"trail"

A few posts back I put up a photograph of what the locals in Tardree consider to be a good trail. Downhill on a 30% gradient, barely wide enough between the trees to fit your handlebars, and since that's not enough of a challenge, they added dropoffs and jumps to make it more interesting.

After work today I used the Chicago Bike Trails website to find a trail and keep up my training. I know the cliche says they do everything bigger and better over here, so I was hoping there'd be something within my skill level.

When I got to the start of the trail I remembered some of the other cliches about the US of A.

There's the story about an American who visited Belfast, couldn't find the Highway, so he had to drive down some back street called the M2;

And there's the Texan who took three days to drive across his ranch in his car. (I had a car like that once).

This bike trail was wider and better surfaced than most of the main roads round where I live. It was also unbelievably flat. Where I'm staying is on the Great Lakes Plain, so the whole area is flatter than a flat-footed flat-cap wearing flat bloke with a flat tyre in a block of flats. It's flat. No hills.

It was a pleasant ride though. lots of trees and squirrels and deer, sunshine filtered through the leaves and not a soul out but me.