Cold Fire

While dropping off Ellie for her internship, I popped in some safe Rush into the radio and the song Cold Fire came up. I can't say that it is the most memorable song but it struck me this particular morning. For me, the song is about daters/lovers discussing their views of life with the female of the pair being more forceful in stating her outlook.

And it reminded me of a discussion I had with Tracy just the previous night. I paraphrase my observation, "There's a fine line from being viewed as insecure and my showing respect for all you do and having your own time and your not having to deal with my demands and requests."

So there's this negotiation that happens in a relationship about views and time and discovering what the other needs to have a meaningful life. While I've become more deft at doing this with someone who has shared her life with me for over 30 years, I can still appreciate what others that date have to do to be comfortable with the process. And I am more than aware that I go through a similar negotiation with my non-romantic relationships too. I like to talk about a lot of things that many are not comfortable discussing and I have to find out what limits exist there too.

I was told once by a former classmate that she never expected someone in her past to be so romantically minded. While that might be true, the execution of my thoughts and feelings are definitely lacking. And I know the difference between the "ideal" and reality. As the woman in the song states, "This is not a love song. This isn't fantasy land."

It was long after midnight
When we got to unconditional love
She said sure my heart is boundless
But don't push my limits too far.

I said if love is so transcendent
I don't understand these boundaries
She said just don't disappoint me
You know how complex women are.

...

It was just before sunrise
When we started on traditional roles
She said sure I'll be your partner
But don't make too many demands.

I said if love has these conditions
I don't understand those songs you love
She said this is not a love song
This isn't fantasy land.

Don't go too far
The phosphorescent wave on a tropical sea
Is a cold fire
Don't cross the line
The pattern of moonlight on the bedroom floor
Is a cold fire
Don't let me down
The flame at the heart of a pawnbrokers diamond
Is a cold fire
Don't break the spell
The look in your eye's as you head for the door
Is a cold fire.

I'll be around
If you don't push me down too far
I'll be around
If you don't push me down.

Last Ride of the Year, Unfortunately

 

My last ride of the year wasn't meant to be this. I was going to finish up, and I had been shooting for, a 120-mile ride that started by Wisconsin Dells and finished in one of my favorite cities, Winona MN. But I was tired of trying to convince Tracy to do an over-nighter in the age of Covid and as I was so dependent upon her for these, I guess I would just have to wait. So I tackled Military Ridge. It was a shorter trail, about 40 miles or so, and to make it more interesting, I didn't start at where it merged with the Badger State Trail and where I started that trail. Instead, I looked at the map of Madison and found a pathway that should be interesting through the town. 

I started at Olin Park, on the right of the map, and I would go north on the causeway and then get on the main path past the University and down to where the path started to head west on Military Ridge proper. I want to start off that I thoroughly enjoyed Madison. It looks like a nice place to live. Aside from some snark from my wife about parking where my journey began, knowing full well how my insecurities rise for putting her through this nonsense, the start was inconsequential. I think one of my knots gave out on the bike rack and I dragged a line for some time and it was shredded but the rack was still usable. That is one regret I have, not having a proper bike rack on the car.

Anyway, the causeway was a nice ride. I had to stop a few times to take pictures. You can see the capital also in this shot, as well as the skyline.

When I reached the other side of the causeway, I was joined by a woman on a bike that helped me with the signal to cross. It wasn't obvious on what to do to activate it. She was a pro in more ways than one. She had a trailer attached to her bike and she was a vet and that was her transport around town. I had an idle thought on what she did in the winter but the light was green and she was off. I had a general idea where to go but I decided to follow her for a bit because if anyone knew the pathways around town, she would. She led me up a side-street and an ally and a short path and boom, I was on the path I wanted to go. In short order, I went past the old rail station that appeared to be under rehab for shops or a museum. I couldn't tell which.

I also got to nerd out going past the University. Yeah, I stopped to take a picture. Some co-eds walking by probably thought "Grandpa's doin' grandpa" but I don't care. Shortly after this, Amy Shira Teitel, one of my intellectual heroes, posted this so I don't feel so bad.

I also passed by a diner I've wanted to eat at for years. There it was. Huh.

The rest of the ride through Madison was pretty and uneventful. I was mostly trying to be inconspicuous as Covid was in full bloom and I didn't want to breathe on anyone and the paths were somewhat crowded.

I wish I could give a good impression of the path, but it was very similar to the Badger State Trail. but had more turns. There were a few more "free libraries" along the way and smaller towns had parks along the way for riders to rest and recuperate. Tracy wanted to find a few places to shop along the way as a few of the towns were unique in crafts and arts but I don't think she was successful. 

There wasn't a whole lot to make the path memorable along the way aside from a nice park in Klevenville, a town of three houses with its own free library and a nice diorama showing how important the town was once.

Ridgeway was the nicest town for me. I was getting winded and they had redone the old depot and a nice park was alongside the trail. Going out of town, a nice church greeted me. 

The last leg of the path was the most brutal. It was like they decided to make it more difficult. The path started having more severe slopes, it had some paved stretches but then it broke up into potholes and macadam gravel. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was still on the path as it seemed to take a tractor path through a field and went awful close to some homes. I didn't want some guy running out of his house wanting to shoot me for trespassing. but it did settle down for a bit as it was to the side of a major highway and soon I saw Tracy parked in a DNR lot and I knew my ride was done. Dang, I needed a drink. I would have killed for a Dr. Pepper right about then. I think we did find one in town.

The ride home was a bit more interesting. I had placed her 40 miles outside of Madison and the best way of going home was a diagonal on the back roads. It was an adventure by our tame standards.

And so ended my year of biking. I still need to take a few more trips in Wisconsin to do the paths I want to do. Hopefully this death and sickness will leave us next year and we can go about our lives easily once again.

Who's the Horse's Ass that Came Up with This?

 The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?

Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

So, why did 'they' use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And what about the ruts in the roads?

Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything and....

CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

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Trail Number Two Out of Three, I Guess

 

This is the trail that caught my attention that first time in the winter. I noticed that there was a trail in Freeport, Illinois that headed north and then I followed it a bit north and saw it joined up with a trail in Wisconsin. So it was the Badger State Trail. Cool. Did a lot of looking at the satellite pictures and reading up on it. There was a tunnel in the middle of the trail and it was a long one, the longest I'd ever been in. You couldn't see the other end because of the curve. So in the pack that I ride with, I always keep a flashlight, just in case.

The morning started out with the ride up to Madison. There would be a southerly wind and I wanted to make sure the wind was helping me. While I can ride for long distances, I am intolerant to slope and wind. My muscles get pretty shot around 20 miles and there just isn't enough umph in them to do much other than pump my legs at a constant rate. There was a Home Depot along the trail, close to what would be called the "beginning" but there wasn't a clear "beginning" of the trail because Madison has a lot of interconnected trails. I figured heading south from there would keep me on the right path. 

Pfft! I wasn't on there for half a mile before I took the wrong turn and started heading downhill. It would be a bummer if I took the wrong turn...better check. Nope. Wrong one, back up the hill and take the left trail. Ok, nice and flat, like a rail-trail should be.  I passed over the trail I was on previously and up and over a bridge over a major road...and there ya go. A trail closed sign. There was a sign redirecting me to another trail, one that went back where I came from, down the hill and back on the path I originally took. Dang. Wasted energy. I need to go almost 60 miles today and already wasted minutes. The detour signs directed me down the Military Ridge Trail, one that I planned to do later in the summer. So the detour eventually took me down into a parking lot into an industrial park. There weren't a lot of signs from there and I hoped I was on the right way. The road was undergoing resurfacing and was a mess and I was on this side road with dump trucks going by. I did a couple more checks on Google Maps and I did see maybe a way to where I was heading. I needed a right up here with a left a bit later.

The right turn led me straight up another hill. I hit the lower gears and stayed on the sidewalk because this road was narrower and cars lined the road. I'd be more vulnerable to an accident if I stayed on the road. Dang it was tough going, and I was still not sure if this was the right way. The signs weren't clear or even present. Eventually, the sidewalk became nothing but an upward trend with lots of smaller hills to conquer as it hit every driveway. The road had widened and the cars no longer were parked on the street by the time I hit the apex. I still wasn't all that sure of where I was. Then another biker pulled up besides me and she mentioned how much she hated the detour. I told her I was just relieved to see her as now I knew I was on the right way. She told me at the bottom of the hill again, there was a sharp left and then back on the normal route. She was fully decked out in lycra with more of a street bike. I figured that with her setup, the pavement would end and I'd see her again on her way back. My bike has bigger wheels and flat outweighs more so it can handle the more rough path. She was right, and long gone, by the time I got back on the path proper. There was construction on the highway that the path crossed and they were rebuilding the bridge that the path used to cross that road. So away I went.

Fitchburg was one of the first towns on the line. It wasn't a real town any longer, just a line of houses along the old line. However, they did care about the park there. They put benches out and other things that made bikers feel welcome. It was a nice place to rest after the hills that I had encountered.

The ride continued for a few miles after this. I eventually met the woman I had encountered earlier so I know she hit the end of the paved section and that I needed to be aware of it. I figure I had a few more miles to go. And I did.

There are a few times that I've been surprised on my rides. This was one of them. I think a lot of them are just mental exercises to keep the brain engaged. Some evolutionary questions there, maybe. Anyway, when I hit the end of the path, there was parking and dogs. Lots of dogs. I mean, there are things I try to keep aware of. Dogs are one of them, for obvious reasons. Another is women. I try to keep my distance to not show myself as a threat because I don't want them to not enjoy their own time on the trail.  Women with large dogs. This transition had women with large dogs. So I tried to work my way through without getting anyone upset. But that isn't the big thing. The path had deteriorated and became wet. Not only that, but there was a distinct slope down. I get to take it at speed, but it was a wet, dark mess. 

Belleville was a pretty little town, with a unique bridge into the town.  It wasn't noteworthy other than I wish I had a picture of it but I was in need of water and Tracy would meet me at the path. When I met her, she pointed out where the police had a place to sit to pull people over. I don't know if it was a "speed trap" but it made me nervous, considering all that was going on in the country at the time. 

Going south out of Belleville was a bit odd. The path went up and down and along a road or two. It wasn't a big deal, but I was starting to tire. I mean, all during these rides, you get tired. You just keep going. 

A few miles later was the object of my ride. I was fully prepared for the tunnel to be closed. It was closed all winter and I hadn't seen any change in status on the trail webpages. I had met a man coming the other way tell me that the tunnel was closed, so it was no surprise to be greeted with the gate and fence.

So I had a choice. I could go a longer, flatter route or a shorter, hilly route. I chose the shorter. And I felt like I was going to die. To make matters worse, there was a younger couple that went on the road with me. They had street bikes so I don't know if they were on the trail or following the Ice Age Trail that kept to the streets more. They annoyed me because not only did they pass me, but they waited at the apex of each hill as if to taunt me as I walked my bike up. I was really feeling my bike's weight by this time.
But at the top of the larger of the hills, I had a good view.

For whatever reason, I lost the couple at the top of the hill. Maybe they were waiting for someone. The rest of the way back to the trail only had a few small hills so it was a better ride. I'll have to do the tunnel at a different time, I guess.

Then next short stop was in Monticello and that is where Tracy met me for lunch. I had felt a slight rise in the trail, and I think by this point, I can feel a .25% grade. The insects became thick and I had to ride a few clouds of them. This was about the first time that insects had even begun to bother me. The trail seemed to be following a slight ridge and the thickness of the trees kept it quite dark. 

Shortly after this picture, the slight rise changed into a slight downward slope, and I felt that I raced into Monroe. The park in town was a nice picnic area and off to one side was a bike shop. I was really starting to feel tired at this point. BTW, the sign at the top of this post was also located here. The next few miles were a lot of work. I had to stop about a mile short of the Illinois border to eat some granola bars because I just wasn't keeping up with the calories I was burning.

At the border, the Badger State Trail ended and the Jane Adams began. I stopped and talked with some cows there while I rested. One took a lot of interest in me but I later found that her calf was right under me in the thicket and she didn't appreciate my being there. The picture was taken shortly after she gathered her calf and stormed off to the left of the pic. 

I want to add that the Illinois part of the trail was quite depressing. It was darker, a bit wetter, and they seemed to maintain the trail by going through and spraying defoliant everywhere. It was death on either side of the trail. It wasn't attractive. I'm sure it was time-saving, but depressing.

Towards the end of the trail (this portion was a hard 18 miles), I approached Sciota Mills. I found remnants of the old railroad. Ruins! There really wasn't much along the path to this point to let me know this was an old railroad.

There were a few other things off the side of the path too, but I wasn't going to dig around to get to them.
There was also this creepy house.

The windows were new and the garden was tended, so someone had to live there. Until US20, it was swampland, highlighting the creepy.

The last 5 miles are always the hardest. I crossed 20 and forgot about the mileage I had to do to get to Freeport. The path was paved, and nice. I was just tired. Going through Freeport, and before the last turn to get to where Tracy was waiting, was a bike store with this outside.

By this time, this is how I felt. I had traveled at least 58 miles. Tracy had to tolerate my inability to walk or stand well, but I had finished the trail.

Wisconsin, Two Trails One at a Time

There were Several trails I wanted to take in Wisconsin. This is about one of them.

The Wild Goose Trail starts in Fon Du Lac and goes south for about 34 miles. The real issue is that it takes about 2.5 hours to get there from where I live. That isn't negligible. The trail starts in-town and is a series of off the road trail and on road travel. It is well marked and also part of the circle route around the town. What I knew about Fon Du Lac was from the occasional times we traveled to the commercial areas with friends who lived up there at the time. This really didn't get into that area.

Then just north of where we had stopped for gas and breakfast, the trail went off to two different dircctions. I had taken a long time staring at this trail on the maps so I knew where to go. Thank the Maker for Google Maps. 

As a side note, when we stopped at the Kwik Trip coming into town, Tracy was seething because people weren't wearing their masks. She views that as extremely selfish so it was a fun stop.

When the trail finally started after a trip over the interstate, it transitioned to crushed stone and stayed that way the entire trip.

There wasn't anything really of any note about the path. It was flat and the first 5 miles or so had an annoying set of grooves in the ruts of the trail. I certainly didn't want that to continue. And it didn't. The first main road I came across, it stopped.

I was noticing that on certain stretches, it was hard going. I plodded along but I had to do it in a lower gear. I'm certain that the grade was slightly uphill but it was a hard way to go. I knew overall, I was going up a couple hundred feet from start to finish, but that is spread out. But it was noticable. 

My biggest takeaway was finding this about 2 miles in from the last road, along the most deserted part of the path. It is a little, free library. The idea is that you can stop to read a book, or take a book if you leave a book. There wasn't anything in it except a birds nest in the bottom cabinet but I love the idea. Too bad it wasn't kept up. It was a glorious place to put it.

Later in the ride, I came across a patch of tiger lilies. I grew up with them and I am surprised at the patches I find in odd areas in the upper midwest.

At the end of the official trail, the Glacial River Trail kicks in. It really is just along a road for a bit and through the small town of Clyman. Then, for a couple of miles, there's a paved path alongside 26 and with the northern breeze, I screamed along that path. I was in the highest gear and I could actually outrun the red-winged blackbirds that tried to attack me ceaselessly along the route. Tracy picked me up and we went to lunch. I gave serious consideration to keep going along the trail, but it was 27 miles to the end and I just didn't have that in me. I figured I'd already gone 40+ all told and I was done. After getting lost in the neighborhoods of Fort Atkinson, we made our way home.

Covid Stuff

Reposting: Dr. Fauci's plain spoken advice:

“Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years.

Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed-out they're going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you're going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don't just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it's been around for years, and been studied medically for years.

HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been studied medically for years.

Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less understood.

So far the symptoms may include:

Fever

Fatigue

Coughing

Pneumonia

Chills/Trembling

Acute respiratory distress

Lung damage (potentially permanent)

Loss of taste (a neurological symptom)

Sore throat

Headaches

Difficulty breathing

Mental confusion

Diarrhea

Nausea or vomiting

Loss of appetite

Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)

Swollen eyes

Blood clots

Seizures

Liver damage

Kidney damage

Rash

COVID toes (weird, right?)

People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.

Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.

This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally *do not know* what we do not know.

For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:

How dare you?

How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as "getting it over with", when literally no one knows who will be the lucky "mild symptoms" case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20 and 30-year-olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.

How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don't yet know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:

Frequent hand-washing

Physical distancing

Reduced social/public contact or interaction

Mask wearing

Covering your cough or sneeze

Avoiding touching your face

Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces

The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.

I reject the notion that it's "just a virus" and we'll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.”

My Latest Addiction

OK. I'm not sure why or how I got into this. The only thing I can think of is my tendency to watch something new and different. I might have read a few articles in my weird and twisted news feed about Korean dramas. In any case, here I am. Hooked. To soap operas. In a language I don't know.

I've thought about it. I wanted to understand why I liked these so much. It must be tickling some part of my brain and what is it. They are sometimes contrived, sometimes goofy, some of the things I find unforgivable in most other shows. What in the world is going on with me?

I think I've figured it out. It's a mix of things. I'm going to open my noodle a bit here, so please be kind.

1) I think the audience for these shows are women. Now, these don't pass the Bechdel Test at all. But it isn't just the women's conversation that revolves around the opposite gender. The men's conversations and actions also are focused on women. So relationships are usually the focus. But with the audience being women, they are written differently. The women are intelligent. These aren't women that have no aspirations. They want to be successful. They want to be educated. They aren't written for easy disposal. So I want to see stories about intelligent women. I'm drawn to them. These provide the women's side of life as well as the men's.

2) These are romantic stories. I love those things. It wasn't until later in life when I fully embraced that part of me. I get emotional about love and loss. That doesn't mean I don't suck at it, I do. I still struggle and fall all over words, but it doesn't make me any less of a man or person because I acknowledge that part of me. And these men in these stories cry, sometimes profoundly so. If their love dies, it clearly affects them. I still don't know if that this isn't part of the female fantasy of these shows or if Korean culture actually accepts this or even just acknowledges it as a goal, but it is there. The picture above is from Gaurdian: The Lonely and Great God. It is a story of a man cursed to roam the earth until he finds his true love, and she actually is the one that has to kill him. Lots of emotion in a story like that. Lots of love, betrayal and loss. And they portray it.

3) Asain actors and actresses are attractive. That's my own deal. Nothing objective about it.

4) They do a good job of portraying frustrations with dating and relationships. You hold back things you shouldn't. You don't say things you should. This is the reaction I had with 500 Days of Summer when I first watched it. Finally, a well-written show about the frustrations and idiocy of dating and just all the things that can go wrong, and go right. 

5) A lot of these rotate around ghosts, the supernatural, or food or some combination. I think this is the culture filtering through, and I like seeing how other people see the world. I think they have a much healthier attitude towards food than we do.

6) These are long-form stories. They run about 16+ hours total. While that is long, it does let you get to really understand the characters. You start to care about them. You sometimes can't get that in a 2 hour movie and if the story goes several seasons like in America, you run out of things to say. While there is a lot of filler, they do tend to keep the story going, albeit with lots of side-quests.

If you want, I can give you what I have watched. there are lots and lots on Netflix, a few on Hulu and a good repository on viki.com. That last one requires an account but it is mostly free. You just have to deal with the ads. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm willing to pay more for them. Plus, with the library on Netflix, there's enough to keep me busy.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal

Several years ago I biked the Hennepin Canal and after that, I found out the I & M Canal had a similar trail. Two years ago, I took a Sunday and traveled down there on my motorcycle to follow the trail to see if it was any good. I don't recall making a post on it. I think I traveled the length (on surface streets) from Rockdale to Ottawa and saw the aqueduct over the Fox. 

So I set the goal last year to bike it. I didn't make it.  I think all I did was do the Tunnel Hill Trail. I was really disappointed with that year. I didn't feel like I did anything. So this year I set out to change all that.

After a bit of family drama, I set out on June 25th to do the path. Started about 7:00am from the Rockdale trailhead. 

Shortly after I began, I went up a rise and over some train tracks. You see so much broken infrastructure on these trails. There were no tracks to either side of the trail, just those on the trail itself.

I shortly came up to Channahon that has an interesting complex. There is a lock with a lockmaster's house still sanding at the one side of the junction with the DuPage River, a dam to set the water level, and another lock on the other side of the river back into the canal.

So, I went around the horn there, still no sign of Tracy, and where the Kankakee River and the DesPlains River meet, it becomes the Illinois River. I didn't know that before. I kept trudging along the path and saw a sign for the Dresden lock and dam. Evidently, there is also a ghost town there. So I took a few pictures. Tracy called me to tell me she was at Channahon and that I didn't have my location sharing on. So I fixed that situation and Tracy told me she'd meet me in Morris because there wasn't a whole lot of places where she could meet me otherwise.

After a little bit, you travel through Aux Sable that is a ghost town and has an aqueduct, lock, and lockmaster's house still intact.

I might add that this is a beautiful little park in the middle of nowhere. If you ever have an afternoon when you want to take a bit of a drive, I can't recommend this enough. It has a couple of picnic tables and bathrooms. I don't think you can enter the house.

The trail was excellent up to Morris. I can't complain about that at all. I had made it about a third of the way at this point (Morris). This was a great experience up to this point.  It kind of went south after Morris.

Case in point, there was a bridge out. So the path just stopped. No signs on where to go. So I had to use surface streets to get to the other side. And I saw this cool abandoned building.

The trail to Seneca was fairly nice. It was completely wooded and was only highlighted by what sounded like a shooting range. I could envision some Illinois militia shooting into the woods to take out the granola bikers on the trail. Luckily after investigation, it was facing the other way, so it was okay.

There was a nice little bridge I went under. 

There was a little park in Seneca and Tracy had a sandwich waiting for me. I was thankful, but I was also starting to get tired. The next path to Marseilles went bad quickly. It was an uncomfortable gravel road that transitioned to a two-track to a primitive two-track. No mowing. When it came out to a road, there was a small sign to the north to a section of path that was not maintained at all. There were trees over the path that I tried to move with no luck. I kept eying the road just to the south and why didn't they put the trail there. It was industrial, so maybe they didn't want people walking on it, but then take care of the path! 

Still, it was kind of interesting. The building had three railroad spurs that went directly into the work areas. I later saw on maps that it was a tubing manufacturing shop. I was curious if they did railroad work considering the cars I saw in there.

I had spent some time going through Marseilles a few years previous. It is a cute little town. There are a couple of locks located in the town with the canal mostly dry. The path was non-existent. It looks like no bikers had been through there for years.

The path from Marseilles to Ottawa was primitive. It was moist and dark. I think the path was actually in the canal at that point. 

Once into Ottawa, the path became maintained and soon the aqueduct over the Fox River came into view.

There was a park in Ottawa where Tracy met me. It was nice. I was starting to run out of steam, but I had 23 miles left. I wanted to do this. There were a couple of very nice locks along the path out of town. They were quite separated from the town but well maintained. I want to add that the trail at one point had potential. There were mowed sections where you could camp. There were a few shelters along the way as well as benches and garbage cans. It could have been something nice at one time. Clearly, the fact that the state is broke is hurting this kind of resource.

Then I struggled after this. The path went down to a 3 inch wide path. It had been mowed, it looked like last year, and was strewn with sticks and junk. After Buffalo Rock parking, there was an active "Mowing" sign. I now was riding on three inches of grass, sticks and all on top of the path. It was very hard moving. I did come across the tractor mowing. It was actually mowing the trees at that point. It had an articulated arm and could mow anywhere it darn well wanted. Still, it was miles of hard riding. 

Then...the path stopped. There was a fence across the path. All I could think of was having to ride back the last 5 miles to the road. I saw a little arrow pointing to the side. OK...it went down quickly. I squeezed the brakes hard before I went into the creek at the bottom. Crap. Do I have to wade across? Plus, it was a disgusting yellow color. For all I knew, it was toxic waste. Then I looked to the side and saw a wood footbridge. Barely. I edged across the path hoping the bridge wouldn't flip. I went up narrow path and up onto the main path again. More mowed crap.

The path eventually turned into a pothole-strewn road. It was horrible. Jarring. And then I got into Utica. No real signs as to where the path went. I was close to calling Tracy and tell her I was done. She was 5 miles away in LaSalle. I could see her on my map. I did find the park/trailhead and it was a road all the way to LaSalle. It was filled with potholes too, but someone decided to fill the potholes with pea gravel. That slowed me down and I was already running on fumes. I eventually got to the trailhead in LaSalle where Tracy helped me get the bike on the car. She must be used to me not being able to move after a ride. 

I did it. 63 miles. A personal best. A record I have no issues having stand for some time.