Biking PTR: Riding into Chicago..

[Cameron]

After the crazy weekend that was Behemoth Bash and Ravine Flyer II, I needed to relax; and my favorite way to relax is to go for a ride. It was a stunning day today, *stunning* .. more like June weather than August.

 

This is my short ride, only 17 miles total, but I really love it. It starts out in Evanston (where I live), and then runs along the North Shore Channel (through a sculpture park!) in Skokie, then through Legion Park in Chicago, and finally ends at the corner of Lawrence and California.

And all of this was brought to you by.....

On the way home I took a slightly different route, that goes past Thillens - an actual little-league baseball stadium; complete with dugouts and stands etc. It's really nice.

All over Chicago in the summer months are these awesome, old Mexican guys selling ice-cream. The carts all have bells hanging off them, so you can hear the jingling all around you. Aside from the typical ice-cream, they also sell these fantastic frozen fruit bars that come in mango, vanilla, peach, apricot, strawberry, and my choice for today: watermelon.

Deep in the park now, and I can't tell you how nice it is here. I was once here on July 4th and the place was like a warzone, with firecrackers and bottle rockets going off everywhere! The air is thick is BBQ smells, and people have picnics all over the place. It was surprisingly quiet today, though.

On the east side of the river, the path is now officially in Chicago - in Legion Park. This is an amazing park, through one of my favorite Chicago neighborhoods (Albany Park). Supposedly this is one of the most diverse zip-codes in the country. I was not surprised to see this fairly serious soccer game going on.

This whole time I've been riding along the west bank of the river, however the path continues on the east bank. There are plans to build a bridge here over the water, but until then we have to use Lincoln Ave to cross; and then rejoin the path on the other side.

Just south of Devon and the path passes by the once *awesome* arcade Diversions. Long gone now, this arcade is where most of the greatest Williams/Bally and Midway games were tested through the 90s. This really was a fantastic location .. sigh.

Several of the Sculptures are interactive. On this one you can rotate that large, inside section. It's cool..

This section of the path (between Touhy and Devon) has just been rebuilt, this is the first time I've ridden along it since it re-opened. I'm was so happy to see this done as the old path was just awful.

While technically not in the Skokie Sculpture Park (I'm in Lincolnwood now), I have always liked this. Note the sign-post for Buffalo - HI NICHOLE!

I really love this sculpture .. it has such a sense of movement.

This water treatment plant sits on the corner of McCormick and Howard in Skokie. It's a bit of a smelly intersection right here, but I do love the building. If I were to head west on Howard for about 2 miles, I'd end up at work. Not today!

This vent is part of the Deep Tunnel system; which consists of massive tunnels that run below the city and suburbs, totaling over 100 miles. The idea is that they fill it all up with sewer water during heavy rain, and then process it all over the next day or so (rather than let it flow into the lake). This massive project began in the mid-70s and is expected to be complete in 2019. Pretty cool stuff!

I like this sculpture because it has little pieces of stained glass, which means you can take wanker/artistic photos like this!

This is such an awesome path that runs along the west bank of the river (channel), and is rarely busy. Lots of trees and it's nice and peaceful, even with the busy McCormick Bvld right next to it.

These guys made me feel like I was in The Library! (Trust me, that joke kills - although I don't know if anyone will get the reference. No, it's not pinball!).

Crossing from Evanston into Skokie, and the trail officially enters the Sculpture park. There are probably close to 100 sculptures along here, some of them are really good. (I'm no art guy though - so what do I know..)

Looking south down the river (well it's actually the North Shore Channel - not a river). Note the canoes along there, which is something that you used to never be allowed to do (pollution). There are now over 50 verities of fish and other wildlife in there, they've really cleaned it up.

This is where Emerson St used to cross the river, but the bridge is being replaced. Unfortunately I need to cross this bridge going to/from work, so it sucks to have it gone. However the bridge really needed to be replaced.

The trail begins next to these community gardens, where people can rent space to grow stuff (there are a lot of apartments in Evanston). This is one of 4 or 5 such gardens, and apparently the waiting list is years long.

We start out heading west along Noyes Street in Evanston. I love this little strip of shops, and it really is a throw-back to the old Evanston .. before all the chain stores and crappy condos. On the left of the photo is Al's Deli, where you can get amazing sandwiches and the best cookies I've ever eaten.

[dandaman]

Yay, another Chicago outing TR! Great photos as usual, Cameron.

 

As an aside, can you imagine a TPR takeover of a public place besides a theme park/restaurant/bar? Seeing 100 people riding their bikes with the same shirts on would make us look like a bona fide Tour de France!

 

Dan "There's no way I can describe this without sounding like a total nerd... " Smith

[themeparkguy27]

Thillens is a sweet little league stadium. I ALWAYS wanted to play there as a little leaguer, unfortunately, our league didn't have an agreement with Thillens, so we never did. I was so jealous of my cousin, who got to play there every year with in his league.

[kraken613]

Hey, cool TR! Those statues are really neat! Ive never been to Chicago but it looks really nice! Glad you had great weather its been really nice here too!

[ms13]

Ah, a Dr. Who reference.

That will make a great TR even better!

There are some awesome sculptures there!

[mcjaco]

Thillens is awesome. I played there once, and I'll never forget it. I'm so glad they managed to keep the stadium, as it was on the chopping block a few years back.

[Mr. Starr]

Gotta love Chicago!

 

Anyways great Trip Report.

[Cameron]

Thillens underwent some remodeling/restoration a number of years ago, and it really looks great now. I was a Big Brother (in the Big Brother / Big Sister thing) for several years, and my little played there a few times. It was awesome.

 

Thanks for all the comments!

 

Cameron.

 

PS: Well done MS13!

[Erik Johnson]

Another nice photo TR Cameron. So did the arcade close, or did they get rid of their game collection?

[mr_teisco_delrey]

Great report. For me, this was definitely a trip down memory lane. Thillens was always the "big" game of the year for the Park Ridge Boys Baseball league. I would love to see it now that it is fixed up. Nice to see the path from Devon to Touhy fixed up. I used to always ride that up to the Botanical Gardens. Very inspiring reports. I think I am going to have to do a TR of one of my rides through Kentucky Horse country this fall. It is beautiful in the fall.

[PoisonedPirate]

What gorgeous weather - certainly cheered up my rainy afternoon in work!

 

By the way - when people of TPR talk about bikes do they mean motorbikes or cycle bikes?

[mr_teisco_delrey]

What gorgeous weather - certainly cheered up my rainy afternoon in work!

 

By the way - when people of TPR talk about bikes do they mean motorbikes or cycle bikes?

in this forum, cycle bikes. Motorbikes are cool though.

[PoisonedPirate]

ah okies!

 

So you cycled 17 miles? Jeesh that's impressive!!