We have had enough nice days here in the Chicagoland area to get out and start accumulating some bike miles now. I only have a little over 100 miles for this season myself and have only been out on my local trails so far this year.
Riding the Flood Out
Speaking of local trails, I have ridden the trail through the Paul Douglas Preserve a few times this year and as of yesterday there was some flooding again in the usual place, in the stretch that runs along side of Hunting Freeman Road.
I did not have my DSLR camera with me but my wife and I had our phones, as usual, of course, so I figured I would get some photos of the flood and my wife even got some shots of me riding through the flooded area. It was only about 6 inches deep and I was having a little fun (keeping my feet out of the water in the photo above).
Keeping my feet dry another way
You could actually ride through the flooded area, without getting your feet wet if you did it the right way, as I did in the next photo. If you do not have a long distance to go through the flood you can keep both pedals mostly parallel to the ground and just do short, partial pedal strokes going back and forth (pedaling a little forward then a little back, then a little forward again, etc…). It works for a short distance and is better than doing full strokes and totally submerging your feet in the water (assuming you want to stay dry). I also noticed that this works best in a little higher gear.
There were a few other wet places on the trail but you could just ride around the water in the other places. Other than that the trail was in pretty good condition.
There were a few places where there was a lot of gravel debris where the trail is close to the roads and the snow was plowed on to the trail and a some small branches and sticks in the trail.
I did my duty and cleared a few larger branches off of the trail where the trail turns at Central and Roselle Roads.
For more information on many of the trails in our area, see our main Bike Trails page. You can also browse this blog using the “Bike Trail Conditions” Category of just use the local search to find the trail that you are interested in.
As usual, enjoy the ride!
Just a quick update… I was out on the Paul Douglas trail yesterday and again today (4/16/15) and noticed that the flood area is still flooded. There is still about 4 inches (or so) of water on the trail in that location.
It’s OK to ride through but I see the walkers and joggers turning around (which makes sense unless you don’t mine wet shoes and feet).
I also have some updates on my Garmin and the heart-rate settings but it is late now so I’ll have to do another post on that later…
One more update on The Paul Douglas Trail flooding. The water on the trail has dried up now and it is totally passable by bike or walking/running.
I was on the trail yesterday and there is still some dirt, mud and debris where the flooding was but no standing water.
Well here we go again… I was on the trail Thursday and the flooding was back again and as bad (or worse) that before.
It was actually flooded in 2 parts (in the same area about 15 feet apart). The deeper part is still PASSABLE BY BIKE but no so good for walkers, runners, roller bladers, etc.
You can ride through without getting wet if you use the method that I posted here in the original post. Unfortunately, the last time I went through I was getting used to going through it and came in a little too “hot” and got my feet wet. 🙁