Ride Re-Cap 3/23/2013

We started a little later than usual - 10:30 AM from Panera in Wilmette. It was just above freezing, but sunny and with minimal wind. We had 6 riders show up - Heidi, Dave, Herb, Martin, Randy P. and I. Everybody seemed to be happy to be out on the road after a long winter with a lot of indoor miles. Martin was in a hurry to pick a family member from the airport, so he took of shortly after the start. Randy had a flat tire within a mile from the start and since he had things to do and was not planning to ride with the us for the whole ride, he told us not to wait for him. Heidi, Herb, Dave and I continued on the usual route to Lake Bluff via Skokie Valley Bike path. The path was mostly dry, with few places of remaining snow on the sides and very few wet areas. We were maintaining a decent pace for the first official ride of the spring. The wind slowly picked up, but was not a big factor. The underpass at the end of the path was kind of icy and we had to really slow down for a bit, but the rest was nice and dry. We made it to Bluffington's and had snacks. On the way back we took Robert McClory Trail to Fort Sheridan and then St. John to Green Bay. The ride back to Panera was even better with more sun and the wind from the side. We met Trish and Cliff Z. at Panera and spend some time with them. Cliff missed the ride for few minutes, but rode by himself to Ft. Sheridan.
Total distance ~37 miles, average speed 18.7 mph.
Let's hope for good weather and even more riders.

The Bicycle Parking in front of Bluffington's