I was just out to the bike path that goes around Paul Douglas Forest Preserve (in Hoffman Estates (on Monday 4/29)) and discovered that the trail is flooded once again on the west side of the trail (the part that runs parallel to Huntington/Freeman Road).

The flooding on the west side of the Paul Douglas Bike Trail.

This part of the trail has flooded quite a few times and I have even written about it before here. It makes sense that this part of the trail would be flooded with all the other flooding that we have had in the area this year.

It actually used to flood a little worse in the past than this time (although it may have been worse before I made it out to the trail this time). They actually dug up this part of the trail shortly after it was built, added a few large drainage pipes under the trail and re paved it again to help with the flooding but it was not completely successful (although it did help a little bit).

The photo that I have included here is from my iPhone and shows how the trail looks as you are looking down the trail from south of the flooded part (looking north). There were even a few geese swimming around on the trail when I was there! You can see one of them in the photo in the distance on the right.

You can get around this part of the trail fairly easily by crossing over the Huntington/Freeman Road which it is right next to the trail at this point and it is just a very short detour. As I was taking the photo here I saw one rider go down to the flood and it looked like he was going to ride through it but he chickened out and ended up going around.

You can see the yellow line (from the trail) through the water and I believe that it is only about 4 inches deep so if you are adventurous (and don’t mind getting your feet wet) you can ride through it too. I have done this in the past (although I was on foot in this case).

That’s it for now… I’ll have more trail updates when I am able to ride more.