This might look like a repeat of one of my earlier bike trail ride reports but it is actually something completely different. I have ridden on the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) many times now and have documented the trail and uploaded the photos (and more recently the GPS map data) before. My last ride on the DPRT was actually only a month ago. 
Well, the Des Plaines River Trail is actually a really long trail (approximately 60 miles) and although I have ridden on many different parts of the trail I have never ridden the entire trail or the section that we just rode last week which includes Wheeling, south of Dundee Road, to Park Ridge (and back).
This part of the DPRT is mostly wooded, shady with some open areas and has some very nice scenery but there are also some fairly rugged sections in this area. Most of the trail is crushed stone but there are parts that are packed dirt and even a few single-track sections.
The only thing that I didn’t really like much on this part of the trail is that there are a few busy roads that you need to cross where there are no bridges, underpasses or even traffic signals in some cases. Milwaukee and Oakton (I think) were the worst to cross. This would not cause me to not ride this part of the trail but it does make it a little more difficult especially if you ride this part in rush hours (yes hours is plural and there is more than one 🙂 ). Most of the major roads do have bridges, underpasses or at least traffic signals where you need to cross.
One of the nice things about this part of the trail, aside from the shade and nice scenery in some parts, is that if you are coming from the north (the DPRT goes almost to the Wisconsin border) you can extend your ride quite a bit. I have never ridden the DPRT from Park Ridge south to Maywood but I understand that it does go that far. So if this is correct, and the entire length of the trail is 60 miles (which I have read) then you could actually do a 120 mile round-trip ride on this trail!
I know from experience riding the Lake County part of the Des Plaines River Trail that the underpasses can flood and even parts of the trail can flood when the river is high (like in early spring or after a lot of rain (not like now, of course)) so I think it is probably best to ride this part of the trail when conditions are dry. This past week was perfect for the part of the trail since the shade kept us cooler and everything was very dry.
Of course, I brought my camera and Bike GPS so I could take photos and document this part of the DPRT. Actually, with all the original photos that I have posted of this trail and the new ones that I just took I am starting to wonder if I have too many photos of this trail! Well, even if that is the case, I think it’s nice to be able to see what the different parts of the trail are like, especially if you are considering riding the trail and you can just skip the sections that you are not interested in.
As I was posting the latest trail photos I was looking at some of the original photos of the trail that I took back in 2004. Man, it’s nice that digital camera technology has come such a long way. Sorry the older photos are not very good quality. I guess I’ll have to re-do the photos of those sections when I get a chance.
Anyway, the new section of the trail that we just rode last week starts with the Des Plaines River Trail Photos 12 (which starts in Park Ridge) and includes Photos 13, Photos 14, Photos 15 and Photos 16 as we headed north back to Wheeling (like I said I have a lot out there now).
Most of my photos are related to the bike trail itself but my friend Dale, who rode this part of the trail with me, likes and is very good at nature photos and more artistic shots and I have included some of his photos in the collection too.
So I hope you enjoy the new photo pages and get a chance to get out to the DPRT or any of the other nice bike trails in this area or that are convenient for you.
Mobile Friendly Websites
On a different subject (but slightly related), I have been working on converting all of the pages on this website to a more mobile-friendly format for those who access this site with mobile devices (smart phones, tablet computers, etc.).
This has been quite a project so far and I still have a long way to go (but getting closer). The website will look almost exactly the same for anyone accessing the site with a desktop or laptop but will be much more streamlined for smaller devices like smart phones. This should include most of the bike trail pages and eventually this blog too so stay tuned (especially if you are on a smart phone!).