I was feeling ambitious this morning, so at 7:00 I was on the North Branch Trail. I picked it up just south of Touhy Avenue (location "I" on the map), and went all the way north to the Botanic Gardens (location "A"). I actually tried to get over to the gas station at Lake-Cook and Skokie Highway for a refreshment, but traffic was deadly so I gave up.
My entire ride, from start at my car to finish at my car, was 35 miles. I did the whole thing in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Not too shabby if I say so myself.
This was the first paved trail I ever rode, and that was many years ago. An interesting (well, to me) thing about this ride is that since I lived in that area for a while, the soundtrack playing in my head as I ride always falls to songs from the mid to late 1980s. At one point, I was pushing my cadence to Siouxsie and the Banshees' version of Kraftwerk's "Hall of Mirrors" from their Through The Looking Glass album.
It also gave me a couple of musical ideas for the "Dude, I Forgot About That!" category. (Later this week, I promise.)
The other significant thing about the trail was the fact that parts of it looked like they were covered with snow, despite the 80-degree temperature. The cottonwood trees are shedding like mad, and inhaling these things while zipping along at 20 MPH can be hazardous.
Two weeks to the MS150.