Lake Michigan 2023 – Day 35: Comfort Inn, Hobart, IN

The Chicago skyline.

• Thursday, September 7, 2023
• Hobart, IN
• Lodging: Comfort Inn
• Miles: 50.4 @ 10.9 mph
• Total  Miles: 1,252.3
• Vertical (from Strava): 524′
• Start: 9:01am. 67°, overcast.
• End: 4:46pm. 70°, overcast.
• Elapsed time: 7:45 (includes lunch and much dawdling)

Before talking about today, the penultimate day of this ride (long time readers of my stuff know I love that word), here are a few words about yesterday, my day off in Chicago.

It was a good day off! I resolved a major problem with a prescription refill, went to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play, and had a nice 5-mile long walk across Chicago, from Wrigley Field back to Shaina’s house.

The Cubs beat the Giants, 8 to 2

Today was a really great day! I got an early start from Shaina and Sebastian’s house, starting to ride at about 9:00am, having had reheated deep dish pizza for breakfast. That was a treat!

I had created a route using RideWithGPS, which I reviewed with Sebastian and Shaina. He made some alternate suggestions, which in the actuality worked out really well. It was about 2.5 miles from their house to the lakeside bike path. It was easy and not at all scary.

I was on the Lakefront bike path for 14 fascinating miles, including a side loop around the Navy Pier. The wind was howling, and the waves were crashing! It was all very exciting!

Out near the end of the Navy Pier. Notice the flags standing straight in the background.

The Chicago skyline looking north.

The Chicago skyline from further south.

Then there were a few miles navigating over surface roads, again, not scary. Most of them had painted bike lanes.

After that, it was almost all bike paths the rest of the way. There was a half a mile or so from one path to the next, but mostly it was off the roads.

Finally! A proper state line marker.

Riding atop a dike next to the Little Calumet River.

Did I mention it was tabletop flat? The only hills of note were highway overpasses.

I love that elevation profile.

Also, the wind was out of the north, and I was heading mostly south. This meant that I had great tailwinds most of the day. Some of the bike paths meandered, and I would realize that the tailwind had converted to a headwind. If I looked at my compass (the Wahoo has a real time compass indicator), it correlated every time.

Knowing this is my last big day, and it being so pleasant to ride, I dawdled, stopping frequently at interesting spots. But all that said, I was very happy to reach the hotel, a Comfort Inn in Hobart, Indiana.

Tomorrow is my last day! I have a 30 mile day to Michigan City, where my car is still parked. I expect to get there by early afternoon, and start driving to Williamsport shortly thereafter.

My fundraising has gone well. About a week ago, I reached my goal of $17,000. However, there is never enough money for cancer research.

If you have not yet donated, and would like to do so, please go to pmc.org and click on the red donate button.

Thank you in advance.