After yesterday's beating I planned on taking it easy on today's ride. However with the sun coming up I was pretty energized. I started a little later this morning and as a result it was almost daylight when I headed out. Being able to look around was a nice change. My legs were still a little fatigued from biking into the wind yesterday. But the breeze was primarily at my back so I enjoyed a bit of a push. The temperature was in the high 20s but it wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before.
The Lakefront Trail was pretty much devoid of bike traffic this morning. The water was pretty choppy and sent waves crashing on the Lakefront Trail just south of Fullerton. At the Oak Street curve the water was washing all the way up to the Lakeshore Drive wall.
Biking along the future DuSable Park reminded me of the recent proposal by developers hoping to build the nearby spire/sky scraper. The developers hope to add a ramp off of lower Lakeshore Drive that would cut into the existing bike path which would kind of suck. But they also have plans for pedestrian bridges to the east that I guess would reroute bike traffic. A writer at the Chicago Tribune doubts the project will ever get off the ground so it might be a moot point.
At the intersection of Roosevelt and Paulina I had two near misses. A car turning left from oncoming traffic headed right toward me. I swerved away only to be nearly crunched by a car turning from the right. I felt like a character in a video game. I had the right of way in both cases so I think the drivers just didn't see me in the glare of the morning sun. The driver of the second vehicle was a lady that works on my floor in my building. When I got to work she got off the parking garage elevator just as I walked into the lobby. She didn't see me though; that would have been really awkward.
Distance Traveled: 24.3 miles
Distance to date: 2359.7 miles
Price of gas: $2.81
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2 comments:
Yikes! I've lived in Chicago (Rogers Park) and Evanston, but I was on a biking hiatus at the time. You must have a lot of near-misses like that ... it can be scary driving in Chicago, let alone biking. I can only imagine how much of a pain the wind must be, too.
I live in Bloomington, IN now, and we don't have a lot of wind here, except the past couple of days have been pretty windy. Wind bothers me a lot more than cold (of course they tend to come together), so riding in Chicago doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
Still, I'm sure it does beat driving, as you say.
I don't have as many near misses as most would think. I've biked this route for about six months and figured out which intersections to be on guard. But there are always surprises.
Biking in Chicago IS fun. Despite the crummy weather I look forward to my rides. It is about the only adventure available to a suburban middle aged father of two.
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