Cycling the Grand Illinois Trail

 This journey began back in 2022, I think.  I don't remember exactly when or how I came to learn about the Grand Illinois Trail (GIT), but it was from surfing the web, and I think it was sometime in 2022.  And as soon as I learned about it, I immediately said to myself, "I'm gonna do that!"

The GIT is a series of interconnected old rail trails, canal towpath trails, and roadways that form a 535-mile loop around northern Illinois.  This loop actually passes right by my house less than two blocks to the south, just across the railroad tracks.  And the last checkpoint on the route is in downtown Wheaton!  The begins at the zero mile marker of the Illinois Prairie Path and goes straight east to Navy Pier in downtown Chicago.  There it turns south along the shore of Lake Michigan and picks up a cycling path called the Burnham Greenway to the edge of the south Chicago suburbs.  From there it turns west and follows four trails across the entire state: the Thorn Creek Trail (from Lansing to Matteson), the Old Plank Road Trail (from Matteson to Joliet), the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail (from Joliet to La Salle), and the Hennepin Canal Trail (from near La Salle almost all the way to the Mississippi River).  Once the route hits the Mississippi, it turns north and follows the Great River Trail north to Savanna and then continues north to Galena.  At Galena the route turns back east and follows a combination of roadways and trailways near the Wisconsin border: the Stagecoach Trail, the Jane Addams Trail, and the Pecatonica Prairie Trail.  The route turns south at Richmond and follows the Prairie Trail, the Fox River Trail, and the Illinois Prairie Path back to its center point in Wheaton at the Mile 0 marker.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has an amazingly-prepared trail guide for the entire loop, divided into 10 sections of about 50 miles each.  There are 17 checkpoints on the trail, and if you take photos of yourself cycling on the trail at each checkpoint within the span of 1 year, the DNR will send you an official "GIT Trailblazer" t-shirt.  

Well, ten days was a little too long for my work vacation schedule, so I decided that I could do it in two segments.  I would cycle the eastern part (between my house and Lake Michigan) on a two-day overnight trip over a long weekend, and then take a week off work to cycle the western part (between my house and the Mississippi River) over the course of six days.

I immediately knew that I would camp, the only question was how I would manage it.  I quickly decided that the best option would be to pull my gear in a bicycle trailer.  Now you can buy a flatbed bike trailer for a price on the high side of $300, but it's not really my style to spend that much money for that kind of thing.  So one day I found one of those toddler bike trailers by the side of the road, with no wheels and its plastic cover torn to shreds.  But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the aluminum frame.  "That's my gear trailer," I said.  I removed the tattered cover and ordered some replacement wheels.  I then took some sturdy lath that I had lying around my garage and bolted them to the frame to make a flatbed trailer.  Thus I had a gear trailer for less than $50 rather than over $300!  And thus was born "The Chariot" (because the final product really did look like a chariot!).

The last hurdle was figuring out when I was going to take this trip, and that was the biggest problem of all.  My co-parenting agreement stipulated that I couldn't leave my children at home alone until the youngest turned 12.  That practical result of this has been that I have had to use almost all of the work vacation days for days when W&C had off school.  That didn't leave enough vacation days for me to take a full week off work in the summer.  But C turned 12 this summer, which means that this coming school year I don't have to take off work when W&C are out of school.  So 2025 was destined to be the summer for the GIT trip.  I decided to do the eastern part over the long July 4 weekend, and then do the western part between July 28 and August 2.

Ground Zero – the Mile 0 Marker of the Illinois Prairie Path

I started on July 4, which was a Friday this year so I had the day off work already.  I slept in and spent the morning packing The Chariot.  I had already booked a campsite at Camp Shabbona Woods, which is in the south Chicago suburbs and operated by the Cook County Forest Preserve.  The first day of cycling was uneventful, except for the fact that I kinda got a late start.  I had cycled to the Navy Pier before, I did it last summer as part of training for this trip.  I knew the route well, and the weather was warm and sunny.  It was about noon when I started, and I got to Navy Pier around 4pm.  

Checkpoint #1 – Chicago Lakefront Trail @ Navy Pier, Lake Michigan

I got a Gatorade and a couple Chicago-style hot dogs from a street vendor.  I have to say, Chicago-style hot dogs really are the best!  After that I turned south for about 15 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan.  That was more difficult cycling because of the wind, but cycling down the south shore of Chicago was really fun.

Checkpoint #2 – Burnham Greenway @ William Powers Recreation Area

It was about 7pm when I got to my campsite.  The campground was kinda loud because there were lots of other campers there, being the 4th of July and all.  But it wasn't unpleasant, and it was a great night for camping!  It was warm and dry, so I didn't put the rain fly on the tent.  Whenever you can sleep in a tent without putting on the rain fly, that's pretty much always a good night of camping.

The next morning was also uneventful.  I broke camp and headed out at around 8:30am, as I recall.  My goal was to do 70 miles that day.  I planned to cycle 40 miles to Joliet in order to hit checkpoints #3 and #4, and then I would turn back north and go back home.  And the ride was great, except that it was pretty hot (mid-90's).  I arrived in downtown Joliet at about 12:30pm.  I had planned to make it as far the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trailhead and turn back toward home, but that would have added 4 more miles.  I decided that downtown was close enough for the day.  I stopped in Juliet's Tavern in downtown Joliet to eat lunch, and then cycled all the way back home.  

Checkpoint #3 – Old Plank Road Trail @ Matteson, IL

I was very glad that I did this two-day test run, because it showed me two important things.  First, it demonstrated to me that bicycle camping was realistically feasible.  Second, it taught me that trying to cycle more than 70 miles per day with The Chariot in tow was probably NOT realistically feasible.  At any rate, after this short trip I knew that I was ready to take the long one.  

But the 30 miles between Joliet and Wheaton was neither very smooth nor very pleasant riding, and I knew that I didn't want to cycle that stretch twice.  I made the decision that, when I took my long trip, I would start from Joliet rather than from Wheaton.  I would just need to find someone to drive me to Joliet, which I did, no problem.  I did some more training rides during those few weeks in between, and all was set.  Ready to go!

Monday, 28 July 2025

I woke up around 6am on Monday morning, which is my normal time.  The night before I had taken my bicycle down to Joliet and locked it up at the bike rack outside the police station.  I had arranged with my friend Lance to take me to Joliet (along with The Chariot and my camping gear) in The Sorento that morning.  We weren't going to meet up until 7:45, so I made coffee and had a relatively leisurely morning getting ready to go.  I picked up Lance from his house and we stopped by Dunkin' to get coffee and sustenance on our way out of town.  That was when I found out it was his birthday...so Happy Birthday, Lance!

It was about 9:15 when he dropped me off outside the Joliet Police Station.  I hitched up The Chariot and slathered myself in sunscreen (as I always must).  Joliet is an interesting city.  It is both cool and kinda depressing at the same time.  It's a city that looks like it was in its hey-day about 50 years ago but has since been in steady economic decline.  Certain parts of downtown look fresh and alive, and other parts look positively deserted.  There's a big Harrah's casino right on the river, and I couldn't help but wonder how much that one building drove the Joliet economy nowadays.  But enough nostalgia, it was time to cycle!  It was a couple miles from downtown to the trailhead, and I started on the trail at almost exactly 10am.  Sixty miles to pedal today, and, for all intents and purposes, all on the I&M Canal Trail.

Checkpoint #4 – Illinois & Michigan Canal Trail @ Joliet, IL

I now realize that I am spoiled by the fact that I live less than two blocks from the Illinois Prairie Path, which is by far the best-maintained trail of all that I cycled on this trip.  I had expected that most all the trails on the GIT would be similar to the Prairie Path.  Oh, was I wrong!  And I saw it immediately as soon as I started out from Joliet.  The I&M Canal Trail is crushed limestone, just like the Prairie Path, but it was all overgrown with grass!  Also, because it had rained that weekend, the trail was pretty soft and even muddy in some places.  Within the first 3 miles it was obvious that I was going to be working very hard indeed that day if the entire 60 miles was in same condition.  Thankfully, it wasn't all like that!  But I estimate that more than half of the total length of the I&M Canal Trail was.  Cycling along the canal was really fun and interesting, but it was a LOT of work!

For much of its length, the I&M Canal follows the Illinois River.  Sometime around noon I passed the Dresden Island Lock and Dam.  I stopped and got off my bike to look at the dam, and as I was getting back on my bike to cycle off I just happened to look up and saw this...

Dresden Mule Barn on the I&M Canal, built 1834

Immediately I could tell that it was a REALLY old building, so I snapped a couple photos.  Then I saw a signboard for the Dresden Mule Barn and read that it was built in 1834!  I couldn't believe that the building was still standing almost 200 years later.  Of course, I have no idea how much of the wood is original...but still, it's impressive for any wood building to survive for nearly 200 years.  I read that typically canal operators would change mules about every 15 miles, so obviously, they would need barns to house mules so that they could sleep and rest.  The Dresden Mule Barn is believed to be the oldest surviving mule barn on the I&M Canal.

The rest of the day was reasonably uneventful, except for the fact that I missed the next checkpoint.  So far every checkpoint was directly along the cycle route as directed by the cue sheet, and I figured that checkpoint #5 (the Gebhard Woods Visitor Center in Morris, IL) would be the same.  Well, I cycled past the town of Morris and then through Gebhard Woods State Park, but never saw the visitor center.  [Turns out you just have to cross the canal on a footbridge to get to it. The footbridge at this signboard, actually.]  

Signboard for the I&M Canal Trail at Gebhard Woods State Park

This was a good thing, actually, because it immediately took the pressure off me to feel like I absolutely HAD to hit every checkpoint (since I knew already halfway through the first day that I would have to come back to hit at least one at a later date anyway).  And it turns out that I had to alter my route a few different times throughout the week simply out of practical necessity due to pulling The Chariot with the weight of six days worth of camping gear.

Checkpoint #5 – Gebhard Woods Visitor Center @ Morris, IL

I adopted it as my general practice to do my best NOT to stop for lunch until I had cycled at least half the distance (more or less) that I intended to go that day.  So, for this first day of cycling, that meant that I stopped to eat in Seneca, IL.  I got there at almost exactly 3pm, and it was really hot!  I stepped into a Casey's General Store (you'll observe a theme here!) right off the trail and got myself a Gatorade and a sandwich.  There was a little picnic area there under a shelter, so I sat in the shade and enjoyed a very nice lunch.  About halfway through I glanced up across the canal and saw another extremely old-looking building.  Being the born-and-raised Midwest boy that I am, I immediately recognized it as an old grain elevator, but I didn't know anything about it.  I quickly snapped a photo so that I could look it up later.  And lo, and behold! it turns out that I had photographed another "oldest" building on the I&M Canal.  It was Armour's Warehouse, built in 1861.  I wonder what they did to their wood buildings back in the 19th century to make them last so long.  Impressive...

Armour's Warehouse, oldest grain elevator on the I&M Canal, built 1861

[Incidentally, Seneca was a really cool town.  I snapped a few other photos, too.  You should read about the Prairie Shipyard here, it's a great story.]

"Little Library" in Seneca modeled after Armour's Warehouse

New mural in Seneca, IL

Old mural in Seneca, IL

Recognition of the Prairie Shipyard at Seneca, IL

As the afternoon wore on and I traveled further west, the trail continued to get wetter and wetter and muddier and muddier.  The last ten miles of the day were really slow, and I was pretty sore.  In fact, my legs were the most sore that night of the whole trip, even though that was not the most difficult day of riding.  I started to get bit by mosquitoes at 5:30, and I hurriedly showered myself with Deep Woods OFF!  Here I must interject that I quickly learned to carry sunscreen, bug spray, and aloe gel in my backpack at all times.  Because I never knew when I would need any of those three things, and it was much easier to carry them in my backpack than to have to dig them out of my camping tote each time!

But it wasn't only mosquitos that were hanging out by the canal.  This day cycling alongside the canal was the day I saw the most wildlife on the whole trip.  I saw several Great Blue Herons, including one that was a very striking deep gray and blue rather than the light gray that they usually are.  I also saw a Great Egret in flight, and it was absolutely majestic.  The other birds that I could definitely make out were (I think) a Green Heron and a Belted Kingfisher.  It's usually difficult to bird-watch from a bicycle, but it was pretty easy along the canal.

I finally arrived at my campsite at Starved Rock State Park just outside Utica, IL at almost 8pm.  It had taken me 10 hours to cycle 60 miles, and I knew that would be the shortest day of the whole trip!  And that was THE major factor of the entire excursion, the fact that pulling The Chariot with all my camping gear just slowed me down so much.  After setting up camp and cooking my dinner, I started web-scrolling on my phone to see what information I could find about the Hennepin Canal Trail, which was the trail that I was supposed to be on for the next day and a half, for a distance of nearly 100 miles.  From what I found online, the Hennepin Canal Trail is even harder to cycle than the I&M Canal Trail, and it gets particularly wet toward its western end.  So I knew that I needed to map out an alternate route in case the Hennepin Canal Trail proved impractical.  I was headed to Geneseo, IL the next day, a distance of 70 miles.  Thankfully, I discovered that US Hwy 6 traces a nearly direct east-west line from La Salle to Geneseo.  I decided to sleep on it and then decide the next day whether to chance the Hennepin Canal or play it safe on the paved highway.

Tuesday, 29 July 2025

I woke up, broke camp, and was on the road by 8:30am.  My weather app told me that these first two days would be the hottest days of the entire trip, and that turned out accurate.  The Starved Rock SP campground is almost 5 miles from the I&M Canal Trail, and I still had 5 more miles on the trail to go before I reached its western terminal at Lock 14 in La Salle.  I reached Lock 14 at 9:30am, which wasn't all that bad in terms of time.  But it was very clear to me that the wise choice was NOT to risk the Hennepin Canal Trail because the next 60 miles were very remote.  It was an easy decision to cycle US-6 instead.

Checkpoint #6 – Lock 14 on the I&M Canal @ La Salle, IL

Now the canal trails are shaded, so even though the terrain is difficult, the sun isn't beating down on you constantly.  Of course, cycling on the highway is exactly the opposite!  Road-riding is the easiest cycling that there is, but also the hottest because you have the direct heat from the sun as well as the radiant heat from the asphalt.  And really, it wasn't a bad day of cycling at all!  But it was just really hot, and the heat just kinda saps your energy and makes the miles feel slow.  That's how I would describe this day.  It was neither the hardest day of cycling, nor the longest, nor the slowest, but it FELT like the slowest.

I stopped for lunch at the Casey's General Store in Princeton, IL and got there at high noon.  I got my usual Gatorade but with a chicken wrap this time instead of a sandwich.  I bought a turkey wrap as well because I was pretty hungry.  However, I felt pretty full after eating the chicken wrap, so I packed the turkey wrap inside my camping tote to save for later.  I rested for a total of about 30 minutes and was back out on the road no later than 12:45pm...just as the heat was starting to crank up.

Now, it had taken me 3.5 hours to cycle 30 miles, and I had 40 more miles to go to reach Geneseo Campground, which was where I would camp that night.  It's 15 miles from Princeton to Sheffield, so I was determined not to rest again until I got to Sheffield.  The next checkpoint on the GIT is the Hennepin Canal Visitor's Center, which is a couple miles outside Sheffield on the near (i.e. east) side but off the highway a bit.  Well, I couldn't remember exactly how far off the main road it was (it's actually only a mile or so), and by the time I got to the turnoff to the visitor's center there was no way that I was going to make this day's cycle any longer!  Also, I was both tired AND determined not to rest until I actually got to Sheffield.  So I pressed on, knowing with absolutely no regrets that I now had two checkpoints that I'd have to come back to hit later.

Checkpoint #7 – Hennepin Canal Visitor's Center @ Sheffield, IL

Signboard for the Hennepin Canal Trail at the Hennepin Canal State Park

A whimsically delightful "billboard" outside Sheffield, IL

I got to Sheffield just before 3pm, which meant that it took me about two hours to cycle 15 miles.  I still had 25 miles to go, and I was both pretty hot and pretty tired.  I started to grow concerned that I might not make it to Geneseo before dark.  [Yes, go ahead and do the math.  The sun doesn't go down until 8:30pm.  This is a pretty unfounded fear!]  And thus began the mental refrain that I had to keep repeating to myself every single day for the entire trip.

"You have plenty of time, Joel.  Don't rush.  Just keep cycling and finish."

This is just part of my anxiety as a person.  I'm always afraid of running out of time, even when I have a much-more-than-reasonable margin!  Oh, well.  Anyhow, there was a bench outside the Casey's in Sheffield, and like I said, I was very hot and tired.  I knew that I needed to lower my body temperature, so I decided to lay down and nap for a few minutes.  I don't think I slept for any more than 10 minutes or so, but I felt different afterward than I did beforehand.  Better.  I got back out there, again heading west.

It was another 15 miles to the town of Atkinson, so I decided that I would do my best not to rest again until Atkinson.  By this time the heat was starting to break, but I felt just as hot and tired by the time I got to Atkinson as I had when I arrived in Sheffield.  I again stopped at Casey's, drank a Gatorade, and laid down on the ground in the shade but didn't sleep this time.  Again, just long enough to get my body temperature down again a little bit and recover a little energy for the home stretch.

I think I reached Geneseo Campground at around 6:30pm, so I had plenty of time...of course!  It was a hot and sticky evening.  Before I left home on Monday morning I had been checking the weather for the week, and I knew that there was a chance of rain in western Illinois on Wednesday morning.  Well, before I went to bed I checked the weather again, and to my dismay, now there was rain forecast for the entire day all along the Mississippi River corridor!  I resigned myself that, the next day, I was going to be very, very wet.  And with that, I fell promptly asleep.  

Wednesday, 30 July 2025

The cold front started coming thru at about 4:30am.  I woke up to my tent shaking with the wind, and I literally felt the temperature drop what felt like about 10 degrees in the course of maybe 90 seconds.  A few raindrops hit the tent, but there was no substantial rain to speak of...yet.  I got out of the tent and made sure that all my stuff was in places where it would stay dry, then went back to sleep for another hour or so.  

I think it was about 8am when I got rolling, and I hadn't been on the road for 20 minutes when the rain started.  I put on my "emergency rain poncho" [you know, one of those cheap flimsy ones that you get at the dollar stone], and I have to say, that thing was like gold.  I was extremely skeptical how well it would work while cycling, but it really did.  [More on that later.]. The main thing I didn't like about the poncho was that it flapped around so loudly and obstructed my view through my Third Eye rear-view mirror.  But I got used to both those things, and very soon I was completely and thoroughly soaked.  And that would have been absolutely miserable had it been cold, but it wasn't.  The temperature was in the mid-70's, and I found that being wet was actually quite soothing to my leg muscles.  I remember thinking that morning that my legs actually felt really fresh!  I settled in for a long day of cycling in the rain.

The rain had slowed but hadn't stopped by the time I reached the Mississippi River mid-morning.  Still, despite the weather, this moment was particularly exhilarating for me, and I think it shows in the selfie I took alongside the river.  I think it was the realization that I had cycled all that distance from Lake Michigan all the way to the Mississippi!  I wondered if the early pioneers felt the same sense of achievement when they hit major natural landmarks on the Oregon Trail.   

The Muddy Mighty Mississippi

I enjoyed the moment for about 10 minutes before pressing on.  After all, I had 55 more miles to go that day, and against the wind, because the rainstorm was coming from the north. The GIT meets the Mississippi River at East Moline and then turns north, following the Great River Trail for about 50 miles as far as Savanna, IL.  A few miles north of Savanna is Mississippi Palisades State Park, which was my destined campsite that night.  

Checkpoint #8 – Great River Trail @ East Moline, IL

Now, the Great River Trail is paved blacktop, but it's not pretty.  That trail is rough, especially at the southern end where asphalt patches have been laid down on top of asphalt patches.  So there I was, I'd gone about five miles up the Grand River Trail, truckin' along with The Chariot squeakin', rattlin' and rollin' behind, when I all of a sudden heard some strange noises behind me.  I turned around and saw that the left wheel of The Chariot was, quite literally, about to fall off its axle bolt!  Its end nut had vibrated loose and come completely off.  Not only that, but when I look on the right side, that end nut was missing too!  But that wasn't where the noise was coming from.  The noise was coming from the rear of The Chariot, because two of the wood slats that formed the flatbed had broken and were dragging on the ground!!!  It happened because the wood had softened in the rain, and the weight of the camping tote eventually bent the slats until they had torn free from the screws mounting them to the aluminum frame.  And actually, that part wasn't a big deal.  The Chariot could easily hold the camping tote even with two slats missing.  But I couldn't ride very far at all without nuts securing the wheels to the axles.  That problem I absolutely had to solve.  I had just left the village of Port Byron, and there was a Casey's General Store there.  It was much shorter to go back there than to go forward to Cordova.  Either way I wasn't terribly thrilled with the prospects, because I had done a Google search on my phone for the nearest hardware store, and it was 14 miles away to the north.  I unhitched The Chariot and stowed it away out of sight beside the trail, then started to cycle back to Port Byron.

Well, as it turns out, not only was there a Casey's in Port Byron, but there was also a Dollar General, and it couldn't have been more than 500 yards south of where I had broken down.  I knew that they would not have 1/2" galvanized steel hex nuts, but I was optimistic that I would find something that I could use to keep The Chariot's wheels on.  And find something I did...

...duct tape and zip ties!!!

That's right, I manufactured two end nuts out of duct tape and zip ties.  I tore two lengths of duct tape into 1/2" wide strips and wrapped them tightly around each axle bolt in order to give the zip ties something to grip.  Then I wrapped two zip ties around each axle bolt directly on the outside on each wheel, right where the end nut should be.  And I pulled those things as tight as I possibly could.  There, good as new.  Well, no, not as good as new, but it kept the wheels on.  That pit stop took me 45 minutes, tops.  And I was feeling pretty good about myself, too, keeping my fingers crossed that my temporary repair would hold until I could get to a hardware store and get, you know, *actual* 1/2" galvanized steel hex nuts to keep its wheels firmly attached to The Chariot!

I cycled the 14 miles north to the town of Albany, where the nearest True Value store was.  The problem was that the "True Value" store was NOT a hardware store, but an antique shop!  No worries, I thought.  There's got to be another hardware store reasonably close by...I mean, this is the eastern shore of the Mississippi River, not the middle of the prairie!  So I did another Google search on my phone, and then began to sink in – right there in the village of Albany, IL – just how remote the eastern shore of the Mississippi in the state of Illinois really is.  There are exactly THREE hardware stores along the general length of the Great River Trail.  One of them is in Silvis, IL, which would have required me to backtrack 20 miles.  I wasn't gonna do that.  The second one was across the river in Clinton, IA, still ten miles ahead of me.  But I would have to cycle 5 additional miles in order to cross the river into Iowa and back, and I didn't want to do that, either.  The third hardware store was all the way past the end of the GRT in Savanna, and it closed at 5:30pm.  I figured I probably would not make it to Savanna by then, but I would try.  And if I was late, then I could go in the morning because it opened again at 7am.  So I decided to just press on to Savanna and hope for the best.  My duct tape and zip ties had held for 15 miles.  And if they came off, well, I had plenty more duct tape and zip ties!

While I was stopped, I also removed the camping tote from The Chariot and used the duct tape to make webbing in place of the slats that were broken.  I also did the same for some of the other slats that were bent but not broken.  It looked kinda sketchy with all that duct tape, but I bet that the duct tape webbing was actually stronger than the slats had been.  

Barn with transverse cupola outside Fulton, IL

Checkpoint #9 – De Immigrant Windmill @ Fulton, IL

So I pressed on in what turned out to be an unpleasant afternoon of riding, mainly because I was cycling against the wind and a little stressed about cycling with only duct tape and zip ties holding the wheels on The Chariot.  In all of that going on, I totally forgot about the checkpoint in the village of Fulton. [In fact, I didn't even realize that mistake until after I had gotten to camp that night and looked at the map.  Then I was like, "Well, oops!  Guess that's three checkpoints now."]  I didn't stop for lunch or anything that day, because I was hoping that I might make it to the hardware store in Savanna by 5:30pm...

...I missed it by 20 minutes.  And I saw the hardware store as soon as I got into Savanna, but it was too late!  I even went and tugged on the door to see if someone might still be there and take pity on me, but everyone was gone by that point.  I didn't mention that the rain had started up again almost an hour earlier, so once again I was absolutely drenched, and it was still raining pretty hard.  I still had 4 miles to go, and all of it along the main road because the Great River Trail ends at Savanna.  A block away from the hardware store was a Subway, so I decided that I would at least eat a hearty meal and hope that the rain stopped before I finished cycling for the day.  So I did.

And that was when I realized how much the rain poncho had done for me.  Because even though I was sweaty and all of my extremities were soaked, my torso and my backpack (which was under the poncho) were actually quite dry.  And I realized that that actually made a huge difference!  There's a big difference between having your arms and legs soaked through and having every single inch of your body soaked through.  As it was, I took off my rain poncho outside, then went into the bathroom and dried off my sleeves as best I could with the hand dryer.  Sure, my cycling shorts were wet, but I sat in that Subway and actually had a reasonably enjoyable dinner!  The rain let up, kinda, but it was still drizzling pretty good as I cycled the last 4 miles to Mississippi Palisades State Park.

And when I got there, I couldn't believe it.  There was nary a soul there.  I think it was the first time in my life that I have gone to a state park and not seen one other camper...no tents, no RVs, nothing.  The entire time I was there I saw one man come into the bathroom, take a pee in the urinal, and leave.  I have no idea if he was a camper, a staff person, a vagrant, or what.  All he said to me was "Have a good evening" as he left the bathroom.  I have to admit, having an entire state park to yourself is pretty eerie.  Not that I had much time to dwell on it.  Thankfully, there was a pretty powerful hand dryer in the bathroom there, as well as a box fan someone had put in the bathroom (to keep the floor dry, I guess?!?).  Since all my cycling clothes were soaked, and since there was no one else there...I washed my clothes in the shower and hung them up to dry on the clothes hooks with the box fan pointed straight at them.  I left them there all night long, and by the next morning, all my clothes were dry!

Thursday, 31 July 2025

I always knew this would be my most difficult cycling day, because the trail guide said so.  It's pretty much 68 miles of non-stop hills from Mississippi Palisades north to Galena and then east to Lake Le-Aqua-Na.  I knew I wanted to get an early start, so I got up and moving as soon as I woke up.  And it paid off.  I had broken camp and was on the road before 8am.  

Checkpoint #10 – Mississippi Palisades SP @ Savanna, IL

My original thought had been to cycle back to Savanna to get new end nuts for The Chariot early in the morning, but that would have added 8 whole miles to the cycling day.  I had done another Google search and found not one but TWO different hardware stores in Galena.  And after all, my duct-tape-and-zip-ties had held up so far.  So I decided to just keep pressing on, and I would get more axle nuts in Galena.  

True to form, it was a fairly brutal cycling day.  But it was breathtaking.  The northwest corner of Illinois is green farmland, like the rest of the state, but it's hill country.  [NOT like the rest of the state.]. Bigger than the Flint Hills of Kansas but smaller than the Black Hills of South Dakota, I haven't seen anything else quite like it in the Midwest.  The terrain in NW Illinois reminded me a lot of the Green Mountains in Vermont.  Exquisite country.  Unlike the day before, my legs did not feel fresh this day.  In fact, they were kinda sore, even at the start of the day.  And that worked to my advantage, actually.  If your legs are sore already, then the soreness of going up and down hills doesn't bother you as much.  And I knew it was going to be a long, hard day of cycling, so I decided early in the day not to deal out too much punishment to my quads.  My legs had to last, not just all day, but for two more cycling days as well.  So when I came to a particularly steep or long hill, I just got off my bike and pushed my rig up the hill.  And I soon realized how much that decision worked in my favor.  Not only did it save wear-and-tear on my quads, but it also gave my other cycling muscles a rest for a little while and get the blood flowing to my legs again.  I found that by walking up the big hills, I actually reached the top with more energy rather than less.

[As an aside, this dovetails with another important lesson I learned this trip about distance cycling.  I learned that, when you start to get tired while cycling, the best thing to do is to get off your bike and take a break, even if it's just for 10 minutes.  My natural inclination when I'm tired while cycling is just to push through until I reach some goal.  But fatigue on the bike compounds the longer you stay in the saddle.  And I was amazed at how much more energy I had afterward when I would just take a short break and actually get off the bike.  I think it must have something to do with blood flow to the leg muscles.  By getting out of the saddle and changing your body's position, it must increase circulation to the legs again, which I assume has some effect on the lactic acid built up in the leg muscles.  At any rate, back to the story.]

My biggest thrill of the entire bike ride came on Thursday morning, in the 15 mile stretch of Hwy 84 between Hanover and Galena.  I had climbed a really big hill, and on the way down I don't think I pedaled at all for close at least 5 minutes, maybe 10.  And for a little while there I was going the same speed as the car next to me, probably about 45 miles per hour.  It was a rush!  Thankfully, it was a really smooth road with a really wide shoulder.  I never felt like I was in any real danger, but I was thinking to myself, "Man, it would be REALLY BAD if I took a spill right now!"

I have to say, my piddly photo of Galena does not do it justice.  Galena must be the best-kept secret in Illinois, and it's an absolute pearl of a town.  It's nestled in the Galena River valley with sizable bluffs on either side of the river going out of town.  While cycling that morning, I had decided that I would be happy if I made it to Galena by noon.  But when I got into town, I sat down on a park bench to take a break and check the time.  And lo, and behold! it was only 11am! 

Checkpoint #11 – Old Market @ Galena, IL

I decided to lock up my bike and take a stroll down the main drag to see what I could see.  I had not yet eaten a really nice meal my whole trip, so I decided to treat myself to lunch at the Green Street Tavern.  The Thursday special was the Italian Beef, so that was what I had, with the house potato salad made from scratch.  And, no lie, that was the best Italian beef I've ever had.  It's because of the quality of the beef.  It was gamy yet tender, just the way beef should be.  It was a shame to eat at a tavern without drinking an adult beverage, but there was no way I was going to put alcohol in my system when I still had 40 miles of hard cycling still ahead of me.

After lunch, I set out for the hardware store.  I actually go didn't to the hardware store, per se, but rather the tractor supply store.  But they had the 1/2" galvanized steel hex nuts I needed, so I bought some and made sure I had extras in case they vibrated loose again.  I also stopped at Wal-Mart because I needed both more sunscreen and more bug spray.  It was 1:30pm by the time I had gotten everything I needed and made the necessary repairs to The Chariot.  I headed east out of town, refreshed and ready to face 40 miles of Illinois hill country.

I kid you not.  Two hours later I heard The Chariot rattling louder than normal, and when I turned around to look, that left end nut had come off...again!  I couldn't believe it!  I wasn't so incredulous that it had come off, because I was not cycling on terribly smooth roads.  What I couldn't believe was that my duct-tape-and-zip-ties temporary repair had held longer than my actual repair!  I genuinely thought to myself, "I should have just left the duct tape and zip ties alone!"  Of course, it was no big deal this time, because I had bought spare end nuts.  I just put on another, but this time I made sure that I torqued down all the axle hardware as well as the end nuts.  And that did the trick, because those end nuts didn't come loose again for the entire trip!

That afternoon really was the slowest afternoon, because of the combination of both hills and wind.  When I stopped to rest in Apple River and drink a Powerade, it was already 5pm and I had only covered a little more than 20 miles.  That meant I had almost 20 more miles to go with only about 3 hours of daylight left.  And it turned out that I needed nearly every bit of those 3 hours to get to Lake Le-Aqua-Na.  As I said, a brutal day of cycling.  But absolutely, a stunningly beautiful day of cycling. The atmosphere was hazy that evening, I think it was smoke from brush files up in Canada.  As the sun was sinking down the western sky, it shone this amazing orange-gold color.  It was the perfect end to a hard day of cycling.

That night in camp, I pulled out "all the stops," so to speak.  First of all, my campsite was directly across the way from the shower house, so that was awesome.  Secondly, I made coffee to go with dinner.  Usually I'd only make coffee in the morning.  And finally, I smoked my pipe that night as I was drinking my coffee.  I hadn't had time to smoke my pipe at all the entire week!  [I don't smoke my pipe often, but I almost always do so when camping.]  Ah, a good night!

Friday, 1 August 2025

After such a difficult day of cycling the day before, I erroneously figured that today would be relatively easy.  I had already cycled this part of Illinois earlier in the trip, although that was 60 miles to the south.  And it turns out that 60 miles made quite a difference!  At any rate, I took my time getting out of bed and ate a pretty leisurely breakfast.  I had broken camp and was on the road shortly after 9am.

Checkpoint #12 – Lake Le-Aqua-Na SP @ Lena, IL

This day turned out to be the most frustrating day of cycling of the trip.  When I was cycling west a few days earlier, the road had been almost entirely flat.  The only exceptions were when crossing rivers or streams.  The road would dip down to the bridge and then come back up again on the other side.  But now, cycling east but much further to the north, the roads were not flat at all but rather undulating.  None of the hills were very large or steep, thankfully, but it does get kinda old going up and down and up and down and up and down on a bicycle all the time.  Especially for someone like me who has a body built for endurance sports.  My body thrives on the rhythm of a set pace, and you just can't get into any kind of cycling rhythm when you're constantly going uphill and downhill. 

Furthermore, the winds on the midwestern prairie usually blow from the west.  But this particular day the wind was kind of swirling but blowing mainly from the northeast.  That meant that I was facing a minor headwind, whereas I had expected that I would probably have a tailwind the entire time heading east!  In fact, I even missed a turn after passing through the village of McConnell because I had my head down cycling against the wind.  Thankfully, I discovered my mistake pretty soon, after climbing a pretty big hill!  But I had to turn south to get on the correct road again, which took me back down the hill again.  So I didn't feel too frustrated about that.

I made it to Freeport around noon, and had a lovely chat with a guy who was running a weed-trimmer cleaning things up around downtown.  He pointed me in the direction of the Pecatonica Prairie Path.  I found it and cycled on it for a mile or two, quickly realizing that that trail, like the Hennepin before, was simply not going to be practical to cycle with a bike trailer.  So I took the longer route instead, that included 15 miles on "Edwardsville Rd."  That was a great mystery to me.  I have no idea why it's called "Edwardsville Rd" because there is no town called Edwardsville anywhere along that road!

Checkpoint #13 – Pecatonica Prairie Path @ Pecatonica, IL

At any rate, it was, on the whole, a pretty uninspiring day of cycling.  Hills and wind.  That was the day.  But there was one thing that was pretty cool.  And actually, this was one of the really cool things about the trip as a whole, too.  I got to see all kinds of tiny Illinois towns that I probably never would have seen otherwise.  And that was just really fun to get to see little towns that don't matter to anyone other than the people who live there.  But for them, that little town is their world...and I got to see it!  One of the little towns that I went through on this particular day was Seward.  It was at about the midpoint of my journey on the afore-mentioned "Edwardsville Rd."  There were some houses at the intersection with shade trees, so that was the place I stopped to reapply sunscreen and re-fill my water, etc.  Well, there was an elderly couple sitting out in the yard on their porch swing.  [Well, not really a porch swing, because it wasn't on the porch, but you get the idea.]  I talked to them for about 5 minutes while I was doing what I needed to do.  And you know, I can't remember anything that we talked about.  But what I do remember was having a little more energy than normal when I got back on my bike again.  It was like my whole spirit had been uplifted by the short and for-all-intents-and-purposes meaningless conversation.  But that gets to the whole point...it wasn't a meaningless conversation at all.    

Barns near Seward, IL

It was late afternoon by the time I reached the western edge of the city of Rockford.  Ten miles to go to Rock Cut State Park, which was my final campsite on the entire trip.  Ten miles through the sprawling urban area of Rockford, IL.  That ten miles was the most frustrating of the entire week, and for a number of reasons.  The streets were pretty rough, which was annoying.  There were lots of "cycle one block and turn," which is also annoying for a cyclist like me who likes to find a rhythm and stick with it.  But the biggest frustration was that my cue sheet failed me for the first and only time on the entire trip.  I used the cue sheets that have been prepared by the Illinois Dept of Natural Resources for the Grand Illinois Trail.  And they are very good cue sheets!  Up to this point I had only ever missed the one turn, earlier that day, and that was not because of bad directions but because I was distracted and wasn't looking for my turnoff.  But here in Rockford, after crossing the Rock River, the cue sheet was simply incorrect.  It told me to turn onto a street that simply wasn't there.  And I still don't know what happened, because I had followed the directions precisely up to that point.  It was the capstone of frustration for the day!

Thankfully, due to the miracle of modern technology, it wasn't a big deal.  I simply pulled out my phone and used GPS to get me the rest of the way to Rock Cut State Park.  Now, Rock Cut SP is the largest state park in northern Illinois, and it was kinda like a madhouse.  The exactly opposite of Mississippi Palisades. Here, the campground was entirely full.  In fact, I had decided earlier in the day that I was NOT going to pull The Chariot for my final day of cycling, but that I would leave it at Rock Cut while I cycled home and then come back in The Sorento to fetch it and all my camping gear.  And earlier in the day, when I was thinking about where to leave The Chariot while I was gone, I thought to myself, "No problem! I'll just spend the 30 bucks or whatever to rent my campsite for an additional night, and I'll lock it to the picnic table."  The problem was: when I went to the reservation website to rent the campsite for an additional night, it was already booked!  No problem, I thought.  I'll just rent a different campsite.  Nope!  Every single campsite in the entire park was booked for the entire weekend!  I suppose that shouldn't have surprised me, but it did!

Anyhow, I finally got to my campsite, and almost immediately the dogs from the campsite next to mine (with both a tent and a pop-up camper) ran over the investigate me.  They started barking, of course, and the guy came over to tell them to stop.  It was perfect.  I quickly told him that I had been on the road for 5 days but decided that I wasn't going to pull my gear for the last day of cycling.  I asked him if I could pay to look after my stuff for one night if I locked it up to a tree next to his campsite.  He said, "Sure, but you don't have to pay me for that!"  So here's a public shout-out to Chris and his family and his dogs, who watched over my stuff for one night so that I didn't have to pull The Chariot on my final day of cycling!

This final night of camping had only one challenge, and that was the temperature.  As soon as I reached the park I could feel the temperature drop somewhat, and I could tell that this would be the coldest night of camping.  I think it got down to about 50 degrees that night.  I hadn't brought my normal sleeping bag with me on this trip, partly because it's big and bulky and takes up valuable packing space.  But also because I didn't think I would need it.  I had taken along my fleece sleeping bag instead, which packs down much smaller but is not near as warm.  Well, I did wake up in the middle of the night shivering, and I got up and walked to the bathroom not really out of necessity but because I wanted to get some blood flowing to warm me up again a little bit.  And it worked, too!  I was warmer when I got back to my tent, but still cold.  So here's what I did.  I ended putting on all my clothes, including my rain poncho, then covering myself with my nylon hammock (which I had taken along but not used) to hold in as much body heat as I could, then covered everything with my fleece sleeping back unzipped to make a blanket.  It worked well enough.  I went back to sleep again fairly easily, but it wasn't a very comfortable night.

Saturday, 2 August 2025

I slept fairly late this morning, comparatively.  I think it was the latest I woke up the whole week, sometime between 7 and 7:30am.  I always planned for this final day of cycling to be my longest, and I was hoping to cycle with my friend Matt for the last 50 miles.  However, it turned out that he wasn't able to join me, so I altered my route again to skip one more checkpoint and take a shorter route home so that I could cycle 80 miles instead of 100 miles.  Matt and I made a plan to try again in a few weeks in order to pick up that checkpoint that is way up by the Wisconsin border, due north of Wheaton.

Checkpoint #14 – Rock Cut SP @ Rockford, IL

I got on the road at about 9am, and it felt really good to cycle without pulling The Chariot.  I definitely went faster.  This final day of cycling was almost boring, actually.  I mean, "boring" isn't the right word, but I guess it doesn't have quite the same sense of adventure when you know that your destination that day is your own house!  It just wasn't particularly exciting, that's all.  My main goal for the day was to cycle 50 miles in 5 hours before I stopped for lunch.  And I did!  I stopped at a gas station in Crystal Lake.  It was not a Casey's this time, sadly, because they didn't have any proper food.  I settled for a Gatorade and two protein bars, which is NOT the same as a sandwich!!!  

30 miles to home...

I got rolling again, and I could tell almost immediately that cycling felt harder than it had before I stopped.  It was kinda weird.  It was like I had mentally checked a box in going 50 miles in 5 hours, and now my mind was starting to wind down.  The last 30 miles was harder, even though it was actually mostly (slightly) downhill.  The northern terminus of the Fox River Trail is in the town of Algonquin, and once I got there the towns came kinda fast and furious all the way to Wheaton.  

Carpentersville.

East Dundee.

Elgin.

Shift to the Illinois Prairie Path in South Elgin, and from that point the last 13 miles was terrain I knew very well.

Wayne.

West Chicago.

Winfield.

Wheaton.

Checkpoint #17 – Illinois Prairie Path @ Wheaton, IL

THE END.

The first thing I did was go home and take a good long cold shower.  Then I went to Culver's to eat a celebratory junk food dinner.  I had a coupon to use, plus they had a sale going for BOGO free chicken sandwich.  I wasn't even all that hungry when I got there, so I ordered a double cheeseburger meal and then two chicken sandwiches, thinking I would take those home and save them for later.  The guy at the register asked if I wanted it for here or to go, and without thinking I said, "For here."  I went and found a table to wait for my food.  And while I sitting there, I realized that all my food would come on a tray and not wrapped up neatly.  

Well, when my food came I pounded that double cheeseburger and both of those chicken sandwiches without even slowing down.  I kinda couldn't believe, although it makes sense.  I had been living on camping food and convenience store food for a solid week, all the while cycling 70 miles a day pulling an 80ish pound bike trailer.  

The next weekend I threw my bike in the back of The Sorento and picked up five of the checkpoints that I had missed.  What I did was drive to the checkpoint and then cycle from the checkpoint to the nearest spot on my previous cycle route, and then back.  So that way I can say that I legitimately cycled to each and every checkpoint.  

My friend Matt and I will pick up the final checkpoint on Aug 23.  Then I will send in my photos to get the Grand Illinois Trailblazer T-shirt from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.  So stay tuned...

The "Heavy-Duty-Industrial-Tote-Trip" to Shenandoah and New River Gorge

OK, so I first have to explain the name we gave to this trip.  And yes, it was *we*, not *me*, who named this trip thusly as the "heavy-duty-industrial-tote-trip."  We took a vote and everything!  So you see, we have two black plastic storage crates that we use when we go camping.  They fit perfectly in the back of the Sorento with some extra room to pack stuff, and they don't stick up so high in the back that they block my view out the rear window.  They're awesome!  Anyhow, one the first night while we were camping, I asked W to get something out of one of the crates.  And he replied, "You mean the heavy-duty industry tote?"  I laughed, and that was it.  For the rest of the trip, all three of us were actively finding ways to say "heavy-duty industrial tote" as many times as we could.  And as we were driving home, we all agreed that this trip would be properly named the "heavy-duty-industrial-tote-trip."

A "Heavy-Duty Industrial Tote"

For this trip I knew the first day would be our longest travel day, so we woke up early and were on the road before 7am.  Our first day of driving was relatively uneventful except that we drove through a LOT of heavy rain in Indiana and Ohio.  We drove all day, and I have to say––the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania reminded me very much of the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas…that is, sneaky beautiful landscape.  I was hoping to get to Shenandoah and to our campsite before dark so that we wouldn't have to set up our tent in the dark.  Well, it turned out that didn't happen.  We did, in fact, end up setting up our tent in the dark.  But it was worth it.  We ended up arriving in the park about an hour before sunset, and it was about 1.5 hour drive from the park entrance to our campground.  That means that we were driving along the famous Skyline Drive during the magic hour.  And it was breathtaking.  Not only because of the views, but also because the deer were out and about, playing and looking for food.  There was one particular moment that we couldn't photograph, but it was spectacular.  We were cresting a hill looking toward the setting sun, and right as we came up enough for the sun to be in our eyes, there was a deer standing in the middle of the road, perfectly silhouetted in jet black against the sun.  It was, literally, a picture-perfect Kodak moment––the kind that is captured on the film of your brain forever.

We had entered Shenandoah from the north entrance, and we knew we were going to exit south, so we camped at the Big Meadows Campground, which is in a very high meadow in nearly the exact center of the park.  We had an uneventful night and woke up on Thursday morning ready to explore.  We drove up Skyline Drive about five miles to Bearfence Mountain, where there is a short 1-mile hike over a rocky peak with a 360-degree view.  Now, climbing on rocks is one of my most favorite things ever, and it turns out that C has also caught that particular bug, too.  She later said that "rock scrambling" was her absolute most-favorite activity we have done at national parks thus far, and the entire rest of the trip she was always asking on any of our hikes, "Is there rock scrambling?"  Anyhow, we went over the top of Bearfence Mountain and then turned back to the parking lot via the Appalachian Trail (which parallels Skyline Drive through the entire length of the park).  We got back to the Sorento at about high noon.

Bouldering on Bearfence Mountain

We then drove back toward Big Meadows to do the hike down to Dark Hollow Falls, since that trail was mostly in the shade and it was getting hot.  Dark Hollows Falls is a cascading waterfall that's about 70 feet high.  It's not a spectacular waterfall by any means, but it was charmingly beautiful, almost "magical" quality but not quite.  There was just something about the way sun was shining through the green leaves and onto the rocks and the rushing water.  There were lots of people around the falls climbing on the rocks and playing in the water, so we didn't stay very long, but long enough C to do some bouldering around while I watched her and made sure she did not try to climb the rocks with moss on them!  The hike back to the parking lot was a steep 440+ foot ascent, and by this time we were all feeling a little tired.  We decided to go back to the campsite for a rest before we did our final planned hike for the day.

A sunny splash of Dark Hollow Falls

And then the clouds rolled in.  I say "rolled" in, but that makes it sound way too leisurely.  This happened *quickly*.  Literally, we were all sitting around the picnic table at our campsite deciding what to do when I looked up and said, "Hey guys, we might want to get in the car because I think it's going to rain."  And less than a minute later, it started raining.  And I mean, RAINING.  Raining so hard that I quickly took all of our bedding out of the tent and stuffed it in the back of the car, and in that time I was soaked.  Well, it's no fun just sitting in a car in the rain, so we decided to drive up and down Skyline Drive and just see what we could from the overlooks while we waited for the rain to stop.  And that was surprisingly beautiful, actually, because from the overlooks you could the cloudy mists rising from the valley and rolling over the mountain.  It was just extremely cool.  We drove around for a an hour or so, and it looked like the rain had stopped we drove back to the campsite.  We were there for about an hour and had started to make the fire to cook dinner when the rain started again, so we got back in the car again and drove the other direction on Skyline Drive to see what we could see.  By now it was dinner time, and we didn't know how long the rain would last, so we ate some of our canned food in the car while we were driving around.  And since we didn't know if we'd be able to make s'mores properly later, we ate graham crackers and chocolate and marshmallows in the car, too.  

Sunset over the Shenandoah Valley

I think it was about 7pm by the time the rain stopped for good and the sun came out again for a while.  But by this time there was not really any hope of making a good fire, even our wood was dry because I had also put it in the car.  We did manage to get a fire going enough to heat water to make hot cocoa, so that's what we did until it was time for bed.  We were all kinda tired anyway, so we went to sleep pretty early.

The next day, Friday, was a relatively short driving day going from Shenandoah to New River Gorge in West Virginia.  I let W &C sleep in while I cooked breakfast and broke camp.  I think it was about 10:30 by the time hit the road again, and we had a good 1.5 hours to drive just to get out of the park.  On the way south we stopped to hike the Blackrock Summit trail, which also follows the Appalachian Trail and skirts the peak.  The top of Blackrock Summit is all large, loose scree..so, of course, we scrambled up to the top!  The highest point on the summit is a jagged rock, and we all took turns balancing on one foot at the very highest point so that we could say we stood on top of Blackrock Summit!  We exited through the south entrance of Shenandoah at about 1:30pm or so, and started the 2.5 hour drive to New River Gorge.

We got to the Sandstone Visitor Center at New River Gorge just before it closed at 5pm, and it was a good thing, too!  New River Gorge National Park is not very developed, and we might have had a really hard time finding our campground if we hadn't talked to the ranger at the visitor center.  There are no camping reservations at New River Gorge.  All the campgrounds are free, but they are all first-come, first-served.  And the ranger figured that all the campsites in the middle of the park would be taken already, so he pointed us toward the closest campground to the southern end.  That turned out to be perfect for us, because it was in a big grassy meadows right along the banks of the New River.  I bet our tent was less than 50 feet away from the river.  I myself wasn't a big fan of the campground, because it was, quite literally, just a big piece of wide open grass with 17 drive-in tent campsites and 1 outhouse-style bathroom.  But W & C absolutely LOVED that campground, because there was lots of room to run around and throw the frisbee around without bothering (or even getting anywhere near) any of the other campsites.  However, we discovered that there was any running water at that campground, so we piled in the car and drove to the closest town to get a big 4-gallon bottle of water at the supermarket.  We had a leisurely evening around the fire and went to bed.

The next morning, Saturday, was the highlight of the trip: the Bridge Walk.  The centerpiece of New River Gorge National Park is the New River Gorge bridge, which is the third highest bridge in the United States with the road deck a full 876 feet above the New River.  Now, the Bridge Walk is a walking tour the full length of that bridge, but not along the road deck.  Oh, no, the Bridge Walk is a walking tour on the *maintenance catwalk* for the New River Gorge bridge, which means that you're walking below the road deck, at the bottom of the truss on which the road deck is built.  And for a good portion of that 3000 foot long bridge, the steel catwalk is the only thing between your feet and the river 851 feet below.  All of us on the tour were strapped in with a safety harness and everything, so I never felt in any actual danger.  But I was surprised at how unnerved I because once we were well out on the bridge and hundreds of feet above the gorge.  At one point near the middle of the bridge the tour guide allowed us to sit down and dangle our feet out over the side, and that also was surprisingly nerve-wracking.  I mean, the whole thing was was just incredibly intense.  But it was AMAZING experience, definitely in the category of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  W&C and I all put the Bridge Walk in the top three experiences that we've had in national parks thus far.  That bridge is just so incredibly huge, and it's just awesome and amazing to see it up close, both on the outside AND on the inside!

Our tour ended at about 1pm and it was very hot, so we decided to drive the old road down the gorge that the big bridge replaced.  That road––running down the gorge, across the old steel truss bridge close over the river, and then up the other side––is only about 8 miles long, but it took us a good 25 minutes to drive that distance.  It was very winding and surprisingly steep.  And it was really cool to be on the old steel truss bridge about 20 feet above the river and then look up at that really big bridge almost 1000 feet above, especially when just an hour before we had been way up there!  I have to say, the entire New River Gorge Bridge experience was just incredible.

After that we drove to the Grandview overlook, which was also very cool but not as majestic as the big bridge.  We hiked a short trail and climbed on some more rocks.  After that we drove to the Sandstone Falls, which is only about 20 feet tall but is about 1500 feet wide.  And kinda like Dark Hollow Falls at Shenandoah, I was surprised just at how beautiful it was, in its own way.  It certainly majestic, not at all.  But it was really beautiful in a way that I can't describe to do it justice.  I think it was something about the combination of everything together––the sound of water rushing over the rocks, the sight of sunlight shining through the falling water (even if only a few feet), the growth of green plants and reeds among the random pools of water made by the water––I don't know, but it was also really very cool to see.  We didn't stay very long there, because it was late in the day by that point.  But I was so very glad that we spent the extra time to go see it.

Sandstone Falls, on the New River

Coming back to the campground from Sandstone Falls took us through town, so we stopped at the supermarket again.  [This is now the 2nd year in a row that we have planned to cook hot dogs while camping and then totally forgotten all the condiments at home!]  Again we had a leisurely evening around the fire cooking hot dogs and s'mores and then went to bed.  For our final morning we made our traditional final breakfast of SPAM and honey on flour tortillas, then broke camp and left for home.  Along the way we passed through Charleston, West Virginia, and I was sad that we didn't have time to stop and explore the city at all.  It really is a beautiful city, nestled as it is in the Blue Ridge mountains.  Oh well, next time.

We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel outside Indianapolis, and I think it might become a new tradition for us!  As always, we counted US state license plates, and we got all 51 (including DC) except New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, and Hawaii.  I do believe this makes two summers in a row that we have seen an Alaska license plate, which was really cool!  The current plan is to hit Great Smoky Mountains and Congaree next summer.  Can't wait!