This morning I decided to step up my training for the Harmon Hundred ride and try to get in a good 10-15 miles. I finally got to ride on the McHenry County Prairie Trail through Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, and Algonquin, down to the Fox River. It was a great ride! It was just over 3 miles to meet up with the Prairie Trail (Which, BTW does connect to the Illinois Prairie Path farther south). From there, I had a nice ride of about 4.5 miles down to the river. The path went past the gravel pits and then followed a stream (crossing it several times) through some densely wooded areas, on a bridge over busy Algonquin Road, and then through some more park-like areas until coming to IL-31. After crossing IL-31, it was just a minute's ride until the foot/bike bridge crossing the Fox River. I spent a few minutes stopped on the middle of the bridge (there were not too many people in this stretch of the path so I wasn't creating a traffic jam or anything) and then turned around and headed for home.
What I hadn't realized at the time was that the 4.5 mile ride on the Prairie Trail to the Fox River was mostly downhill. That meant I had to retake that elevation I gave up on the way down. It wasn't bad though, the grade was gentle, rising slowly over 4.5 miles. I could have down-shifted to make it a little easier, but then I would have given up some speed and I wanted to give my legs a good workout. I couldn't maintain the same speed on the way up as I did on the way down, and pedaled about 3-4 mph slower on the return trip.
The stretch of the trail from Rakow Rd south to the parking lot just north of Algonquin Rd had many walkers -- and the path is limited access... in fact, I don't think there is any access between these two points except just north of the parking lot the trail splits off to somewhere. So I was surprised to see 10-15 walkers spread out on this stretch of the path. There were many more walkers than bikers for sure. I'm not sure why -- the path is paved, has a center stripe and goes through some nice senic areas. I also saw the grading work that they're doing for the new Pyott Rd. A portion of the road is being shifted a few hundred feet to the east to make room for runway expansion at the Lake in the Hills airport. I'm not sure if they're going to move the bike path to the east as well... if they don't, the path will cross Pyott Rd twice, which is inconvenient.
I also test-drove my new High Sierra water backpack. I got this at Costco a month or so ago (maybe longer) and hadn't put it to use yet. I ordered a Klean Kanteen water bottle and bottle cage for the bike because right now, I have no water bottle cage on the Trek at all. That's why I had to use the water backpack. I was able to keep ice in the bladder of the pack and the water stayed cold the whole time. The pack did make my back sweat more, so i'm looking forward to getting the Klean Kanteen on the Trek soon... this coming week hopefully.
Total distance: 15.08 miles, ride time: 1hr 6 mins, avg speed: 13.71 mph
No comments:
Post a Comment