Starting at the North Branch Trail, we rode through the Botanic Gardens and met up with the Robert McClory bike path all the way to North Chicago, part of which was on Sheridan Road; we then rode to Lake Michigan in Glencoe, followed Sheridan Road to the Green Bay trail in Winnetka. We took the Green Bay trail to Wilmette, where we rode to the Bahai Temple and the beach right around the corner. We rode back up on the Green Bay trail to Tower Road, which we took back east to meet the North Branch trail back all the way to Devon and back up to Caldwell Woods.
Once again, a lot of deer in the areas closest to Des Plaines. Sadly, a young woman had lost her life a few days prior on the North Branch trail during the severe storms and we took care to remember her as we passed through the area.
The weather was perfect for the third day in a row and it was a special treat to be able to stand at the lake twice in very nice neighborhoods at the ending portion of our ride.
The sunrises, temperature and sunsets were beautiful, the trails were in great shape (except for due to extreme circumstances) and there are so many truly wonderful natural places to explore in Northeastern Illinois and we barely even got to a small percentage of them all!
Openlands works to restore, create and protect these spaces and make them accessible to us, as well as bring knowledge and opportunities to residents from all walks of life. This ride highlighted the beauty and importance of these places, as well as hopefully showed my personal and life-long dedication to creating positive awareness and positive opportunities to participate in environmental stewardship. We all know that there are hugely daunting problems, it's time to start participating in solutions that make our lives more fulfilling, rather than beating ourselves up.
First stop: The Chicago Botanic Gardens, and people were working in the labs!
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