Adventures of an AT Section hiker "Mapless"

Tag: biking

  • Weekend in Chicago – Bike the Drive

    Weekend in Chicago – Bike the Drive

    August 30 & 31 2025 – Days 18 and 19 on the road – Woke up early in the condo. Brenden slept in, which was fine. I hung out and updated my journal and blog

    In the afternoon we headed to a local tavern and watched the Buckeyes kick butt on Texas again. Discovered I do not have the bladder to drink and walk in a big city like Chicago, smiles. I was always a struggle to make it back to the condo.

    I was pleasantly surprised at the number of gluten free options at the restaurants near Brenden. For dinner I had a very good gluten free pizza and gluten free carrot cake for desert – yum

    Got my bike stuff ready for Bike the Drive in the morning… We are going to try to get out the door at 7 as they suggest to start before 8 am to be sure you complete you ride before the road is opened again.

    Sunday we were up early and rode to entrances to the northern most entrance to Lakeshore highway for the ride. There were a ton of riders already on the road. We headed south. The drive was relatively flat but each time there was a bridge over a side street you had to go up and over. The bridge over Chicago river was a bit steep but do able. The river was big stopping point for riders for pictures, a bit of a traffic jam there.

    We stopped at a rest stop for drinks and snacks and then we rode almost to the Field Museum and headed back. The entire loop of the ride was 15 miles we probably turned around at 8 or 9. We started way to early we were back to outr start by 10… we then rode to to breakfast. When we go to the restaurants we turned off our tracking and we had done 20 miles

    The rest of the day we did nothing…. just relaxed and recovered. Bailey returned from her trip late in the afternoon and we walked to dinner. Yet another restaurant with gluten free options… in fact they had a whole gluten free menu. I was in heaven.

    Back at the condo I retired early.

  • Prairie Duneland Rail Trail and Chicago

    Prairie Duneland Rail Trail and Chicago

    Friday August 29, 2025 – Day 17 of the road trip. I am almost caught up with posting…. now doing two a day !

    Woke up and found I rolled over on my glasses and popped a lens. So part of the day today will be searching for eyeglass repair… all part of the adventure I guess. Had breakfast, coffee and packed up the van to hit the road again… first a bike trail not far away and then the dreaded drive into Chicago.

    The Prairie Duneland Trail in Chesterton Indiana, a few miles south of Lake Michigan is a nice suburban trail. It was a railway at one time. It was well shaded as is goes through different neighborhoods. I rode out 8.5 miles to a park that seemed like a good turn around and gave me a 17 mile ride.

    After the ride I was able to find a eye doctors office that would fix my glasses. I gave them some cash and said lunch was on me. They gave me a good suggestion for breakfast and it was nice to have my first hot breakfast for some time. So good

    I had some time to kill before heading into Chicago (Brenden had to work in the morning). I found a nice coffee shop in downtown Chesterton. I setup the computer and did some journaling and updates on the blog. Sat outside for some time… the coffee shop was very warm inside for some reason. There was a good amount of train traffic through the town and I can understand why I saw signs that said NO TRAIN HORN as I suspect their were trying to get the trains to not blow their horns as they went through town – they were load and frequent while I was there.

    Finally it was time to drive to Chicago and as expected it was a slow, lots of traffic and stressful…. not used to so much traffic coming from Franklin NC – smiles

    Met Brenden at his condo and was able to park in their parking lot spot after we got the bike off the top of the van – would not fit through the gate. Turns out this parking spot cost $20k when they bought the condo – yikes !

    I go a tour of the condo, and we were able to walk to dinner. He live in Edgewater / Andersonville neighborhood north of downtown. Very nice area with many options for restaurants. We ate on the patio of Hopleaf.

    It was nice to catch up with Brenden. I ended up crashing early when we got back from dinner. I real bed felt so good.

  • Pumpkinvine Trail / Indiana Dunes

    Pumpkinvine Trail / Indiana Dunes

    Wednesday August 27, 2025 – Road trip day #15 – Was up at 7 and on the road y 8 am. I think I have this down to a science now !

    Drove to Shipshewana Indiana to ride the Pumpkinvine Trail. This is a rail trial that runs about 18 miles to Goshen. I planned to go out 10 miles for about a 20 mile ride.

    This was a wonderful trail. Fully tree lined and shaded with views between the trees of Amish farms. Traveled though the town of Middlebury before the turn to head back.

    Both Shipshewanna and Middlebury seemed like very nice little towns. Lots of Amish in the area and even saw the Amish on the bike trail. Saw a restaurant called Blue Gate (or Bluegate ??) that was huge and had a ton of people going in… must be the local tourist attractions… I did not try

    Drove about 2 hours to Indiana Dunes. I was happy that google took me on US20 instead of 80/90. I was a nice snice drive for the most part.

    Since I had not missed my first night reservation I was a little concerned I would not have a site. When I checked all was good and the gentleman working for the park was very nice and was sure to provide all the information needed for my stay. I think my camp site was the only site that was had sun. This made things a bitt warm when I was setting up, but the shade should cover the site in the afternoon. Park was very nice, bathrooms and showers were very clean.

    Once set up I jumped on the bile to explore the area. The lake was only a mile or so up the the road with very little traffic. The lake views were beattifull

    Dinner and early to bed in the evening… tired… lots of miles today on the bike

  • Bike ride in “The Valley”

    August 24, 2025 – Adventure / Road Trip Day 12 – Did not sleep well last night worried about the van and where and what to do today. Got up at 7 and made coffee in room to figure things out.

    As part of the trip I was looking for forward to a bike ride on the Tow Path in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park south of Cleveland. I had spent a lot of time on the trail and in the park during life. But it would be a bit of drive and I with the van sounding like a jet engine so I thought to should stay closer to where I was staying.

    I decide on a bike ride on the Metroparks trail starting in Lakewood. I had bike this trail many times as a kid. We used to just call it the “The Valley” before it was the Metroparks. Toured the boat ramp and rode from Lakewood to the Mastick picnic area. Rode past the old hang out of the “green barn” which is not painted green. Ended up with 15 miles and brought back lots of memories.

    Next stop was Erie Island Coffee in Rocky River. I was fun to see this part of Rocky Rive… basically grew up here. Work on the journal and killed time until I could check into my room in Avon.

    Had dinner with the long time friends the Stothards on their backyard patio … how many time have we done this ??.. wild. Thank you Dan and Phyllis for for your hospitality. I was nice to visit and catch up.

    After adding the photos below I realized how lucky I have been with weather on the trip. The super hot and humid summer weather ended just as I started the trip and I have had sunny sky’s and gorgeous days with only on rain day out of 11 so far … blessed

  • D&H Trail – Simpson PA

    D&H Trail – Simpson PA

    Monday August 18, 2025 – After a full breakfast at the motel in Scranton headed out early to Simpson PA to ride the D&H Trail this is a 39 mile rail trail and runs north to the NY state …. I will not be doing those kind of miles – smiles.

    Starting out northbound from Simpson the trail is a slight up and also has a bit of head wind as well… so it was a slow morning ride ! The temps have finally broken from hot and humid and needed a jacket for the ride. Took an hour to go 7.5 miles and decided to turn around to make a 15 miles ride in total. Trail was a nice wide cinder trail with view of the Lackawanna River.

    The ride passed through the town of Forest City with a very nice parking area for trail. After the ride I headed to this parking area to make some coffee and second breakfast before heading back on the road. I was entrained by a college cross country team training that morning with a very colorful / funny coach. Nver did find out what school they were from.

    Drove about 3 hours to Rome NY and Delta Lake State Park. Have 3 nights planned here. Got check in to the campground and set up the campsite. Good sized campsites… RV heaven here with each site having electricity. Rode my bike around the campground and the park beach area. Very nice park. There had been a drought in the area and the lake water levels where way down.

    So glad the temps have broken to be cool, and clear skies…. so nice. Made dinner, cleaned up and jumped in the van early for the night. Plan is for bike ride on Erie Canalway Trail tomorrow, rain coming the day after.

  • On the road again… Scranton PA

    On the road again… Scranton PA

    Sunday August 17, 2025 – Full breakfast in the morning and final sessions of the ATC meeting. We were finished before noon and they even had a “to go” lunch for us to take with us. So nice.

    The plan was to hit the road and head north to a state park in Pennsylvania with a rail trail ride the next day. The whole weekend in Maryland was hot and humid the low 90’s. I had no desire to camp in that kind of weather. So I booked a room near Scranton PA.

    The driver was going to be about three hours. Was able to stay off 81 for at least half of the ride. Traveling on 15 past Gettysburg. End up get off the highway at one point to drive around a traffic stoppage. Got to the motel about 4 pm and had no issues with check engine light on the car ! Got checked in and headed to local pizza shop for cauliflower pizza and gluten free beer. This pizza place had been around since 1958 and kind of reminded me of the older neighborhoods in Cleveland with lots of businesses with Italian names..smiles.

    Tomorrow will be bike ride on the D& H Trail not very far from the motel. Spent the evening planning.

    No pictures for today, nothing to see here lol

  • The next adventure

    Monday August 11 – The next adventure begins in two days. I will be attending the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Volunteer Leadership meeting in Maryland and I will participating in Bike the Drive 2025 event in Chicago with my son. I have connected these two events with a road trip of camping and biking on various rail trails. Some of the highlights will be Niagara Falls, hometown Cleveland (and the CVNP towpath trail), and Indiana Dunes National Park. You can see the route starting in Franklin NC in the photo below.

  • Summer hikes and adventures

    Wed 8/7/25 – My apologies, I have not posted anything since May. I had hoped to get in a section hike in GA in June but the heat was just too much. I don’t do well in heat and humidity and I have an aversion to dehydration.

    I have been doing day hikes and bike rides (rail trails) in Western NC – my home base. To maintain my fitness, I have tried to so something at least every other day.

    Below are some pictures from various hikes and bike rides. Some of my favorite trips are listed below

    Greenway Trail (biking) – Franklin NC

    Doodle Rail Trail (biking) – Pickens SC

    Ecusta Trail (biking) – Hendersonville NC

    Whiterock Mountain (hiking) – Highlands NC

    Wayah Bald Lookout Tower (hiking) – Franklin NC

    Springer Mountain / Appalachian Trail (hiking) – Georgia