Summer is finally here, sort of...Chicago has been unusually cool and rainy. Luckily I caught one of the few days in which the weather was decent to do a little riding at Moraine Hills State Park. The park is located in McHenry, IL about a 1 hr cruise northwest of Chicago.
Unlike most state parks, there is no camping here. There are however, several miles of scenic, hilly bike trails. There is a nice mix of open prairie and oak woodlands. You can also picnic or throw a line in at Lake Defiance. There is a concession stand there for worms and things. Also, a little further down the road you can ride or drive your vehicle to fish at McHenry Dam along the Fox River. Although, I'm not sure if I'd want to eat anything that came out of the Fox River anymore, but...maybe I'm just fussy :-).
There are people (mainly from Wisconsin) that call Chicagoans "flatlanders". Yes, because Wisconsin is so mountainous (ha ha)...Well the reason most of Illinois is flat and Chicago is only about 579 feet above sea level is glaciation. To put it simply, about 10,000 years ago, the last of the glaciers receded from this area. They literally carved and flattened the landscape leaving behind deposits of boulders, rock, and gravel as they receded. These deposits are called moraines and kames. That is how we have this wonderfully hilly area in an otherwise "flat as a board" landscape.
