Day 44: Lost and Found

What a marvelous ride! Today we rode from Woodstock to Palos Heights, a trip that was supposed to be 82 miles. Half of the ride was on the Prairie Trail/Fox River Trail. The scenery was beautiful, biking through the woods, beside a river, and beneath a canopy formed by the trees. Many of us stopped at a trailside coffee shop for early morning refreshments. Delightful! I didn't even mind the hard packed dirt/gravel that formed much of the trail.

Come to think of it; it formed too much of the trail. At our Peloton (whole group of bikers) Meeting the night before, the director of operations said that the trail was paved. My partner, Marti D., and I also began to wonder how come we weren't seeing any other bikers. We were rolling and hadn't caught up to anybody. The last time we saw anybody else was when the trail detoured and Marti and I took a shortcut through the detour.

When the trail crossed a major road there was a posted map of the trail system. There was a star that identified where we were; it wasn't close to where we were supposed to be. Where did we go wrong? Apparently our "shortcut" had picked up a different trail. What do we do? Backtrack? Try to get back on the right trail as quickly as possible? Make our own route through Chicago?

We rode to a gas station and looked at a Chicago map. Making our own route didn't look that tough. We decided to give it a go. Traffic was heavy, but Marti is an excellent traffic biker, and I just followed her. She "commanded" the traffic, signaling "stop" when we needed to merge or get into the left turn lane. The amazing thing was that the Chicago motorists, notorious for their bullheadedness, obeyed. Planning our own route and navigating through Chicago traffic was a blast!

When we started on our route, we were confident that we would get to Trinity College; we just thought it would take us a little longer, especially with all the traffic lights. Our route turned out to be a shortcut, saving about 8 miles and more than 1/2 an hour.

When we arrived at Trinity the early arrivals praised me for the good (meaning "fast") ride I had had. Nathan said, "Jim, I'm impressed!" Others were surprised that I had gotten there so early; they had blown by me in the early stages of the ride. I accepted their praise/curiosity and decided I'd tell them about the shortcut later...maybe.

Some might think I now owe the tour 8 miles for taking a shortcut. I figure Marti and I get bonus miles for creativity.