Palos Single Track

I've been logging hours out in the Palos Forest Preserve Mountain Bike trail network lately.  I try to get to the Bullfrog Lake trail head by noon on Saturdays but the traffic getting out there is brutal.  I've even tried to go north take the tri-state toll way south to get there.  Any way I try it takes me 1.5 hours to get there.  I made a quick little video of the last time out there.  Now that I know what trails film better I'll try to spice the vids up with some jumps and technical moves.  Any how here it is I hope you dig it.

The Huffy

You have all seen it. That Huffy mountain bike with full suspension. I would gather that if you look out your front door every kid is out riding one on a nice day. Well I once had one too. Back in the summer of 2004 I was back in the Midwest after working in the mountains for the winter. I was looking for an activity to keep my lifestyle active. My friend Vincent's older brother had given him a nice mountain bike. Any sport with the word mountain in it was gonna do it for me. I had picked up a seasonal job taking tourist photography while also working freelance for production companies. The thing with freelance gigs is that you don't get paid right away. So picture working on a summer job wage and you have an idea as to what my disposable income was like. I had already borrowed my brother's mountain bike that could only be classified as mountain due to its knobby tires. To my brother's disappointment I immediately sheared off a pedal. The next week rolled around and Vincent along with his brother's crew were going back to the forest preserve for the best single track that Cook County had to offer, which mind you is not very arduous. Like a kid whose mom won't let him go out to play, I watched as everyone loaded up their bikes to the racks on their SUV's. Feeling pretty down I pulled out my childhood bike and took a pedal around the subdivision and passed the creek. Growing up you if you needed building supplies for your fort you went to the creek, you could find anything in the creek and after years of living away from home not much had changed, it was still a dumping ground. Cruising by I saw a knobby tire poking out of the silt. As I walked down I saw a pedal too and began digging. To my surprise out came an entire bicycle. The Huffy Vormax appeared like a rusty Lazarus from the dead. I spent the afternoon oiling and scrubbing and pumping up the tires like an A-Team montage, the next week I would ride out with everyone else. Saturday came and it was a perfect day for riding. We met at the trail head and the brands of bikes listed like that of an A-list party. Any one of these bikes would take me months to afford. Dubbed "The Creek Bike" I pulled the Huffy off the bike rack and the car's suspension visibly rose. We shared a good chuckle and hit the trail. I spent the rest of that summer exploring every tucked away single track trail that rumored to be. I raced out of work so I could get in a ten mile loop before the sun went down. I rode that bike until the rear hub exploded. I still ride with the same enthusiasm however my bike is a bit of an upgrade these days I owe a lot to that little bike.

Trail Riding Frenzy, Aug 10

Nice Flowy Singletrack.

The trail runners were pulled off the storage hooks yet once again on Sunday. Its funny, my reintroduction to the bicycle as an adult came in the form of mountain biking yet I participate in this of the two wheeled activities the least these days. There is a lot of work that goes into trail riding. Getting to a trail for one requires getting out of the concrete jungle and into the 'burbs. Cook and Will County have a fairly large network of forest preserves that cater to nature hikes and horse trails. There are also some rider maintained single track in the south suburbs with an official network in the Palos Hills Forest area. It is also a social activity (at least it is with the crew I ride with) so getting everyone to the trail can really be the toughest part. Now that wedding season has died down and the major city fests are out of the way, time is ripe to enjoy what lies outside of the city limits. Within a 45min drive lies Sweetwoods trail network in Glenwood, Il and the Pulaski Woods network in Palos Hills, Il. These pics are from Sweetwoods and I consider this trail to be my local XC trail.

Sweet Woods Climb.