{"id":2824,"date":"2012-07-10T11:07:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T16:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2012-11-16T20:10:10","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T01:10:10","slug":"moraine-hills-bike-trail-photos-and-ride-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/?p=2824","title":{"rendered":"Moraine Hills Bike Trail ~ Photos and Ride Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been wanting to check out the trails in the Moraine Hills State Park<\/strong> (just south-east of McHenry<\/em>) for a while now and finally had a chance to ride the trails last Tuesday (7\/3). This was during our heat wave and our drought but the ride was still scenic and it is a really nice area for a fairly short ride and photos.<\/p>\n

\"Wetlands<\/a>

Wetlands and Stream in Moraine Hills State Park<\/p><\/div>\n

I had my camera and GPS Bike Computer with me so I could post photos and document the ride of course and I have posted quite a few photos, along with the bike trail article on this trail here at the Moraine Hills Bike Trail Photos and Ride Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I was updating my photos and the article on this bike trail I searched for other photos of this park and trail and found that it looks quite different at different times of the year. My photos are from a drought in the middle of summer but the scenery looks quite different in the spring, fall and winter. I hope to make a few more trips out there in the different seasons to check out the contrast. When I do, I’ll try to add some updates to the new Moraine Hills Trail pages.<\/p>\n

Where I parked, at Pike Marsh (on the south-eastern part of the park<\/em>), you can get on the main Moraine Hills Trail<\/strong><\/em> and the River Road Trail which runs mostly parallel to the MHT at that point . I accidentally got on the River Road Trail and took a 3 mile detour when I first started. This was still the same are and it was also a pretty nice ride but it was not on the actual Moraine Hills Trails.<\/p>\n

When I got back on the main trail again I headed south-west first to the Fox River<\/strong><\/em> and the McHenry Dam<\/strong><\/em> and then around the Black Tern Marsh<\/strong><\/em>. This area looked nice but I stopped at one point, close to the marsh and got attacked by some kind of flies. I had to get<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>

Lake Defiance in the Distance<\/p><\/div>\n

moving again to ditch them. Later I stopped by the Black Tern Viewing Platform<\/strong><\/em>, which was very nice (and no flies) and took some photos.<\/p>\n

After that, I headed north again (to the other side of River Road<\/em>) and rode both loops on the northern part of the park. The loop on the west side goes into what they call the Northern Woods<\/strong><\/em> and goes around the Leatherleaf Bog Nature Preserve<\/strong><\/em> and the loop on the east side goes around Lake Defiance<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I picked up a map of the park and trails at the park entrance which I have scanned and posted on the Moraine Hills Trail article (the link above<\/em>) along with the GPS map of my ride (including the River Road detour).<\/p>\n

As for the trail itself, it is a combination of crushed stone and paved surfaces (mostly crushed stone<\/em>) and was in very good condition. There is also a combination of hills and flat lands. Most of it is fairly flat with a few steep hills mostly in the northern section (you can actually see the hills and elevations on the GPS map of my ride that I posted with the article linked to above (using the “Player”option on the Garmin page).<\/p>\n

Well, that’s about it for this ride (until I check it out in another season). If you are looking for a fairly short, leisurely ride in a nice park with some nice scenery to enjoy or photograph then you may want to check out the Moraine Hills State Park Trails.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been wanting to check out the trails in the Moraine Hills State Park (just south-east of McHenry) for a while now and finally had a chance to ride the trails last Tuesday (7\/3). This was during our heat … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,30,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2824"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11096,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824\/revisions\/11096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/about-bicycles.com\/bike-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}