Over the weekend, I rode part of the Green Bay Trail, which is located at the northern portion of Cook County. This trail parallels the Union Pacific North Line railroad tracks, used by Metra to serve their North Shore clientele. It starts in Wilmette at the south and runs up to Highland Park for about 9 miles, hitting Kenilworth, Winnetka, and Glencoe, along the way.  Once you cross from Cook County into Lake County, it connects with another trail (Robert McClory Bike Path) that continues north towards the Wisconsin border.

Green Bay Trail trailhead

I picked it up in Glencoe, having parked at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  The trailhead was about a mile east of the Gardens, right down Lake Cook Road. It rained shortly before I rode, so there were puddles and wet spots found on the crushed limestone trail.  This being the summer of "new bike trail discoveries" for me, I enjoyed exploring something new as I rode, but due to time constraints only got to ride a portion.  We'll solve that in a future ride!

That white stuff is messy!

By the way, do you know what happens when you combine water and limestone dust? Let's just say that a large portion of my bike and parts of my body turned white! It makes you appreciate paved trails just a tad bit. The Green Bay Trail itself features both crushed limestone and asphalt in sections, often transitioning to cutting through parking lots in some areas, depending on which town you were passing through.  Overall, it was a good test for my tires, which provided nice traction on the wet, packed stone.

Needless to say, when I got home, I pulled out the hose and washed everything down! My gears were quite gummed up.