July 7, 2022
Lake Michigan Tour Day 19: Evanston, IL to Milwaukee, WI
After a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, I hit the Chicago north-shore suburbs.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sheridan Drive (which runs along the lakefront) had a dedicated bike lane! I don’t remember that being there a few years back, but it was nice to be separate from the car traffic, which can be heavy there.
In Wilmette, I stopped to take a picture of the Baháʼí Temple which is right across from the lakeshore. It’s something I remember seeing whenever in that neighborhood, although it just looks like super-fancy giant orange-juicer to me.
I also stopped to take a picture of the house my parents lived in in the 80s and 90s. Still looks nice!
And then I cheated….a bit. I didn’t feel as if I had another 80-mile day in my legs. After 3 weeks of riding with just one break, I am pretty weary. So I hopped a commuter train from Wilmette to Waukegan. This shaved about 20 miles off my day. I have mixed feelings about this, but probably should have just scheduled another rest day somewhere in the mix.
This is why the video above looks like I flew over the lake between Winnetka and Waukegan - I left my GPS on, but it didn't seem to know what to make of that.
Once off the train in Waukegan, I hit a 10 mile trail. THIS is what crushed gravel trails should all look like. It was smooth – dry (even though it had rained two days earlier) and rolled almost as quickly as pavement. The difference from that horrible trail south of Michigan City to this one was night and day!
A few miles later I officially hit Wisconsin – glad to be back!
My route took me right into downtown Kenosha, where I stopped for lunch at a converted rail-car diner. It was super-busy but the food was very good. There was even another touring cyclist to chat with for a bit.
Kenosha was my first view of the lake today.
After Kenosha, the next county and city up the lake was Racine. It took longer than I expected and there were so many turns through the park system I got lost a few times. Most of it was along the Root River which was actually very pretty.
After Racine, there was more hard-packed crushed gravel. Eventually I saw two large towers along the lake-shore. I knew this was Oak Creek Power Plant – and the start of Milwaukee’s suburbs. Sure enough a short time later, I hit the edge of Milwaukee County.
My route had to skirt around Mitchell Field (Milwaukee’s Airport) then led me towards downtown, and my waiting AirBnB. I got there about 4pm.
After a quick shower and unpacking, I went out to meet some friends for tapas at a local restaurant. It felt good to be done with my circuit, and I felt fortunate that I didn’t encounter any major obstacles or issues.
The song that best fit my mood in finishing today was Take on Me by a-ha. If you like that song and have never heard the MTV Unplugged version, check it out – it’s much slower, but amazing!
Stats: 63.4 Miles, 1117 vertical feet, 12.9mph average.
Tomorrow is a rest day, and I will spend it hanging out with friends before boarding the trains on Saturday.
Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 1,177 miles (1,894 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |