but I don’t think that I will have a lot more (unless we have a really mild winter again). Yesterday was a really nice day to ride since there was very little wind and I was thinking about how much I will be missing my rides during the winter.

Well, I still have to stay in shape so that leads us right into the Indoor Cycling and Fitness Bike Season. This is the time of year when a lot of the fitness companies are coming out with their new Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes (along with all their other products) and the Fitness Clubs are trying hard to get new members.

I have been researching the latest Indoor Cycles and Exercise Bikes and updating this site with information and reviews on the new models (and archiving the older models when they are no longer available).

Some of the most recent exercise bikes to come out are the NordicTrack GX4.2 Recumbent and NordicTrack GX4.2 Upright and NordicTrack 2.5 Upright. NordicTrack seemed to find the right design a long time ago and they just make minor improvements to their previous year models each year. For example the GX4.2 Recumbent and Upright are very similar to last year’s GX4.0 series with some minor improvements (see the links above for more details on the changes).

If you prefer the convenience of an In-Home fitness routine (rather than a club or gym) and want to keep your costs down you also have the option of using a Bike Trainer or bike stand for your outdoor bike.

There are some pros and cons with Bike Trainers vs Exercise Bikes. Some of the advantages of a bike trainer is the much lower cost, of course, and the fact that you can ride your own outdoor bike that you are familiar with. Some of the disadvantages of trainers is that your outdoor bike on a trainer is probably not as sturdy, stable and comfortable as an exercise bike and you need to physically connect your bike to the trainer making it difficult to ride both indoors and outdoors (like at this time of year).

I am going to be keeping up on the latest indoor cycles, exercise bikes and spin bikes so you’ll probably be seeing more on the latest models and sales soon. I also have a story about the heart-rate monitor for my GPS unit but that is a whole different story which I’ll be saving that for another post soon.

I&M Trail from Marseilles to Split Rock (near La Salle)

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Rob

As I mentioned recently, we just rode another part of the I&M Canal Trail last week (Monday, 10/15/12) and I have selected and posted photos of our trip with our existing bike trail pages.

This particular ride was a continuation of a ride on the I&M (Illinois and Michigan) Canal Trail that we did way back in 2003 from Channahon to Marseilles. The photos for this trip should be much better quality since the old photos were actually from a pre-2003 generation camcorder and the new photos are from our fairly current DSLR cameras.

These trail photos are more like my usual photo tours of the other bike trails written up on this site, where I provide more information on the trails and try to capture the feel of the entire ride, rather than the photos that I did recently that were specifically meant to capture the fall colors on the bike trails that I selected for this year (although there were still some nice fall colors on this I&M Trail ride).

We did a little over 40 miles on this ride and once again I was impressed with many parts of the I&M Canal Bike Trail. This is a fairly rugged (if you are used to asphalt) multi-surface trail. Most of the trail was crushed stone but there were also some grass and dirt sections. We had to clear and/or carry our bikes over some fallen trees on one part of this ride.

After our first ride on the I&M Trail I did some research on the history of the I&M trail (both online and at the library) and I have been very impressed with the significance of the history behind this trail (once the Illinois and Michigan Canal that connected Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River and shaped the history of Chicago and the mid-west US).

On this trip we rode past the Fox River Aqueduct and Locks #11 and #12 just west of Ottawa, Il. There are quite a few signs and maps posted along the trail that give you some of the history of the part of the trail that you are on. so not only is this a nice, scenic bike ride, you can also pickup some interesting history on this ride.

The I&M Trail goes right past Buffalo State Park which seemed like a nice area but we did not get a chance to go into the park. The trail is also just north of Starved Rock State Park but I did not see a way to get to Starved Rock from the I&M Trail. This is probably possible but we had a limited amount of time (there is only so much daylight this time of year) and we were not able to explore as much as I would have liked to.

OK, enough talk about the I&M Canal and our ride. Here are the latest photos from our ride from Marseilles to Split Rock (7 photo pages):

Actually, you can just take the links at the bottom of each photo page to go to the next one, but I am including all of them here in case you are interested in a particular part of the trail.

Millennium Trail Fall Photos

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Rob

I have been trying to get out on some more bike trails for photos ~ as well as to enjoy the rides and scenery ~ and I now have some more fall scenery photos posted on this site and more trail info and photos to come soon.

First, I rode a section of the Illinois and Michigan Canal bike trail (I&M Trail) from Marseilles to just before La Salle, Il. with a friend on Monday. This was a continuation of a ride that we did way back in 2003! This was a really nice ride and I have plenty of photos but I do not have these uploaded just yet (I will have this done in a few days and will post another blog entry when they are complete).

Next, since it was another nice day on Tuesday, I decided to pick another wooded bike trail that I already knew about for some fall color photos (and a ride, of course).

I choose the Millennium Trail this time and have selected and posted my photos from this ride on the following pages. See Millennium Trail Fall Photos 6 ~ Lakewood Forest Preserve and Millennium Trail Fall Photos 7 ~ One Mile Loop for the photos from this ride.

I thought that the trees might be pretty bare already since it is getting a little past peak fall color season but I found that there was still plenty of color out there when you look for it. It seems like earlier in the fall the trees have more leaves and you get more greens and yellows but later in the season although many of the leaves have already fallen there are still trees with leaves and it seems like there are more reds and browns at this time.

Enhanced Photos

One thing that I wanted to point out with the photos is that after selecting the best of the photos that I took I also enhanced them a little with my photo editing program. In most cases I boosted the color just a little, straightened the photos that were crooked and cropped a few.

This is a pretty common thing to do these days and I still try to keep the photos looking as natural as possible and like the original scene looked. I just consider this making a good photo better but for artistic honesty, I think you should be aware that they were touched up a little (no, I am just not that great of a photographer (without a little help anyway)).

Trail Conditions

I also wanted to mention one thing about the current condition of the Millennium Trail. They are currently doing construction on some parts of the trail right at the Lakewood Forest Preserve parking area off of Fairfield Road.

When I was there on Tuesday they had just paved the trail right by the parking lot and you could only go a short distance before it was blocked off. At that time you needed to cut through the playground area and get to the main part of the trail in the Lakewood Forest Preserve.

I also noticed that they made a new section of the trail that now goes north (from the parking lot) and through a tunnel under Route 176. I’m not sure exactly when this will be complete or where it will ultimately go but it’s nice to see that they are expanding the trail and adding highway underpasses.

I am also curious just how much of this trail they are going to pave. Personally, I don’t mind the crushed stone but, for the most part, having the trail paved will probably be a nice improvement.

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