GITAP (Grand Illinois Trail And Parks) 2003

June 15 - 21

I've ridden on quite a few multi-day, supported tours over the years, enough to develop a set of preferences. I like:

loop tours rather than having different beginning and ending points, because it makes it easier - no hassling with getting either myself or my bike to or from the start or finish - cheaper, too, since the transportation usually involves an additional fee.
camping in state parks instead of fairgrounds. The facilities are designed for the activity, so you can expect adequate toilet facilities, camping space, and it's bound to be more scenic.
small-ish number of riders. When you share the road and the campgrounds with thousands of your best friends, it can become a logistical pain. I do not like having to stand in line for anything, much less everything. Less than 1,000 riders is great, and less than 500 is even better.
catered meals. I like having at least breakfast in the campground, so I don't have to wonder about how far I'll have to ride before finding a place to eat. Having dinner there as well is a bonus.
rides that I can get to in one day of driving, if necessary. That cuts down on the gasoline, food and motel expenses.
cheap. If a ride costs more than $300, it had better be offering something pretty spectacular. And if it's under $300 and still provides those two meals per day, I'm interested.

The organizers of GITAP must have read my list - this ride met and surpassed each of my criteria.

The ride started just southwest of Chicago in Oswego, Illinois. As you can probably deduce from the name, it involved trails and parks, especially the Grand Illinois Trail. These trails are, for the most part, alongside the surprisingly well-preserved remnants of the canal system of Illinois, along with the familiar rail-trails. Many of the trails are "new", and the gravel surfaces of some need more time to "sink in", more flattening. I'm sure that by this time next year, what was a loose, noisy surface in many places will be much better.

On most of the days we had the option of riding almost the whole route on either trails or roads, and I opted for a mixture of the two. I have found that riding a recumbent trike on gravel, especially with a fairing, can be an almost deafening experience! Plus, the added rolling resistance of a third tire made for some slow riding on gravel.

Our first day ended at Starved Rock State Park. The mileages for each day can be a variable amount, depending on just what mixture of trails and roads you decided to travel. This first day was listed at 67 miles, and gave us our first opportunity to ride alongside one of the canals. We had our dinner and breakfast at the Starved Rock Lodge.
Day Two was 76 miles, and we camped on the grounds of the Geneseo High School. I was apprehensive about this. After all, school grounds are usually just a step or two above fair grounds, right? In this case, though, the lack of natural scenery and abundant shade trees was made up for by some of the best showers and toilet facilities of the tour (it's funny how such things become so important to a touring/camping bicyclist).
Morrison-Rookwood State Park was our next destination, 70 miles away. Before we got there, we got a chance to ride some trails alongside the Mississippi River, visit a huge windmill, and rediscover the joys of trails that were actually paved and not gravel! Again, I'm sure that my auditory experiences with the gravel was the result of my choice of what I rode, and the gravel in those "loud" areas will be much better next year.
White Pine was the next destination, only 58 miles away. One of the more interesting events happened just before getting there. We had stopped in the small town of Milledgeville, and after drinking a Pepsi or two, I was looking for a place to get rid of some of it. There's usually a line at the gas station or convenience store where you bought it, so I went looking for somewhere else. Libraries are good places for this, plus for those of us who need our internet fix, you stand a good chance of getting online. I didn't find a library, but I did find the local bank. My friend Ken Kramer and I asked if we could use their facilities, and they said it would be OK. While waiting on Ken, I had a conversation with some of the employees about bicycles, recumbents in general, and recumbent trikes in particular (yes, I'm one of those recumbent evangelists, but I'm not pushy about it). They were intrigued, and the result was that Ken and I rode our bikes through their drive-through. I wish I had taken pictures of the people all leaning up against the glass smiling and staring, and then coming out for a closer look. This little visit made my day.
Rock Cut State Park was next, at 54 miles. Here's a good point to mention my one semi-major complaint: I really like having a "low mileage" day as the last day. Having a couple or so in the middle of the week is OK, but we wound up with an actual-mileage day of almost 75 miles on the final day, which leads to either an awfully late arrival at home, or another night in a motel. I realize that logistically it's sometimes difficult to get things routed just the way I like them, but I have to find fault somewhere, don't I?
Chain-O-Lakes State Park was at the end of 62 miles, our last night of the tour. Actually, I believe it was closer to 70 miles, what with the mixture of trails and roads, plus the several miles from the park entrance to the campground. But I'm not complaining: this park was well worth the ride. Many of the routes and parks were put down on my I've-gotta-come-back-here list, and this was one of them
The final day was one that really made me make plans for returning to Illinois. If any state wants to see what can be done with a river and quaint old towns, they should take a look at the Fox River as it winds its way down to Oswego. Antique shops, restaurants, paved and shady trails - this day was reason enough to do the whole ride. Two things stand out in my memory about that day. The first was not so good, but could have been worse: on a steep section of trail, I suddenly found myself still pedaling, but the trike stopped going forward. I thought, oh great, a ruined freewheel. As it turns out, as my friend Ken Kramer diagnosed, it was just that I had pulled loose the axle bolt, and a simple tightening saved the day. The SAG driver, Amy Madigan, was all prepared to transport me and my mortally-wounded trike back to the start, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The other thing I remember about that day was stopping in an air-conditioned gambling casino. There's nothing a sweaty bicyclist likes more than an air-conditioned rest room! What was especially memorable about this one was the motion-activated hand towel machine. (I know, it's a geek thing.)

So how did I like the inaugural GITAP? I thought it was great. The organizers could have been excused had things not worked out in a few instances, since it was the first ride, but other than a few times when the food started to run a little low - no one went hungry, but you couldn't go back for seconds; toss in my minor quibble about the length of the last day's route, and you have a ride that I hope they hold again and again - I will be back.

And now for some pictures. As usual, double-click to see a larger image.

Here we have a view of one of the bike paths alongside a canal. This was on the first day of the ride.

Trail by canal

This is a mural in the town of Milledgeville, where I had the happy encounter with the bank employees.

Milledgeville

They take their religion seriously in Illinois

George Bush Church of the Preemptive Strike

I prefer the energy source in the foreground

Energy production

Here's what everyone tends to do: look at the cue sheets and watch the weather reports. This is Randy and Laura, a tandem couple.

Randy and Laura

I hadn't expected to see a bear in Illinois!

Bear

Nor an elephant! There were several here, all being trained for circus work. I could swear that I heard this one say "Pull my hoof"

elephant

A group of recumbent (and one upright; we don't discriminate) riders from the Chicago area.

Chicago riders

This is a view of a section of the Fox River Trail. In Geneva, if I remember correctly. (And I didn't - as fellow GITAPer Peter Turula has pointed out to me, it's Elgin. They say that memory is the second thing to go... )The gambling casino is just ahead and on the left.

Fox River

There were some hills on the route, but nothing too severe.

Climbing

Here are some of the people responsible for this ride.

Give them a hand

And the ringleader himself, Chuck Oestreich.

Chuck Oestreich

And was I happy with the ride? What do you think?