Des Plaines River Trail biking

Today we biked 26 miles with Patti and Dave, from Half Day Preserve to Independence Grove and back. The sunny but 50s weather kept us cool and the forest preserves' verdant and thickening foliage kept us visually engaged. Below is a shot of Independence Grove, with part of its 115 acre lake in the background.



We stopped for lunch at Libertyville's retro McDonald's Diner.



One purpose of the ride was to scout out the condition of the river. Next Sunday, Ellen and I will join many hundreds of other boaters in canoeing the 51st Des Plaines River Marathon. At the launch, I talked with a crew from the forest district who were launching a motorized boat to continue the chore of chain-sawing away the winter's accumulation of fallen trees and tangled debris. You can see they have their work cut out for them in this photo below, showing a narrow channel to the right of this large deadfall...