Starved Rock II: The Lost Monoliths of Utica

Topic Today: Bike touring

[DISCLAIMER: I originally wrote this blog entry to go along with a bunch of pictures I took. Unfortunately, the picture upload on Blogger.com isn't working for me. My apologies. I'll have pictures next time.]


So here is my long awaited missive about my second trip on the I&M Canal from Joliet to Utica. Clare and I took this trip about a month ago now, so I apologize for the delay.

Anyway, our story actually starts a few days before the trip itself. Clare had been having trouble with her rear wheel's freewheel. Sometimes, when she's be starting up after a stop, the freewheel would not engage and as much as she'd peddle, she'd go nowhere. Usually, it would engage after a minute of spinning her peddles furiously. This obviously caused some concern since we were about to embark on a 100+ mile bike ride. She took it in to our local bike shop and was told not to worry about it. She was told she'd have to replace it eventually, but we'd be all right for the trip.

Fine. No worries there.

Fast forward to the night before the trip. On my way back from dropping my son off at his mother's, I rode over a bump and heard an ominous *PING* come from my rear wheel. Yes, yet another broken spoke (I've been breaking spokes a lot lately, I too need a new rear wheel). At this point, all the bike stores were closed and we were planning on taking the early train to Joliet. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools to replace my spoke or any spare spokes for that matter. I basically took a spoke wrench an adjusted the adjacent spokes to compensate for the missing spoke. Not ideal, but hey, at least I could ride on it.

The morning of June 2, we rode to the Metra station to catch the early train going to Joliet. Our plan was to be on the trail by 10AM so we could take our time while on the trail. We grabbed a coffee in the Joliet train station coffee shop and took a bathroom break. That's when I witnessed an ominous sight.

[OK, more on the ominous sight later, I took a picture, which I can't upload at the moment]

So we hit the road. The I&M Canal trail starts about one mile from the train station. Most of the one mile is up steep hills. Well, not exactly steep, but we live in the mostly flat Chicago, we don't see hills much. Anyway, I was in the front huffing and puffing up a hill, and when I turned to look over at Clare, she's not there. She's about two blocks behind me spinning madly and going nowhere. That's right, the damn freewheel decided to give out for good.

After cursing our lackadaisical bike mechanic, we got on our cell phones and tracked down the only bike shop in Joliet. I called and got directions(luckily they were open early). The directions ended up being a little off and we probably walked a good mile out of our way. All told, I think we walked about three miles to this shop after asking directions from about a half dozen people.

We finally found the shop which turned out to be probably one of the most unhelpful shops ever. We walked in and explained how we were about to embark on a long ride and need an emergency replacement and the conversation went a little like this:

Bike Shop Guy:"We're really backed up on repairs, so it will be a while before our mechanic can look at it."

Me:"How long do you think?"

BSG:"I don't know. Do you guys have some errands to run?"

Me:"No, we're about to take a 60 mile ride to Starved Rock and would like to get on the road, the sooner the better. Is it possible to get an estimate?"

BSG:"I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my guy if he thinks he can fix it. Also, I don't know if I have the parts."

Me:"No, we just want to replace the whole wheel."

BSG:"I don't know if we can do that. Let me talk to the mechanic."(walks away... comes back) "Yeah, the mechanic says he doesn't think he can overhaul your freewheel today."

Me:"OK, but if we buy a NEW wheel, could he change out the gear cassette from the old wheel to the new wheel?"

BSG:"You want to buy a new wheel."

Me:"Yes, a new wheel."

BSG:"I don't think I have a matching set like that."

Me:"That's fine. We just want the rear one."

BSG:"actually, we don't have any road wheels."

I'm not sure if I doing it justice. I just know we spent a lot of time explaining that we just needed a new rear wheel, which he didn't seem to understand. He finally just kinda stood there and shrugged his shoulders at us. We asked since he didn't have any road wheels, could he tell us where we could get one? After much discussion with the other bike store guys, they let us know that in fact there was a good store with lots of road bikes nine miles away in Plainfield.

This time I called the shop (called American Bicycles if I remember) and asked specifically about road wheels. Yes, they had one left.

At this point we had to face a decision. Should we get back on the train, head back to Chicago, get a new wheel early, and cut out three day trip to a two day trip. Or, should I strap the wheel to my back and peddle off to Plainfield and just get on the road late?

Let me say at this point the last time we rode the I&M trail was back in September of 2004. On that trip, it became and has remained my favorite trail. We planned to do the trail in 2005, but we cancelled it due to obligations relating to our condo purchase.

I was not going to cancel it again, so I strapped that broken wheel to my back and got on the road. The trip was serene at some points and very scary at scary at others. About half the roads I took were through farmland and subdivisions, but others were narrow, truck filled, pot-holed, narrow, and surrounded by strip malls. The people at American Bicycle were very helpful and I was back on the road in no time. The whole trip took about 2 hours all told. Clare, unfortunately, had to sit in Burger King for those 2 hours enduring stares for the workers and customers alike. I guess it's usually old people who sit alone in Burger King for hours.

Finally, we got on the road at 2:30PM and busted ass out to Starved Rock. More on that as our story continues... [Hopefully, with pictures...]