One more ride
Yesterday we finished our riding time where we had meant to begin it: Indiana Dunes National Lakefront. We are staying in La Porte, Indiana, largely because we found a Holiday Inn Express & Suites here, and the other two we have stayed in on this trip have been especially comfortable. The beds are great, the rooms have plenty of space for bikes, they have good wifi, guest laundry. So here we are. But we didn't really do a whole lot of measuring. We are about 24 miles from the middle of Indiana Dunes.
No problem. We could just ride over and wander around until we felt like coming back. So that's what we did. It was a pretty nice ride over. We have figured out that Google is a bit unreliable at choosing bike routes. At best, they are utilitarian; at worst, impossible. But we are now in an area with plenty of cyclists, plenty of routes added to Ride With GPS, so we took Google's ideas and modified them. More or less threw them out, really, and adapted RWGPS to our exact location, and off we went.
I am really liking Indiana. Things are well cared for here. Most of the roads - with one brief but notorious exception yesterday morning - are very well paved. Drivers are polite. Farms are tidy and healthy looking, and abundant. So we liked our route quite a bit. There was one surprise: a section of one of the major segments was closed for road construction, but we rode up to it to take our chances ad discovered it was actually pretty easy to walk through it. It was maybe .2 miles and had lawns on the side most of the way. It also had a public library that was open, and people had somehow reached that.
After that, well, we had our first and only dog encounter for the whole trip. Oh, there have been a couple that half-heartedly ran out to bark, but they didn't look fierce, and didn't get very close. This one looked fairly serious. Its owner was standing in his yard yelling at it to come back (why was he not running after it???); the dog kept going. So did Bruce. I like to stop so the dog has nothing to chase. This one stopped for a moment, clearly baffled by his quarry's apparent sangfroid, but soon began to bark and snarl again. I pointed at it and told it sternly to GO HOME. And it did. So dogs have not been a problem this trip.
Once we reached the park we began to guess which way would be best to ride. We ended up stopping at the very first parking lot - trail up Mt. Baldy. Mt. Baldy is...a dune, and it has a short trail that takes you around the side of it until you can look back at the water side of the dune - which is more grassy and less tree covered than the inland slope. And there we were, on Lake Michigan! It brought back a lot of memories of our cross country ride along the south shore of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. It is still hard for me to believe it is just a lake!
There was also a map of the park in that lot, so we stood and read it for a while. There's a bike trail that runs for several miles through the middle of it - the park is a long, narrow strand of land along the shore of the lake - and a variety of minor roads that cross it, and one major road that runs alongside the bike trail. We started with the lake shore road, one of the minor roads, which runs for a couple of miles right along the lake. It's actually in a town called Beverly, so there are houses on the inland side of the road, and an occasional house right on the water. I guess my 43 years at D&H are still affecting me. I kept thinking about flood insurance.
Towards the end of that stretch we ran into a series of signs talking about "A Century of Progress." There was a world's fair in Chicago in 1933 with a theme of houses built to be mass producible and accessible to the average family (in other words, not too expensive). Five of the houses from the fair had been bought over by a developer who wanted to launch the town of Beverly, so he dismantled them and and moved them to the lake shore. Four had been brought over on barges; the fifth was too heavy and so was moved by land vehicles. All five are right there, privately owned, but with signs talking about them out in front. Not sure I'd like people to be gawking at my house all the time, but I enjoyed being one of the gawkers. They were all quite different. One was an old looking dark wood house created by a company that promoted building with cedar; one was pink, made and entered by the state of Florida to show how to bring the outdoors inside, and indoors out. It was on the water side. One was a multi-sided building - I forgot to count, but probably a hexagon. One was actually built to the specifications required - reproducible and cheap, although it does not look cheap now. The final one just looked like a fancy house. It had been built of a new composite stone that was expected to last forever. It didn't, but the house has been updated with a similar looking and far more durable material.
Then we rode up towards the bike path, took one look and decided the roads would be just fine, thanks. The trail was rough gravel, and seemed to have suffered a bit from all the rain this part of the country endured last winter & spring. Bruce wanted to go to the visitor's center, so we figured out a round-about way to get to it. It was on the corner of two busy streets at the inland edge of the park. However, we made it with no particular problem, took a look around, got some advice and a marked-up map from the woman in the gift shop, decided her recommendations were too far away for that day's ride (we are definitely being limited by the shorter daylight hours), and settled in to find our route home. We had moved farther west than our original plan, so we made a couple of guesses and got lucky. We found one particular scenic road that went along parallel to the railroad tacks and one of the big, busy roads for a while, then turned inland further, and took us for quite a few miles through very pretty countryside. Leaves are turning colors, and there were nice looking houses from time to time. Then we found ourselves on an actual bike route, then, eventually, on our planned route back. 51 miles, a very successful day.
The weather prediction for today was slightly warmer, fairly sunny, so we thought we would take advantage of the rental car and head back to see the high points the lady had suggested. No hurry, since we had the car. La Porte has several smallish lakes, so I decided to go out and ride around to see what birds they could show me. I spent a couple of hours fairly early, saw plenty of fun stuff, and tried to persuade myself that it was not really getting steadily gloomier and cooler. I failed to convince myself though. By the time we got back to Indiana Dunes, it was pretty beak. Not really cold, just low 50s with a medium breeze to add to the feeling, and clouds that were closing in so fast we really didn't feel too sure the rain predicted for tomorrow would hold off. But we took a walk along a lake, and then over some large dunes. Then we were through. I persuaded Bruce that we could use our afternoon driving to an ice cream place in South Bend.
South Bend is the home of Notre Dame University, and Bruce really likes to visit colleges, so off we went. More fall colors, more scenery, and a bit of a long drive for an ice cream. We drove around the campus once I was filled up with my favorite food. I actually didn't find it appealing. It is a bit stark - collegiate gothic, yes - but the corners are a bit too square, and the buildings a bit too scrubbed looking (no ivy anywhere) for my taste - besides being of bricks of colors ranging from yellowish to light brown. But the hardest thing was there was almost no one around. It felt almost spooky it was so deserted. This was a Sunday afternoon at about 2:30, so even college kids should have been awake. AND the weather had cleared. It was sunny and about 10 degrees warmer than the morning. A perfect fall day to be outside. So where were they all? I don't know. I just know I have never before seen such a deserted looking residential college.
Tomorrow we head to Chicago where I ship my bike home and Bruce dismantles his to carry home. Tuesday morning we fly home.
It's been a good trip. I really like having time to take a closer look at the places we ride. This is a great part of the country.
No problem. We could just ride over and wander around until we felt like coming back. So that's what we did. It was a pretty nice ride over. We have figured out that Google is a bit unreliable at choosing bike routes. At best, they are utilitarian; at worst, impossible. But we are now in an area with plenty of cyclists, plenty of routes added to Ride With GPS, so we took Google's ideas and modified them. More or less threw them out, really, and adapted RWGPS to our exact location, and off we went.
I am really liking Indiana. Things are well cared for here. Most of the roads - with one brief but notorious exception yesterday morning - are very well paved. Drivers are polite. Farms are tidy and healthy looking, and abundant. So we liked our route quite a bit. There was one surprise: a section of one of the major segments was closed for road construction, but we rode up to it to take our chances ad discovered it was actually pretty easy to walk through it. It was maybe .2 miles and had lawns on the side most of the way. It also had a public library that was open, and people had somehow reached that.
After that, well, we had our first and only dog encounter for the whole trip. Oh, there have been a couple that half-heartedly ran out to bark, but they didn't look fierce, and didn't get very close. This one looked fairly serious. Its owner was standing in his yard yelling at it to come back (why was he not running after it???); the dog kept going. So did Bruce. I like to stop so the dog has nothing to chase. This one stopped for a moment, clearly baffled by his quarry's apparent sangfroid, but soon began to bark and snarl again. I pointed at it and told it sternly to GO HOME. And it did. So dogs have not been a problem this trip.
Once we reached the park we began to guess which way would be best to ride. We ended up stopping at the very first parking lot - trail up Mt. Baldy. Mt. Baldy is...a dune, and it has a short trail that takes you around the side of it until you can look back at the water side of the dune - which is more grassy and less tree covered than the inland slope. And there we were, on Lake Michigan! It brought back a lot of memories of our cross country ride along the south shore of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. It is still hard for me to believe it is just a lake!
There was also a map of the park in that lot, so we stood and read it for a while. There's a bike trail that runs for several miles through the middle of it - the park is a long, narrow strand of land along the shore of the lake - and a variety of minor roads that cross it, and one major road that runs alongside the bike trail. We started with the lake shore road, one of the minor roads, which runs for a couple of miles right along the lake. It's actually in a town called Beverly, so there are houses on the inland side of the road, and an occasional house right on the water. I guess my 43 years at D&H are still affecting me. I kept thinking about flood insurance.
Towards the end of that stretch we ran into a series of signs talking about "A Century of Progress." There was a world's fair in Chicago in 1933 with a theme of houses built to be mass producible and accessible to the average family (in other words, not too expensive). Five of the houses from the fair had been bought over by a developer who wanted to launch the town of Beverly, so he dismantled them and and moved them to the lake shore. Four had been brought over on barges; the fifth was too heavy and so was moved by land vehicles. All five are right there, privately owned, but with signs talking about them out in front. Not sure I'd like people to be gawking at my house all the time, but I enjoyed being one of the gawkers. They were all quite different. One was an old looking dark wood house created by a company that promoted building with cedar; one was pink, made and entered by the state of Florida to show how to bring the outdoors inside, and indoors out. It was on the water side. One was a multi-sided building - I forgot to count, but probably a hexagon. One was actually built to the specifications required - reproducible and cheap, although it does not look cheap now. The final one just looked like a fancy house. It had been built of a new composite stone that was expected to last forever. It didn't, but the house has been updated with a similar looking and far more durable material.
Then we rode up towards the bike path, took one look and decided the roads would be just fine, thanks. The trail was rough gravel, and seemed to have suffered a bit from all the rain this part of the country endured last winter & spring. Bruce wanted to go to the visitor's center, so we figured out a round-about way to get to it. It was on the corner of two busy streets at the inland edge of the park. However, we made it with no particular problem, took a look around, got some advice and a marked-up map from the woman in the gift shop, decided her recommendations were too far away for that day's ride (we are definitely being limited by the shorter daylight hours), and settled in to find our route home. We had moved farther west than our original plan, so we made a couple of guesses and got lucky. We found one particular scenic road that went along parallel to the railroad tacks and one of the big, busy roads for a while, then turned inland further, and took us for quite a few miles through very pretty countryside. Leaves are turning colors, and there were nice looking houses from time to time. Then we found ourselves on an actual bike route, then, eventually, on our planned route back. 51 miles, a very successful day.
The weather prediction for today was slightly warmer, fairly sunny, so we thought we would take advantage of the rental car and head back to see the high points the lady had suggested. No hurry, since we had the car. La Porte has several smallish lakes, so I decided to go out and ride around to see what birds they could show me. I spent a couple of hours fairly early, saw plenty of fun stuff, and tried to persuade myself that it was not really getting steadily gloomier and cooler. I failed to convince myself though. By the time we got back to Indiana Dunes, it was pretty beak. Not really cold, just low 50s with a medium breeze to add to the feeling, and clouds that were closing in so fast we really didn't feel too sure the rain predicted for tomorrow would hold off. But we took a walk along a lake, and then over some large dunes. Then we were through. I persuaded Bruce that we could use our afternoon driving to an ice cream place in South Bend.
South Bend is the home of Notre Dame University, and Bruce really likes to visit colleges, so off we went. More fall colors, more scenery, and a bit of a long drive for an ice cream. We drove around the campus once I was filled up with my favorite food. I actually didn't find it appealing. It is a bit stark - collegiate gothic, yes - but the corners are a bit too square, and the buildings a bit too scrubbed looking (no ivy anywhere) for my taste - besides being of bricks of colors ranging from yellowish to light brown. But the hardest thing was there was almost no one around. It felt almost spooky it was so deserted. This was a Sunday afternoon at about 2:30, so even college kids should have been awake. AND the weather had cleared. It was sunny and about 10 degrees warmer than the morning. A perfect fall day to be outside. So where were they all? I don't know. I just know I have never before seen such a deserted looking residential college.
Tomorrow we head to Chicago where I ship my bike home and Bruce dismantles his to carry home. Tuesday morning we fly home.
It's been a good trip. I really like having time to take a closer look at the places we ride. This is a great part of the country.
Bruce's comment: Walking around Indiana Dunes was a treat for learning new plants. There were a handful of prominent ones, and iNaturalist supplied ideas that got me to naming most of them. I particularly liked looking at several sumacs, bright red, and figuring out Jack Pine in a valley just inland from the dunes. I saw bearberry growing in the sand, quite different from where I find them in California. We met a botany class taking measurements of the acid level in the sand and correlating that to plants - fun for me to see.
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