Was it the Tour De France?, Tour Down Under? , or the California Tour? NO!!!! it was the Tour Da Canal !!!!!! , what really happened was, 3 hammock forum members, Gallo, OMS, and myself got together for a weekend of doing a few of the things they love to do, ride bikes, and go hammock camping. Starting at Channahon State Park in Illinois, we paid our permit fee, the ranger charged us 6 dollars for the 3 of us for a night, set out to do an unsupported bike ride along the towpath trail for the canal that at one time was used by barges pulled by mule teams that helped transform an early Chicago into a giant economic shipping center for the Midwest. We rode to the campsite that has been the destination of several hammock hangs already and had lunch there. ( I reminisced about my unscheduled swim during the last hang) , past the Dresden Nuke plant , and to the Au Sable lock and aquaduct . We checked out the campsite that was there and decided that it would probably be great for tent camping , but it wasn't a great place to hang 3 hammocks so we rode back to the first campsite, selected our hang sites and set up camp. After the ritual of checking each others gear set ups and asking and answering questions and telling stories about the personal service we got while working with our cottage vendors on getting our gear, (99.9% of it was very positive) , we did what all hammock folks like to do, we took naps, and they was a tad longer then we all expected they were gonna be lol. We then gathered firewood, made dinner, ate (somehow food always tastes better outdoors), and continued to tell stories on where we have been , where we want to go, tellin jokes and laughing. It started to rain, but the canopy of trees made a shelter kinda sorta so we had our fire and just jabbered the night away. It started raining somewhat harder at around 10 P.M. so we all decided to turn in for the night. it rained till about 3 AM, got cooler out but everyone stayed high and dry all night. Gallo was on racoon watch making sure none of the local raccoons got outa line, thanks Gallo . In the morning we got up , made breakfast , broke down camp and rode back to the trailhead, we covered roughly 25 miles on our bikes for the weekend.
So it wasn't the Tour De France or the Linville Gorge, but what it was is a place less then an hours ride for our homes, a resource that is very lightly used , and its a great place to run away to for a self imposed time out, even for just a night to break up life's busy schedule between work and family, thats what makes it so cool to me.
Thanks Gallo and OMS, it was great meeting you guys, hope to do it again sometime soon.
Markglist And the adventure continues.......
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